You ignored the question again. I'll help you out with the context, it's really not that hard if you pull your head out of the sand...
“You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’.
Trump replied, “No, no, no. Other than Day One’ We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
But you want to use one word, even after he clearly gives you all the evidence you need that he's simply using it as a figure of speech, as evidence of the opposite.
That is mad whack.
AND it is the #1 reason why he's leading in the polls. All of you with TDS are giving your very best effort to get him elected. You somehow fail to see the reality of endorsing hoax after hoax after hoax. It would be comical if it weren't so sad.
Fate, let me get your predictions on things dictators/wannabe dictators would do:
1, If trump loses 2024 to Biden, do you think he will or won't try to orchestrate another January 6th like incident?
2, If he does win, do you think he will or won't try to change the law to get rid of the 8 year presidential term limit? Or he will claim that because his 8 years in office were not consecutive that he deserves another 4 yers?
1. He won't. And he didn't "orchestrate" the previous one.
You ignored the question again. I'll help you out with the context, it's really not that hard if you pull your head out of the sand...
“You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’.
Trump replied, “No, no, no. Other than Day One’ We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
But you want to use one word, even after he clearly gives you all the evidence you need that he's simply using it as a figure of speech, as evidence of the opposite.
That is mad whack.
AND it is the #1 reason why he's leading in the polls. All of you with TDS are giving your very best effort to get him elected. You somehow fail to see the reality of endorsing hoax after hoax after hoax. It would be comical if it weren't so sad.
Fate, let me get your predictions on things dictators/wannabe dictators would do:
1, If trump loses 2024 to Biden, do you think he will or won't try to orchestrate another January 6th like incident?
2, If he does win, do you think he will or won't try to change the law to get rid of the 8 year presidential term limit? Or he will claim that because his 8 years in office were not consecutive that he deserves another 4 yers?
1. He won't. And he didn't "orchestrate" the previous one.
2. No, and no.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Yeah, when the man says in his own words he wants to be dictator for a day it's everyone who points out what he said that's a hoax. This is why we can't have anything nice anymore.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Actually, it's more like this: if you can't comprehend the context and message from the "dictator" message, you should probably be seated by a window watching for birds and wondering what time Bingo starts.
How many times are you going to make excuses for all of the things this idiot says? And what difference does it make what he wants to do without going through the proper process to do it? I know what he said. But no president has the right to arbitrarily make such changes without going through the proper channels whether you agree with him or not. Are you trying to say it's alright to act in a dictatorial style on the things you agree with?
I know you don't actually wish to engage in a discussion because that usually doesn't work out well for you.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
You ignored the question again. I'll help you out with the context, it's really not that hard if you pull your head out of the sand...
“You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’.
Trump replied, “No, no, no. Other than Day One’ We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
But you want to use one word, even after he clearly gives you all the evidence you need that he's simply using it as a figure of speech, as evidence of the opposite.
That is mad whack.
AND it is the #1 reason why he's leading in the polls. All of you with TDS are giving your very best effort to get him elected. You somehow fail to see the reality of endorsing hoax after hoax after hoax. It would be comical if it weren't so sad.
Fate, let me get your predictions on things dictators/wannabe dictators would do:
1, If trump loses 2024 to Biden, do you think he will or won't try to orchestrate another January 6th like incident?
2, If he does win, do you think he will or won't try to change the law to get rid of the 8 year presidential term limit? Or he will claim that because his 8 years in office were not consecutive that he deserves another 4 yers?
1. He won't. And he didn't "orchestrate" the previous one.
2. No, and no.
1, I never said trump orchestrated jan 6. He clearly incited it. What isn't clear is whether he incited it on purpose or by accident. I also don't believe he orchestrated it. Frankly, I don't think he is bright enough. I do believe some of his minions placed the powder keg in front of his flame.
2, I think you are being naive. But now ask, how are you going to react if he does? If he talks about it are you going to say he is just joking? If he actually tries to act on it, will you continue to defend him and support him?
3, If he does neither, including not joking about it because I believe when he jokes that often he is stating his true intent, then I will meet you at the sports bar of your choice to watch a Browns game together. My treat.
Don't blame the clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.
