We saw the look on election workers’ faces as angry Donald Trump supporters banged on the glass right above their workstations. Simply put, the ex-president did not want to lose. So he threw a massive tantrum, tossing election workers to his attack wolves. But who are these attackers?
Surprisingly, these people, mostly men in the 50’s, did not believe they had done anything wrong. They described themselves as ‘patriots.” And they believed their actions were necessary to fight the “conspiracy” that illegally took the election from Trump and handed it to President Joe Biden. The truth was the exact opposite.
These attackers had a lot in common. They hung around on ultra-right websites that further ingrained the Big Lie into their thinking. But get this. Of the ones Reuters interviewed, none have been charged for their threats to election workers. This even though they left a total of “nearly two dozen harassing communications to six election officials in four states,” according to Reuters.
They seemed to all believe extreme, baseless conspiracy theories showing Trump as a “savior figure” and Democrats as the enemy. Some anticipated a civil war:
‘[The] country deteriorating into a war between good and evil – “patriots” against “communists.”’
Reuters spoke to four legal experts. Of those threats, seven were detailed enough to “put a reasonable person in fear of bodily harm or death, the U.S. federal standard for criminal prosecution.” All but one of those had been reported by election officials to the police. Nothing happened.
Only two of the “patriots” who talked to Reuters expressed any concern when they found out they had scared people. The other so-called patriots claimed the election workers “deserved the menacing messages.”
This guy was scary:
‘In Arizona, a stay-at-home dad and part-time Lyft driver told the state’s chief election officer she would hang for treason. In Utah, a youth treatment center staffer warned Colorado’s election chief that he knew where she lived and watched her as she slept.’
A Vermont construction worker told election officials and Dominion Voting Systems employees that it was time “to die:”
‘This might be a good time to put a f‑‑‑‑‑‑ pistol in your f‑‑‑‑‑‑ mouth and pull the trigger. Your days are f‑‑‑‑‑‑ numbered.’
Reuters documented almost 800 menacing messages to “election officials in 12 states.” The legal experts claimed that over 100 of them “could warrant prosecution.”
So, the news organization reported the waves of violent threats against election workers to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Facing national claims of inaction, the DOJ set up a task force to investigate them. Yet, there have been hardly any arrests and absolutely zero convictions.
Georgia real-estate investor Ross Miller threatened an Atlanta area election worker with being “tarred and feathered, hung or face firing squads unless he addressed voter fraud:”
‘[He would continue threats] until they do something. We can’t have another election until they fix what happened in the last one.’
Donald Trump fired his Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security for telling the truth. Chris Krebs said this about the ex’s “foot soldiers:”
‘These people firmly believe in the “Big Lie” that the former president legitimately won the election.’
The threats were not limited to election workers. A Vermont man warned two Reuters reporters by name they would get “popped:”
‘He soon grew agitated, peppering two Reuters reporters with 137 texts and voicemails over the past month, threatening the journalists and describing his election conspiracy theories.’
The man threatened:
‘You guys are a bunch of f‑‑‑‑‑‑ clowns, and all you dirty c‑‑‑suckers are about to get f‑‑‑‑‑‑ popped. I f‑‑‑‑‑‑ guarantee it.’
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs received numerous. threats. A self-employed Los Angeles electrician called for her death:
‘When Katie the c‑‑‑ is executed for treason, what are you f‑‑‑‑‑‑ traitors going to be doing for work?’
Frightening words.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
