Last Saturday there was a fire at a beachfront home in South Carolina. The fire totally destroyed the home and injured several occupants who were forced to escape by jumping out a window.
Immediately, there were suspicions of foul play because the home belonged to a circuit court judge and her husband, a retired Democratic state senator. In particular, there were suggestions that the judge's home might have been targeted because she had recently ruled against the Trump administration in a case involving voter information. Another judge specifically suggested an explosion had started the fire.
Agents of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) are investigating a massive house fire on Edisto Beach at a home owned by S.C. circuit court judge Diane Goodstein and her husband...
Law enforcement sources did not immediately indicate if there was evidence of criminal intention related to the cause of the blaze...
According to a message sent on Saturday afternoon from S.C. chief justice John Kittredge, the fire stemmed from an “apparent explosion… that resulted in a fire that destroyed the home.”
“Judge Goodstein was walking on the beach when the fire started,” Kittredge wrote. “Her husband, Arnie, was in the house with children and perhaps grandchildren. The family had to escape by jumping from a window or balcony. I’m told there were injuries from the fall, such as broken legs.”
From there the speculation was off to the races. A communications staffer for Gov. Newsom jumped in on Sunday to suggest a connection to criticism of the judge by assistant attorney general Harmeet Dhillon.
A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this judge.
— Izzy Gardon (@iGardon) October 5, 2025
Today, the judge’s home is on fire. https://t.co/FEQb6zGubk pic.twitter.com/leD0G7bGoG
Here's the criticism in question which, as you can see, did not mention the judge by name. Also, note that by Sunday Keith Olbermann was insinuating Dhillon's tweet was connected to the fire.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 5, 2025
Here he is again:
Attn @aagdhillon pic.twitter.com/A4gQOa5sev
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 5, 2025
Dhillon responded to all of that with a warning.
Threats against me are referred to
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) October 6, 2025
the US Marshals. There have been several tonight. We will tolerate no such threats by woke idiots, including those who work for @GavinNewsom.
Govern yourselves accordingly. FAFO.
But by the next day, a New York congressman was also blaming the "arson" on Trump and Stephen Miller. "Will Trump speak out against the extreme right that did this?" he asked.
Trump, @StephenM and MAGA-world have been doxxing and threatening judges who rule against Trump, including Judge Goodstein.
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) October 6, 2025
Today, someone committed arson on the Judge’s home, severely injuring her husband and son.
Will Trump speak out against the extreme right that did this?? https://t.co/Dl8JcUted7
And of course, MSNBC was insinuating the same thing i.e. this might be a "politically motivated act of domestic terrorism" that was tied directly to Trump's comments.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and Mary McCord tried to blame Trump for the fire at the house of the South Carolina judge.
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 7, 2025
In a proper society these people would be taken off the air. pic.twitter.com/yK8X6vSttX
These are just the highlights, so to speak, but there were obviously many more people on the left saying the same sort of thing. And then, unfortunately, reality intervened. The lead investigator revealed yesterday that there was no evidence of an explosion or proof of arson.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire. A spokesperson for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) told NBC News it is conducting an “active and ongoing” investigation and that more information may be released as the case continues.
Later in the day, SLED Chief Mark Keel said that “at this time there is no evidence to indicate the fire was intentionally set” and that SLED agents “have preliminarily found there is no evidence to support a pre-fire explosion.”
The investigation, Keel said in a statement, was “active and ongoing,” as he urged “citizens, elected officials, and members of the press to exercise good judgment and not share information that has not been verified.”
Of course we don't know what investigators might find next but at the moment there's simply no evidence to suggest this was arson. Chief Keel is begging people not to spread lies about this incident. Will it help?
We're seeing a repeat of the same pattern we saw after Charlie Kirk was killed. Almost immediately there were claims from partisans on the left that Tyler Robinson, the accused shooter, was a right-wing Groyper who was unhappy with Kirk for not being far-right enough. It was a complete lie but that didn't stop it from spreading like wildfire until, less than a week after the shooting, a plurality of Democrats believed it (including Jimmy Kimmel).
Not long after that, there was an attack on an ICE facility in Texas and, immediately, partisans on the left were blaming a "white male" and suggesting the motive was to kill immigrants. But once again, this was quickly proven false. The shooter was motivated to terrorize ICE and had been aiming to kill ICE agents. When Kash Patel posted an image of bullets that had the words "Anti-ICE" written on them, people on the left said the FBI couldn't be trusted.
You cannot trust information coming from Kash Patel's FBI. You cannot trust information coming from ICE. You cannot trust information coming the Trump administration. You cannot trust information coming from Republicans.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2025
Trusting glorified moll cop Kash Patel to deliver accurate and honest information is like trusting Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell to babysit your teen daughters. In another bizarre attempt to incite hate against the left, Patel actually posted this Anti-ICE photo. pic.twitter.com/9VGCqUSVOu
— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) September 24, 2025
My point is that reality doesn't seem to be working out for partisan Dems lately and they aren't handling it well. At this point they are desperate for an attack to blame on the right and this judge's house burning down initially seemed like a good bet. But at least for now there's no evidence they can blame this on anyone. It may turn out to be an accident, but even if that's the final conclusion I doubt you'll see apologies from most of these people spreading the lies.
Also, even before the facts were clear, I didn't see anyone on the right celebrating the judge's house burning down. No one on the right was rooting for this to be an arsonist or happy to see people injured. That's a big difference worth pointing out.
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