You ignored the question again. I'll help you out with the context, it's really not that hard if you pull your head out of the sand...
“You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’.
Trump replied, “No, no, no. Other than Day One’ We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
But you want to use one word, even after he clearly gives you all the evidence you need that he's simply using it as a figure of speech, as evidence of the opposite.
That is mad whack.
AND it is the #1 reason why he's leading in the polls. All of you with TDS are giving your very best effort to get him elected. You somehow fail to see the reality of endorsing hoax after hoax after hoax. It would be comical if it weren't so sad.
Fate, let me get your predictions on things dictators/wannabe dictators would do:
1, If trump loses 2024 to Biden, do you think he will or won't try to orchestrate another January 6th like incident?
2, If he does win, do you think he will or won't try to change the law to get rid of the 8 year presidential term limit? Or he will claim that because his 8 years in office were not consecutive that he deserves another 4 yers?
1. He won't. And he didn't "orchestrate" the previous one.
2. No, and no.
1, I never said trump orchestrated jan 6. He clearly incited it. What isn't clear is whether he incited it on purpose or by accident. I also don't believe he orchestrated it. Frankly, I don't think he is bright enough. I do believe some of his minions placed the powder keg in front of his flame.
2, I think you are being naive. But now ask, how are you going to react if he does? If he talks about it are you going to say he is just joking? If he actually tries to act on it, will you continue to defend him and support him?
3, If he does neither, including not joking about it because I believe when he jokes that often he is stating his true intent, then I will meet you at the sports bar of your choice to watch a Browns game together. My treat.
Uh, that's clearly what you said ^.
If he even hinted at something like that, after what happened, I would be the first to condemn his words. Problem is, we're living in a world where the simple word "bloodbath" gets so far removed from it's context that it's absolutely infantile. And our own White House condones the infantile actions of our media. Then, if anybody says anything to clarify the most mindless of unneeded clarifications -- they're "supporting Trump" This would be understandable if we were all in third grade but we're not.
So, inevitably Trump would make a joke like "I'm the greatest president ever, we should change the term limits!" He would frame it as a joke, all would laugh, but you would scream "I win".
So let's just cut to the chase -- we meet for a beer now -- my treat.
Not for nothing, but didn't he already have a commercial/promotion/some type of televised thing where he had posters of Trump 2020 (at the time), Trump 2024, Trump 2028, etc.? Am I remembering that right, or did I dream that?
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Actually, it's more like this: if you can't comprehend the context and message from the "dictator" message, you should probably be seated by a window watching for birds and wondering what time Bingo starts.
That's where you belong if you believe Trump won't be a dictator full time every day
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
I said orchestrate another jan 6 I did not say orchestrate again I didn't mean to imply what you inferred You give trump the benefit of the doubt but not me?
trump does 2 things better than anyone in the history of mankind.
1 - he says things he truly believes in a way that you cannot tell if he is serious or what he is actually referring to. I have no doubt that he believes that he is the best president ever
2 - he projects. He says the bad things about himself and attributes it to others
Next time I am going to be in the cleveland area, I will PM you
Don't blame the clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.
Libtards are hysterically scared of Trump. Shaking in their shoes. Their dreams are haunted with bloodbaths. They all need to be deprogrammed from the TDS.
I’m not scared of a damn thing. Especially Trump. His well earned disgrace is coming, and I can’t wait. I’m sorry you see that attitude as anything other than patriotic considering the coup and all. But why would I expect YOU to get it. And regardless of the polls, I don’t think he has a chance in hell of winning. There are too many real Americans left to stop him.
We'll deprogram you first.
Can’t wait to see you try.
You can see with your head up there?
Weird.
Can see very well, he brought the light inside the body, a very powerful light
Lol, yes, I’m as ignorant as Trump and shoved… smfh. Fs, what passes as convo comedy in here is eerily similar to 4chan trolling. My best guess same people or a shared hive mind controlled by and stinking orange blob. Either way, funny as a funeral.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Not trying to not give you the benefit of doubt. I actually thought you didn't realize you used the word. Now I see what your saying from a different point of view. Sorry, didn't mean to initiate a bloodbath of doubt.
Can't argue with either of those statements, although the "history of mankind" is a bit over the top.
