Those came after the Democratic lawmaker questioned Rudy Giuliani and other witnesses at a Michigan House hearing on the election. Cynthia Johnson, a Black woman, last week posted to Facebook voicemails she received containing racist and sexist slurs as well as threats. One fear Kleinfeld has is that the misogynistic and racist harassment and threats some politicians face will keep others out of politics. Politics Poll: Despite Record Turnout, 80 Million Americans Didn't Vote. "The level of polarization quite a bit higher even than the 1970s, when we had a lot of political violence in this country, mostly from the left then. "We're at a moment of polarization right now that's much higher than the last moment of militia activity," she said. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and others.Īnd while there have been instances of violence across the political spectrum in recent years, Kleinfeld said that right now there seems to be more violent rhetoric and behavior on the conservative end of the spectrum. That trend followed the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice, where a gunman who had shown animosity toward Republicans injured GOP Rep. In 2018 and again in 2019, for example, Capitol Hill law enforcement reported that threats against members of Congress were increasing.
But there are some numbers to support that this has been a growing trend. The vote occurred without disruption, as it did in Arizona, where electors met in an undisclosed location.įrom state and local officials to members of Congress, it's hard to keep an exact count of exactly how many officials are being harassed or threatened.
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State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told the Detroit Free Press that there were "credible threats of violence" behind the closure. And so I am glad that the Capitol Commission took these steps." "In our Capitol currently, bringing guns is permitted. "The Capitol Commission, because of intel that they had, decided to close the Capitol for the purposes of our Electoral College vote today," Michigan Gov. Whitmer Addresses Security Threat To Electoral College Vote Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.īiden Transition Updates Michigan Gov. "We are facing a pretty unusual uptick in violence and threats and intimidation against public officials across the range, from the really hyper-local people who are either running for their state assemblies or public health officials, who are working on basic public health in the COVID pandemic, all the way to AOC and members of Congress and so on," she said, referring to U.S. "I am just very sad that a decision that I made to put myself out there for public office has resulted in my kids feeling unsafe in our own home."Īs politics grow increasingly acrimonious, threats against and harassment of public officials also seem to be on the rise, according to Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"He's slept on my floor the past two nights because we've had protesters at our house these past two nights," she said in an interview Thursday. Protesters showed up the next night as well, upsetting her 8-year-old son. They were playing the soundtrack from Scarface," Lachiondo said.
"They had a bullhorn and were talking into that and then running sirens, and they were banging on some kind of drums outside. National Security Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn "The most controversial thing that we were dealing with, really, up until March were septic system approvals," she said.īut this is among many examples of how national crises of both a pandemic and mass misinformation around the election - including from the president - have combined with polarization to create a toxic political atmosphere. She was never expecting this level of hostility in health board politics. Lachiondo's fellow board members ended up ending the meeting early, and another member said he had protesters outside his home as well. The board had planned to vote on an order that would have required indoor mask usage and would have limited the size of indoor gatherings. I'm going to go home and make sure he's OK," she said before disappearing from the Zoom meeting. "My 12-year-old son is home by himself right now, and there are protesters banging outside the door. Last week, Idaho's Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo interrupted a district health board meeting tearfully. The building was closed to the public due to security threats around the vote. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state's Electoral College at the state Capitol on Monday in Lansing.
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