Trump Supports Using Weaponized Personal Harassment to Intimidate Electors and Journalists

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:42 pm

Targeted harassment, personal intimidation, media censoring their own — these are weapons of silence and control in the Age of Trump. Right now, these tactics are being aimed at electors and journalists to keep them from asking questions.

After Politico released journalist Julia Ioffe out of her contract earlier than arranged due to a tweet she has since deleted, which questioned why President-elect Donald Trump gave his daughter the office reserved for the First Lady and included a vulgarity regarding Trump’s relationship with his daughter, she noted, “In Russia, the Kremlin rarely has to make the call to media organizations. The media bosses anticipate and do the censoring themselves.”

The media bosses anticipate the censoring and do it themselves so the Kremlin doesn’t have to. This can’t be emphasized enough, and the people must not stand for it.

Not only will media bosses suddenly decided that rudeness toward the President won’t be tolerated, but if that fails deploying supporters to harass and intimidate journalists and their children, electors and their families, will serve to silence those bold enough to speak out.

California Elector Christine Pelosi is being harassed for daring to demand an intelligence briefing about Russia’s interference in the election before voting. After Alex Jones accused Pelosi of trying to “steal the election from Donald Trump or assassinating him outright”, as reported by Joan Walsh in The Nation , Walsh continued, “Jones fans are responding predictably with death threats and abuse to Pelosi and her family via social media, e-mails, and voicemails.”

Here’s a glimpse of the harassment from the Democrat’s twitter account, where she notes that this is why some electors aren’t speaking out about the intelligence briefing:

The harassment is working to silence people. Joan Walsh wrote, “Pelosi takes the threats in stride, but says she knows they’re keeping some electors who support her quest from coming forward. “Unfortunately, I’m used to this,” she tells me, but others “see the abuse I’m taking and say, ‘Sorry, I don’t want that to be my life.’”

It takes a special kind of person to withstand having their family targeted but keep fighting. These people might be heroes for carrying on under such pressure, but that doesn’t entice the fearful.

And really, no one can blame them.

On Thursday, award winning investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald – who has done remarkable work researching Donald Trump – went on an epic Twitter rant, including this note that Fox News viewers were harassing his children because they don’t agree with him:

I was concerned when I didn’t see Eichenwald around Friday morning, and then he posted this:

What we are seeing is the on the ground buttressing of a style of leadership that will not tolerate dissent, questioning, transparency or accountability.

After years falsely accusing President Obama of being illegitimate, it looks as if Donald Trump could actually be an illegitimate president, one assisted into office by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The only question remaining is did Donald Trump work with Putin directly.

The amount of force being applied against anyone who questions Trump, ironic after his years of birth certificate trolling of Obama under the guise of asking questions, is telling. Donald Trump is not alone in his coy reluctance to rein in his supporters, as so far none of these Right wing “leaders” have taken a stand against the terrorizing of the people they target.

The force alone is a problem. The harassment is a problem. It’s meant to silence and intimidate.

The public and law enforcement have to have the backs of journalists, electors, and citizens who are attempting to act on their constitutional duties.

Donald Trump supports these tactics not only by telling his supporters he will pay their legal fees after they harm protesters, but also by his continued cowardly silence in the face of ongoing attacks in his name on citizens, journalists and electors. The President-elect needs to do more than his one time, begrudging, “If it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.”

Sarah Jones
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