And yes, please do, hopefully I'm home. It seems this living in two places is going to stretch out a little further than we intended. On that token, do the same if you're ever in the Fort Wayne area.
A man openly states he wants to be "dictator for a day" and you make fun of the people who take him seriously? That's a you issue and not an us issue. I think you listened to Ozzy singing Crazy Train one too many times.
Let me give you an example of how hard he has pushed the bounds when it comes to the power of the presidency. Over 90% of his deregulation presidential orders were overturned in the courts or reversed because they were going to court and they knew they would lose.
But you're not here for an actual discussion anyway.
I'm not here for actual discussion?
Every fact, most that you're fully aware of, have to be explained to y'all like you're 4... then you argue them or move the goalposts.
Why did he say "dictator for one day"? Or do you want to play martyr with your tail between your legs and cry "words have meaning"... after they've been stripped of all meaning and context by the 'victim'.
Does it really matter what the hell he meant, the SOB said he wanted to be dictator for a day. He only wants people in government that are loyal to him and not the constitution or the people. If you are too dense or stubborn to get that it’s a real threat, oh well. There are plenty of us to stop him. He will never be in power again, bank that. I fully expect his world to implode before November. And I want front row tickets to that show.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 03/20/2405:04 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Yep, and he’s orange and leading millions of cult dolts. But real Americans have something for his punk ass… he’s out fomenting civil war again, political violence, and the same people who said he would never be nominee want to push back on how lousy he was in office and how big of a POS he is.
Never thought America would come down to this, fighting fot democracy in our own political system to prevent a horrible person from having another chance to bring the country to it’s knees. His daddy should have done us all a favor and bashed his head in as an infant and tossed him off the cliff 300 style.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 03/20/2405:13 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
The resume of Trump—bankrupt six times over, accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault a couple dozen times, barred from running a charity due to fraud, you’d think to yourself: “That’s a guy I want running my country.”
Tip of the trump iceberg.
The list of his actions of incompetence are as long as the toilet paper he needs.
GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden
The Republican nominee for superintendent overseeing North Carolina’s public schools and its $11 billion budget has a history marked by extreme and controversial comments, including sharing baseless conspiracy theories and frequent calls for the execution of prominent Democrats.
Michele Morrow, a conservative activist who last week upset the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina’s Republican primary, expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.
In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates.
“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” she wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to a user sharing a conspiracy theory who suggested sending Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”
In another post in May 2020, she responded to a fake Time Magazine cover that featured art of Obama in an electric chair asking if he should be executed.
“Death to ALL traitors!!” Morrow responded.
In yet another comment, Morrow suggested in December 2020 killing Biden, who at that time was president-elect, and has said he would ask Americans to wear a mask for 100 days.
“Never. We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!! #JusticeforAmerica,” she wrote.
CNN reached out to Morrow and her campaign multiple times but did not receive a response.
From activist to candidate
Last Tuesday, Morrow defeated Catherine Truitt, the incumbent North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, in the Republican primary. Morrow, a registered nurse and grassroots activist who homeschooled her children, ran on a platform of supporting parental rights and opposing critical race theory.
As superintendent, Morrow would oversee the state’s public school system and help set educational priorities, manage the school system’s budgets, and work with the state’s Board of Education to set and implement curriculum standards. Her website lists endorsements by “conservative school boards” but remains light on changes she’d make if elected.
Morrow has in the past called public schools “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.”
In a campaign speech in February, Morrow advocated for a constitutional amendment to abolish the state Board of Education, which sets policies and procedures for public schools in the state. Doing away with the board would put direct control over the state’s education agenda under the superintendent and the state legislature, which is currently controlled by Republicans.
“I’d like to see a constitutional amendment to get rid of the state Board of Education,”she said. “If the superintendent is elected and works under the legislature - knowing that they’re accountable to the legislature to oversee the DPI and to oversee and have impact into the superintendents in the 115 districts, I think we would be so much better off because you don’t have all these extra people right in mix.”
Morrow has espoused a wide range of extreme views on social media in recent years. Many of her past extreme comments were made on her now-dormant personal Twitter account — which is separate from her campaign account.
