Suspect in Attack on Governor's Mansion Hospitalized

The man charged in an arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor's mansion was hospitalized Monday after a medical event that police say was "not connected to this incident or his arrest," delaying his arraignment. Cody Balmer's mother tells the AP that the 38-year-old has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. She says "nobody would help" when she tried to get assistance with his mental health issues in recent days. "He wasn't taking his medicine, and that's all I want to say," she says.

• The charges. The Dauphin County District Attorney's Office says Balmer has been charged with attempted criminal homicide, aggravated arson, burglary, and terrorism in connection with the attack, NBC News reports. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family, and another family were in the Harrisburg mansion when a fire was set around 2am Sunday.

• Hatred for the governor. Police say Balmer admitted harboring "hatred" for the Democratic governor, the Washington Post reports. Police say Balmer told them that if he had found the governor, he would have attacked him with a small sledgehammer he brought to the mansion. According to court documents, he was reported to police by an "ex-paramour" who said he wanted her to turn him in. He surrendered to Pennsylvania State Police shortly afterward.
• His online presence. Balmer criticized Joe Biden in numerous Facebook posts before he stopped making them public in 2023, but he wasn't affiliated with either party, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. In a 2021 post about gas prices during the first Trump administration, he said he doesn't "play favorites especially since they all suck." He also posted memes favorable to Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, and Ron Paul.
• Criminal record. Balmer was sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to forgery in 2016. He was charged with three counts of assault in 2023. That case is ongoing. He has also been to court multiple times in child custody battles, most recently in 2023, the Inquirer reports.
• Attack was "carefully planned." Police say Balmer walked about an hour from his home to attack the mansion in an assault that appears to have been carefully planned, the AP reports. Police say he scaled a 7-foot fence before forcibly entering the mansion and setting it on fire with Molotov cocktails made from beer bottles and gasoline.
• Trump: "Probably just a wack job." "The attacker was not a fan of Trump. I understand, just from what I read and from what I've been told, the attacker basically wasn't a fan of anybody," the president said Monday, per NBC. "Certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen."

(More Josh Shapiro stories.)