This is shaping up to be one of the most divisive election years in living memory, even right down to the Texas House of Representatives. A man who threatened to kill House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) was indicted this week after threatening to shoot Phelan.
Daniel Troy LeBlanc, 44, is currently in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a $500,000 bond for making terrorist threats against the speaker on social media. The post in question comes from a page on Facebook, D.T. Lbc, that LeBlanc runs.
On January 14, LeBlanc posted a direct threat aimed at Phelan. It contains many allusions to the Men’s Rights online community, a misogynistic collection of men who believe that women are heavily favored by courts and take men’s children away from them. LeBlanc claimed that Phelan wrote rules that helped strip fathers of custody and highlighted the Biblical role of Eve as a sinner.
The post concluded with this threat.
“And Ain’t NOBODY been protecting the Kids and GIVING THEM A VOICE…I AM… RIGHT NOW… ONE SHOT… ONE KILL…2500M AWAY…0230… IN YOUR RIGHT TEMPLE… TAKING OUT THAT Al MUSKY GYM SOCK SMELLY CAT SOCK DARK HOLE RA MIND YOU HIDE WITHIN… FATHER KNOWS YOUR NEXT 12 Moves, The CHRIST KEEPING ME 9 AHEAD WITH THIS BREATH… Come at me… let’s get this ASS WHOOPIN over with Baphomet Cowardice, you just act as if like Victoria you convinced… SICKO.”
LeBlanc’s ire toward Phelan seems to be based on Phelan creating a special committee on gun legislation. After the Robb Elementary School massacre, the federal government passed moderate gun control legislation that would expand red flag laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.
The committee Phelan created, which was majority Republican, did not endorse expanding those laws in Texas and in fact considered banning red flag laws altogether. Nonetheless, the specter of confiscation from gun owners who have histories of domestic abuse launched a minor culture war on the right.
It appears that LeBlanc lost unsupervised visitation rights with his children in 2023, and now has to pay a court advocate to be in the same room with them.
“The whole dang county is working to steal my rights as a father,” he said in a comment. “They must have missed the memos, this deddy will fight dirty to save his children. If everyone only know the cards in my hand! I mean, the judge violates his oath everyday!”
The page also pushes the Nephilim conspiracy theory that the American government is hiding evidence of Biblical angels or giants. According to the lore, U.S. ground forces encountered giant beings during operations in Afghanistan. Supposedly, the government has covered up these encounters with giants and angels because they would prove the existence of aspects of the Bible.
LeBlanc is also a flat earth conspiracist. The “evidence he shared on his page is a reflection in an astronauts helmet that makes the horizon of the Earth appear straight. He also accuses NASA of having underwater CIA mind manipulation facilities and thinks the government has built a network of tunnels under the Earth stretching from the U.S. to Ukraine and China.