Morrow also promoted QAnon slogans and tweeted that the actor Jim Carrey was “… likely searching for adrenochrome” – a reference to a conspiracy theory shared by QAnon believers that celebrities harvest and drink the blood of children to prolong their own lives. Media Matters, a left-leaning publication, was first to report the QAnon tweets.
All together, Morrow tweeted “WWG1WGA” – the slogan that stands for “where we go one, we go all” and is commonly associated with the QAnon conspiracy – more than seven times in 2020.
Central to QAnon lore is the notion of the “Storm,” a belief there will be a day when thousands will purportedly be arrested, subjected to military tribunals, and face mass executions for their alleged crimes, with Donald Trump leading efforts to dismantle them alongside other QAnon “patriots.”
Violent fantasies about executing Democrats
Morrow’s post about publicly executing Obama was just one of numerous she has made espousing carrying out violent fantasies against Democrats.
On Twitter, the platform now known as X, and on the now-defunct conservative Twitter alternative, Parler, Morrow used the hashtag “#DeathtoTraitors” a combined 12 times – usually in relation to prominent Democrats.
“Obama did it. Hillary did it. Schiff did it. Comey did it. Yates did it. Holder did it. Clapper did it. Gates did it. Fauci did it. Time for #WeThePeople to DO IT and #DrainTheSwamp!!!!! #NoJusticeNoCountry #DeathToTraitors #ProsecuteThemNow #TakeBackAmerica .@dbongino #KAG,” she wrote in one tweet from May 2020,
In another post from July 2019, Morrow targeted Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and other Democrats, suggesting their impending death for unspecified “treason.”
“@IlhanMN and her other law-hating Dems must be getting a little nervous. Are they just realizing the punishment for treason is death?!?” Morrow wrote.
In a post on Parler, Morrow used the hashtag #deathtotraitors in discussing the Democratic governors of North Carolina and New York, Cooper and Cuomo. Morrow publicized her Parler handle in a tweet and CNN found the deleted Parler posts on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
“Our Communist sympathizer, Comrade Cooper, has the same plans for NC!Expose them NOW!Can we we see the CCP list, @SecPompeo??? #PrisonTimeforFederalCrimes #DeathToTraitors #FreeOurCitizens,” Morrow wrote in 2020, discussing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In other posts on Parler, Morrow shared posts from other users and a QAnon account about locking up Democrats at Guantanamo Bay and prisons.
Morrow’s ire also went beyond Democrats, including one post in December 2020 calling for putting Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia in prison after he certified Georgia’s results for Joe Biden in that year’s presidential election.
Shared conspiracies and made anti-Muslim comments
In other comments, Morrow repeatedly shared the false claim that Obama was Muslim, called Islam evil, and expressed belief in a conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of Chinese troops were stationed in Canada to invade the United States to help Joe Biden become president.
“Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers are already in Canada and probably Mexico waiting for orders to invade,” she wrote on January 8, 2021.
In another post from September 2019, Morrow said that Barack Obama (referred to as B.O.) was a puppet for the “Deep State” and the “Muslim movement” and suggested he pay the highest penalty for his alleged crimes.
“B.O. was a puppet for the Deep State and the Muslim movement to destroy our Constitutional Republic. We cannot give up until ALL the guilty pay the highest penalty for their crimes. We will lose our country #SAVEOURNATION #JusticeForAll #TraitorsMustPay
“The DEEP STATE globalists and Muslim extremists, intent on destroying America, placed Omar and MANY others into our govt. #WakeUpAmerica #IslamIsEvil #ToleranceIsDeadly,” she wrote in January 2020.
In one post, Morrow said Muslims should be banned from elected office in the United States and said Rep. Omar, who came to the United States as a refugee, should, “head back to Somalia.”
At this point imma run as a Republican with a campaign promise of not bailing out of congress in the middle of my term lmao
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I heard that because of the timing, the position he is vacating will not be filled until the november election
Sound about right. Especially with the right reacting like this:
Mike Gallagher is yet another selfish, arrogant Satanist Democrat disguised as a Republican. Patriots, we have so many Mike Gallaghers, Ken Bucks, Mitch McConnells, John Cornyns, Lindsey Grahams, Tom Tillises in the party. No wonder the country is in the toilet. How can we fight the Satanists with our own party filled with political prostitutes?? The GOP should sue anyone who leaves early to recover all the money they raised defrauding people as a member of the conservative party!!
