Jena Griswold, the Democrat currently serving as Secretary of State in Colorado, has faced a series of threats to her safety in connection to a court challenge filed in her state against Donald Trump appearing on the ballot for the next presidential election because of his evident ties to the violence at the Capitol of January 6, 2021.
The threats are additionally notable because Griswold didn’t even bring the case, though she is implicated in the proceedings because of her role handling Colorado elections. But it originates with outside figures! Griswold says, though — both in an interview with HuffPost and in comments on X (formerly Twitter) — that she’ll not be backing down in responsibilities she does possess.
“We cannot allow these people trying to steal elections and using rhetoric to incite violence… to not be opposed with the truth,” Griswold told HuffPost. “I’ll be as smart as possible with my security issues, but I am not going to be intimidated by Donald Trump or anybody else on the MAGA right.” And she added the following on X: “Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats. I stopped counting after that. I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence.”
Shenna Bellows, the Secretary of State in Maine, also says she’s been receiving threats in connection to her recent decision against Trump appearing on presidential primary ballots in her state on the same grounds as the Constitutional arguments raised elsewhere. In an interview with MSNBC, Bellows insisted the factual record pointed to knowing responsibility on Trump’s part for the violent events of January 6, which have been connected to a series of deaths and threatened lives across the Capitol.
“The weight of the evidence, all of the evidence, made clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by a multi-month effort to de-legitimize a democratic election — the election of 2020, and then chose to light a match on January 6, and then did nothing for a time,” Bellows said. The Colorado case, meanwhile, looks set for an imminent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, though in theory they could simply refuse to take it up.
Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats. I stopped counting after that.
I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence.https://t.co/gC0O6TQQTA
— Jena Griswold (@JenaGriswold) December 30, 2023
