Retribution Execution, Con't

The 13 House Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill last week have to be crucified and left by Trump for others to see, or Trump risks losing his power heading into 2022.

 

Republican Rep. Fred Upton on Monday shared a threatening voicemail he had received after voting for the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week. 

In the voicemail, which Upton played during an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on "AC360," a caller told the Michigan Republican: "I hope you die. I hope everybody in your f**king family dies," while labeling him a "f**king piece of sh*t traitor." 

Upton was one of just 13 House Republicans who voted with Democrats on Friday to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill after hours of delays and debating among Democrats. The legislation, which passed the Senate in August, will deliver $550 billion in new federal investments in America's infrastructure over five years, including roads, bridges, mass transit, rail, airports, ports and waterways. 

Following the Friday vote, Upton tweeted in part, "I regret that this good, bipartisan bill became a political football in recent weeks. Our country can't afford this partisan dysfunction any longer." 

On Monday evening, he told Cooper, "I'll tell you it's a terrible way -- we have seen civility really downslide here. I'm concerned about my staff. They are taking these calls."
"These are very disturbing, adult language," he added. "To say the least, that truly is frightening." 

Upton's office said the voicemail was not an isolated incident. The calls came after GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted the phone numbers of those who had voted for the bill and later called them traitors.

 

Trump's already claimed the careers of GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Anthony Gonzalez, who have already announced their respective retirements. Both of them would be facing redistricting eliminations anyway, as Ohio and New York are each losing a House seat in 2022. There will be more.

Note Greene wants to be Trump's director of political assassination. She wants Trump to see her help put these "traitors" down. That's the problem with being a tyrant, however. You can't have any enemies in your own camp, because they are a direct threat to your power.

 

Greene and her goons are almost certainly going to mount a campaign to strip the 13 Republicans of their committee assignments, which Democrats should happily accept.

Expect Upton to announce his retirement soon, or to be trounced in a primary in the spring.

Meanwhile, Trump's cultists continue to terrorize election officials around the country and they're proud of it.

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.

In Vermont, a man who says he works in construction told workers at the state election office and at Dominion Voting Systems that they were about to die.

“This might be a good time to put a f‑‑‑‑‑‑ pistol in your f‑‑‑‑‑‑ mouth and pull the trigger,” the man shouted at Vermont officials in a thick New England accent last December. “Your days are f‑‑‑‑‑‑ numbered.”

The three had much in common. All described themselves as patriots fighting a conspiracy that robbed Donald Trump of the 2020 election. They are regular consumers of far-right websites that embrace Trump’s stolen-election falsehoods. And none have been charged with a crime by the law enforcement agencies alerted to their threats.

They were among nine people who told Reuters in interviews that they made threats or left other hostile messages to election workers. In all, they are responsible for nearly two dozen harassing communications to six election officials in four states. Seven made threats explicit enough to put a reasonable person in fear of bodily harm or death, the U.S. federal standard for criminal prosecution, according to four legal experts who reviewed their messages at Reuters’ request.

These cases provide a unique perspective into how people with everyday jobs and lives have become radicalized to the point of terrorizing public officials. They are part of a broader campaign of fear waged against frontline workers of American democracy chronicled by Reuters this year. The news organization has documented nearly 800 intimidating messages to election officials in 12 states, including more than 100 that could warrant prosecution, according to legal experts.

The examination of the threats also highlights the paralysis of law enforcement in responding to this extraordinary assault on the nation’s electoral machinery. After Reuters reported the widespread intimidation in June, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a task force to investigate threats against election staff and said it would aggressively pursue such cases. But law enforcement agencies have made almost no arrests and won no convictions.

 

Expect terrorism and violence against election officials to increase dramatically the closer we get to November 2022 and especially November 2024.

 

Who's going to want to administer a free and fair election in America when the Republican losing that contest means you and your family are stalked, threatened, or even hurt?