If there’s a civil war, we’ve been watching it play out in conservative America since 2020. Seems like their most dangerous enemy is…each other?
The biggest threat to conservative America is conservative America. MAGA
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
I certainly agree with what you posted with only one caveat'. I think the biggest threat to conservatives is the extremist right of the Republican party.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
I heard that because of the timing, the position he is vacating will not be filled until the november election
Sound about right. Especially with the right reacting like this:
Mike Gallagher is yet another selfish, arrogant Satanist Democrat disguised as a Republican. Patriots, we have so many Mike Gallaghers, Ken Bucks, Mitch McConnells, John Cornyns, Lindsey Grahams, Tom Tillises in the party. No wonder the country is in the toilet. How can we fight the Satanists with our own party filled with political prostitutes?? The GOP should sue anyone who leaves early to recover all the money they raised defrauding people as a member of the conservative party!!
If there’s a civil war, we’ve been watching it play out in conservative America since 2020. Seems like their most dangerous enemy is…each other?
The biggest threat to conservative America is conservative America. MAGA
1, when gallagher's resignation becomes official on april 19, the GOP majority in the house will be 1 vote.
2, while I understand why the reasonable republicans are resigning, I think it is a mistake and potentially bad for our country. It makes space for more MAGA republicans to fill that seat. I have no issue with reasonable republicans and agree with many of their stances. However, the move to MAGA, if not thwarted, will lead to the destruction of this country. They need to stay in office and stand up to the crazy.
Last edited by Jester; 03/23/2406:20 PM.
Don't blame the clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.
Senator Lisa Murkowski Says She May Leave GOP Over Party’s Trump-Mania Amanda Yen Sun, March 24, 2024 at 10:40 AM PDT·2 min read
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a longtime critic of Donald Trump, teased a possible exit from the GOP over its unwavering commitment to the former president, refusing to rule out a run as an independent.
In a brief interview with CNN’s Manu Raju from Capitol Hill, Murkowski reiterated her disapproval of Trump and lamented the party’s continued defense of him.
“I wish that as Republicans, we could have a nominee that I could get behind. I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump,” she said.
When asked if she would consider leaving the Republican party and becoming an independent, Murkowski responded, “Oh, I think I’m very independent-minded.”
“I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump,” she added.
Murkowski has frequently crossed swords with Trump and prevailed in a 2022 attempt to unseat her, when he threw his support behind her election rival Kelly Tshibaka. She’s voiced concerns about Trump’s hold on the GOP and floated the possibility of leaving the party before.
The longtime Alaska senator was one of only seven GOP senators to vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Only three other senators who voted against Trump remain in the chamber—Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mitt Romney (R-UT), who will retire at the end of his term.
Murkowski had previously endorsed Nikki Haley for president. But after Haley suspended her campaign, following a weak showing in the primaries, Murkowski was left without a candidate to back.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Crook....depends on what definition of is is......another example of the wonderful way Trump counts-- for taxes his properties are worth and have this size...for selling they have this worth and are this size....the MAN has been a liar for decades....an example...years ago FACT CHECK- how many business bankruptcies has Trump had? THE FACT CHECKER | Clinton is correct.
Trump’s companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means a company can remain in business while wiping away many of its debts. The bankruptcy court ultimately approves a corporate budget and a plan to repay remaining debts; often shareholders lose much of their equity.
Trump’s Taj Mahal opened in April 1990 in Atlantic City, but six months later, “defaulted on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin,” The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow found. In July 1991, Trump’s Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy. He could not keep up with debts on two other Atlantic City casinos, and those two properties declared bankruptcy in 1992. A fourth property, the Plaza Hotel in New York, declared bankruptcy in 1992 after amassing debt.
PolitiFact uncovered two more bankruptcies filed after 1992, totaling six. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts filed for bankruptcy again in 2004, after accruing about $1.8 billion in debt. Trump Entertainment Resorts also declared bankruptcy in 2009, after being hit hard during the 2008 recession.
