Death threats from Trump loyalists after a Tweet from him is not Trump exercising his First Amendment right of free speech.
That kind of speech from him or anyone else in a powerful position and especially from the President of the United States directed toward any citizen must not be allowed and soundly rejected.
His tweet led to the violent insurrection of January 6 and death threats outlined in testimony in the second January 6 committee hearing.
That story is from former Philadelphia Republican election official Al Schmidt.
His story in this Philadelphia Inquirer headline:
“Former Philly elections
official Al Schmidt tells January 6 panel that Trump tweet led to ‘graphic’
threats”
Al Schmidt, the only
Republican official in Philadelphia to oversee voting during the 2020
presidential election told the January 6 Select Committee that with a single
tweet, then-President Donald J. Trump unleashed a barrage of death threats
against him and his family because of his refusal to back Trump’s false fraud
claims (see the threat image above).
Schmidt said the menacing
threats came after a November 11, 2020, Trump tweet: “Referred to him as a RINO (A Republican in Name Only)
— and a disaster on the massive election fraud and irregularities which took
place in Philadelphia.”
Schmidt then added: “The threats prior to that tweet were pretty general in nature. But, after Trump’s tweet, the threats became much more specific, much more graphic.”
One such
message sent to a family member threatened to fatally shoot them and their
children saying: “Heads on spikes. Treasonous Schmidts.” (Refer above
screenshot).
Schmidt’s testimony came as members sought to demonstrate
Trump’s power to incite supporters to violence through his Twitter account, and
Schmidt’s case made the point clearly.
That argument was central
to the committee’s case that there is a direct line between Trump’s lies proliferated
on social media platforms and the attack on the Capitol.
Other witnesses testified that
numerous advisers had told Trump that claims of widespread fraud in
Pennsylvania and other battleground states were meritless, and that he had
legitimately lost.
And yet, he persisted in maintaining the election had been stolen from him. Trump’s former AG, William Barr, said in part in his videotaped testimony that he worried the president had become increasingly “detached from reality.”
Barr called that claim,
repeated by Trump and his supporters, that more people voted in Philadelphia in
2020 than there were registered voters, “was absolutely rubbish,” adding: “The
turnout in Philadelphia was absolutely in line with the rest of Pennsylvania.
There was nothing strange about the Philadelphia turnout.”
Also false, Schmidt said,
was a claim repeated by Trump allies that ballots in the names of some 8,000
dead people were cast that year.
After investigating, Schmidt said, officials didn’t even find
eight instances of that happening, adding: “We took seriously every case
that was referred to us, no matter how fantastical, no matter how absurd.”
When Schmidt was asked on CNN in the weeks after the election what he would tell Trump, he responded: “I think people should be mindful that there are bad actors who are lying to them.”
Within minutes after that CNN interview, Trump shot back on Twitter
saying that Schmidt: “Is being used big time by the Fake News Media to
explain how honest things were with respect to the election in Philadelphia. He
refuses to look at the mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!”
Further, no Republican official in Pennsylvania offered support for Schmidt as Trump and his supporters launched attacks against him.
Schmidt previously described the
behavior of some Trump supporters in the postelection period as “very
deranged.”
Before leaving office
Schmidt, who now leads the good-government watchdog group the “Committee of Seventy,” stressed that his
decision wasn’t driven by the attacks from Trump and his supporters telling the
Inquirer: “That would be like capitulating to the psychological terrorists,
which was their point — or else, I’d leave today.”
My 2 Cents: Mr. Schmidt came across as an honest straight-forward man – congrats to him for his testimony, and all the other Republicans who stepped forward and told the truth. Trump must be going wild after watching which I am sure he did.
In fact he sent out a 12-page blast afterwards, saying in part on his “Save America PAC”: “Seventeen months after the events of January 6th, Democrats are unable to offer solutions. They are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation, without even making mention of the havoc and death caused by the Radical Left just months earlier. Make no mistake, they control the government. They own this disaster. They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects.”
This is typical of the childish bully,
Donald J. Trump. Be assured he did not write that 12-page document – he doesn’t
have the skill. But, just wait until the committee finale. Trump and many of his sycophants will go total “postal” with a second insurrection.
Only then they will be armed
to the teeth and ready to die for him, but not with him, since he’ll be watching
on TV while posting on his “Truth Social” site, or on his “Save America PAC”
trying to raise big money while trying to destroy the country and become the
T-in-C (Tyrant-in-Charge) at the same time – the slick con we know he is.
Thanks for stopping by.
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