A barrage of threatening phone calls. Myriad social media posts laced with profanities. Threats of harm.
In 2020, public officials faced escalating threats of violence fueled by disinformation. Women faced some of the worst of it, @bcrodriguez reports.https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1
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2/ Michigan is a microcosm of the escalating threats of violence around the country against elected officials and public servants. On December 5, protesters, some armed, gathered outside Secretary of State
@JocelynBenson’s home shouting “stop the steal.” https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1 pic.twitter.com/fneZv6RKiB
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3/ While she and her 4-year-old son retreated to her basement, Benson called the state’s attorney general,
@dananessel. Nessel said she could hear the protesters’ screaming through the phone and quickly called the local police chief on Benson’s behalf. https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1 pic.twitter.com/0kd9Ma3E6Y
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4/ Benson was the subject of online harassment in the lead-up to the election, particularly on Twitter. It intensified after Trump wrongly accused her of sending ballots to homes. Criticism continued after Joe Biden won Michigan in the general election.https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1
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5/ The incident at Benson’s house came just a few months after authorities announced charges against more than a dozen people accused of planned attacks against Michigan
@GovWhitmer and other law enforcement officials, including a scheme to kidnap Whitmer. https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1 pic.twitter.com/N7W9JU8iSH
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6/ In the spring, a man was arrested for making credible threats to kill Whitmer and Nessel. Around the same period, heavily armed protesters gathered at the state capitol to oppose Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders. At one of those protests, someone held a sign reading:
pic.twitter.com/lpQljX4nFd
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7/ The threats of violence precede 2020.
@dananessel has been AG since 2018. Within months of being sworn into office, she began receiving threats. She wonders if her gender, her Judaism or being the first out LGBTQ+ person to win statewide office in Michigan has played a part.pic.twitter.com/szsz0CO9JM
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8/ Nessel, a Democrat, assumed threats were to be expected given her position, until she was briefed at the time by a security official that she had already received more threats than her predecessor, a Republican man, who had been there for eight years.https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1
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9/ While many officeholders across the country have faced vitriol, attacks against women are harsher and more relentless, and worse for women of color, said
@sobieraj. https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1 pic.twitter.com/VgzgLZrB3S
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10/ Nessel said whenever U.S. Rep.
@RashidaTlaib, a congresswoman from the state who was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan legislature, tags her in a post on Twitter, the attorney general sees an uptick in hateful messages.https://bit.ly/3hwZmY11 reply 1 retweet 4 likesShow this thread
11/ Massachusetts Rep. @AyannaPressley recently spoke with The 19th about the threats that have come with her pioneering first term in Congress and the toll it has taken on her, her staff and her family.https://bit.ly/37WP00D
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12/12 Threats have not deterred Nessel, Benson and Whitmer from doing their jobs. “You can threaten us. You can say terrible things about us on social media. You can have protests at our homes. It’s not going to stop us from doing our jobs,” Nessel said.https://bit.ly/3hwZmY1
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