Why the discrepancy? Perhaps this will give us an idea: Trump told Washington Post reporters that he counted the first three bankruptcies as just one.
Donald can't count....but the American People elected him President.....WOW!!! And have another chance--- we be dumb!!!
"You've never lived till you've almost died, life has a flavor the protected will never know" A vet or cop
It’s gonna be interesting seeing Trump try to do anything meaningful in office if he wins this election. GOP in the house jumping ship damn near every week. Trump with a dem controlled house and senate is gonna accomplish what exactly..
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
A: Pardons for insurrectionists. Executive orders for deportations of Mexicans. A Russian take over of Ukraine. Peaceful demonstrations turned into bloodbaths. A federal ban on all abortions. Israel takes total control of the GAZA strip, no two state solutions, and they also start the process of doing the same in the West Bank, more war. war. war. Gotta fuel the military manufacturing industry and keep them ticking along.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Judges in Trump-related cases face unprecedented wave of threats
Judges and prosecutors are facing repeated threats of violence as they handle cases related to Trump, interviews and documents reveal. The wave of intimidation follows the ex-president’s attacks on judges as corrupt and biased – and some worry it threatens America’s long tradition of judicial independence.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has been threatened by angry criminals. Drug cartels. Even al Qaeda.
But nothing, Lamberth says, prepared him for the wave of harassment after he began hearing cases against supporters of former President Donald Trump who attacked the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 election.
Right-wing websites painted Lamberth, appointed to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, as part of a “deep state” conspiracy to destroy Trump and his followers. Calls for his execution cropped up on Trump-friendly websites. “Traitors get ropes,” one wrote. After he issued a prison sentence to a 69-year-old Idaho woman who pleaded guilty to joining the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, his chambers’ voicemail filled with death threats. One man found Lamberth’s home phone number and called repeatedly with graphic vows to murder him.
“I could not believe how many death threats I got,” Lamberth told Reuters, revealing the calls to his home for the first time.
As Trump faces a welter of indictments and lawsuits ahead of this year’s election, his loyalists have been waging a campaign of threats and intimidation at judges, prosecutors and other court officials, according to a Reuters review of threat data compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service, posts on right-wing message boards, and interviews with more than two dozen law-enforcement agents, judicial officials and legal experts.
As the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – and a defendant in four criminal cases alleging 91 felonies – Trump has fused the roles of candidate and defendant. He attacks judges as political foes, demonizes prosecutors and casts the judicial system as biased against him and his supporters.
These broadsides frequently trigger surges in threats against the judges, prosecutors and other court officials he targets, Reuters found. Since Trump launched his first presidential campaign in June 2015, the average number of threats and hostile communications directed at judges, federal prosecutors, judicial staff and court buildings has more than tripled, according to the Reuters review of data from the Marshals Service, which is responsible for protecting federal court personnel.
The annual average rose from 1,180 incidents in the decade prior to Trump’s campaign to 3,810 in the seven years after he declared his candidacy and began his practice of criticizing judges. In all, the Marshals documented nearly 27,000 threatening and harassing communications targeting federal courts from the fall of 2015 through the fall of 2022, a volume they consider unprecedented in their 234-year history. There is no national data collection for threats against state and local judges. Many states do not even track the problem.
Since late 2020, Trump has ramped up his criticism of the judiciary dramatically, first amid his dozens of failed lawsuits seeking to overturn his election loss and, more recently, amid a cascade of criminal and civil litigation. In that time, serious threats against federal judges alone have more than doubled, from 220 in 2020 to 457 in 2023, as Reuters reported on Feb. 13.
“Donald Trump set the stage,” retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican who stepped down at the end of 2022, said in an interview. Trump “gave permission by his actions and words for others to come forward and talk about judges in terms not just criticizing their decisions, but disparaging them and the entire judiciary.”
Trump and his spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment. He has appeared defiant in public comments on the judiciary, saying in January that if the criminal cases against him hurt his election prospects, “it’ll be bedlam in the country.”
Despite the rise in threats, arrests are rare. The U.S. Justice Department says it does not track the number of people charged or convicted for threatening judges. Reuters identified just 57 federal prosecutions for threats to judges since 2020 in a review of court databases, Justice Department records and news accounts.
Whether to press federal charges is typically up to the Justice Department and its prosecutors based on evidence gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Justice Department declined to comment on judicial threats and prosecutions. The FBI and Marshals would not comment on specific incidents. Marshals Director Ronald Davis told Reuters that the agency is dedicating unprecedented resources to judicial protection. The FBI said it “takes all potential threats seriously.”
In the case of Lamberth, the federal judge in Washington, D.C., U.S. Marshals found the culprit, who has not been identified, and warned the man to stop. No arrest was made. The Marshals upgraded Lamberth’s home security system. The calls stopped, but his concerns lingered about threats that now come from “ordinary people you wouldn’t suspect,” Lamberth said.
For judges, threats have always been part of the job. But traditionally they have come from aggrieved parties – a criminal angered by a long sentence, a spouse by a divorce ruling, a businessman by a bankruptcy decision. Today, a single politically charged case can generate hundreds of threats from people with no direct interest in the matter.
Those cases can generate rage across the political spectrum.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to end the legal right to abortion stoked left-wing anger against the court’s conservatives, including an alleged assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. After a draft of the ruling leaked, police arrested Nicholas John Roske outside Kavanaugh’s home, armed with a gun, a knife and tactical gear. He said he was enraged by the draft ruling and planned to kill the justice. He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and awaits trial.
Many of the threats against judges examined by Reuters echo Trump’s statements in social media posts and speeches, where he has attacked judges as “totally biased,” “crooked,” “partisan” and “hostile,” dismissed courts as “rigged” and called prosecutors “corrupt.” Threatening messages on pro-Trump online forums often repeat those terms or cast the former president as a heroic figure besieged by corrupt judges in secret “Democrat” plots.
“Hanging judges for treason is soon to be on the menu boys!” said one anonymous January post on the pro-Trump forum Patriots.Win. The post referred to federal judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over writer E. Jean Carroll’s successful defamation suit against Trump in New York. Kaplan did not respond to a request to comment.
Judges at every level of the U.S. legal system have voiced alarm, saying the rising tide of threats jeopardizes the judicial independence that underpins America’s democratic constitutional order. Judges not only rule on criminal and civil cases, but also act as a check on the power of the U.S. president, Congress and state governments.
Trump has bristled at the rule of law. In 2022, he called for the “termination” of the U.S. Constitution if it would restore him to power. In December, he said he wanted to “be a dictator for one day,” his first back in office, so he can wall off the U.S.-Mexico border.
Reuters interviewed 14 sitting judges and four retired judges. Some were reluctant to share details about threats they’ve received or the security precautions they’ve taken. But all expressed worry about the growing volume of threats and their potential to undermine courts’ legitimacy.
“We can’t have a situation where judges are in fear that a ruling, an unpopular ruling, can lead to reprisals,” U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard Sullivan, who chairs a federal judiciary committee that oversees security for court personnel, said in an interview.
“We are coming to kill you”
Trump has derided the judiciary in intensely personal terms since his 2016 presidential campaign. Back then, he repeatedly attacked a federal judge handling a fraud lawsuit against the defunct Trump University. He accused Indiana-born Gonzalo Curiel of bias based on his Mexican heritage, called him a “hater” with a conflict of interest because of Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, and suggested investigating him. “They ought to look into Judge Curiel, because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace.” Curiel declined to comment.
The berating of Curiel established the tone for Trump’s subsequent attacks on the judiciary, which set him apart from other contemporary political figures.
In 2017, Trump excoriated federal Judge James Robart, a Republican appointee who blocked an executive order barring travelers from certain predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States. Trump urged people to blame the “so-called judge” for opening a door to potential terrorists. Robart told Reuters he received thousands of hostile messages, including more than 100 threats serious enough to trigger Marshals Service investigations. He was not aware of any arrests related to the threats.
When Trump’s term ended, the threats continued as courts rejected dozens of lawsuits alleging electoral fraud filed by Trump and his allies.
Whenever a case against Trump was in court, “we would see a noticeable uptick in threats directed at whatever judge had the case,” said Jon Trainum, who headed the U.S. Marshals’ unit that investigated judicial threats for five years before retiring in 2021.
More recently, Trump has blasted judges and prosecutors involved in the multiple civil and criminal cases against him. He has described his jailed supporters from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as patriots and political prisoners. And he has lashed out at state judges who have ruled that he should be disqualified from the 2024 presidential ballot based on the criminal charges he faces.
In all, at least 10 judges and four prosecutors have received threats and harassment, according to interviews with court officials and a review of police records, federal court files, social media and news reports.
In a Feb. 26 court filing, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg blamed Trump’s “inflammatory remarks” for a series of death threats he received while prosecuting a case alleging Trump paid hush money to cover up an affair with a porn star. One letter contained white powder and a note: “Alvin: I am going to kill you.” Another warned he would “get assassinated” if he didn’t “leave Trump alone.” Citing a surge in threats to 89 in 2023 from one the year before, Bragg sought a judge’s order to limit Trump’s public statements.
Another frequent Trump target is New York Justice Arthur Engoron, who ordered the ex-president this month to pay $454 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders to his real-estate business. A security officer in Engoron’s court testified in a November filing that the judge and his staff had received “hundreds of threats, disparaging and harassing comments and antisemitic messages” linked to the case. “Trust me when I say this. I will come for you,” one message promised. “Trump owns you,” another warned. No one has been arrested.
Tanya Chutkan, a federal judge in Washington assigned to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal election-subversion case against Trump, also has been targeted. On Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, the ex-president has called her a “biased, Trump-hating judge” incapable of giving him a fair trial.
On Aug. 4, the day after Trump was formally charged in the case, Trump posted on Truth Social: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” The next day, Chutkan, who is Black, received an alarming voicemail. “You stupid slave n—” a woman’s voice said, using a racist slur, according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors in court. “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you. So tread lightly, bitch.”
Chutkan’s office declined a request for comment from the judge.
A Trump spokesperson said at the time that his social media comments were “the definition of political speech” and targeted interest groups, not judges. But Special Counsel Smith highlighted Trump’s post in a Sept. 15 court motion. Trump was trying “to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system” through “inflammatory attacks” on those involved in the case, he said.
Federal agents arrested the woman who threatened Chutkan, Abigail Jo Shry, 43, of Texas. She pleaded not guilty to a federal felony of threatening a judge and is awaiting trial. Her lawyer declined to comment.
“Dox this judge”
Shry’s case is unusual. Few people face charges for threatening judges and the federal courts, according to a Reuters analysis of legal databases and other public records.
Over the last four years, the Marshals investigated more than 1,200 threats against federal judges that they considered serious, according to the data provided to Reuters. Among the 57 federal prosecutions Reuters identified during that period, 47 involved threats against federal judges, six involved threats against state judges, and four involved threats against both. There is no national data on state-level prosecutions for threats against judges.
Judges tell of the shock of suddenly being besieged with threats, and some express frustration that most of their harassers remain unpunished.
In March 2017, after a federal court in Hawaii blocked Trump’s second attempt to ban travelers from some Muslim countries, Trump said to applause at a Tennessee rally that the decision was “political.” Within 24 hours, at least one website published the home address of the presiding judge in that case, Derrick Watson. Demands to execute Watson and his fellow judges appeared online. “We need to start hanging these traitors,” one person wrote on a right-wing website. Thousands of angry calls poured into Watson’s office, the judge told Reuters in his first interview on the experience.
Marshals deemed dozens of the messages serious death threats and assigned Watson a 24-hour security detail for nearly a month, he said. His family traveled for over a week in an armed three-car convoy for daily routines, including grocery shopping and picking up his sons from school.
“When those threats involve our family, it’s on another level,” he said.
Marshals questioned a New Jersey man and an Arizona woman who had made particularly alarming threats, warning them of potential charges if they didn’t stop, Watson said. No one was arrested, he said, but the worst threats stopped. Since then, he remains a target on Patriots.Win, the pro-Trump message board. “Dox this judge, go to his house,” said one post last year that remains on the site.
Patriots.Win did not respond to a request for comment.
Watson said he worries that the climate of intimidation will deter people from serving on the bench. Without better enforcement of existing laws and the passage of new ones to safeguard judges, would-be jurists “will be chilled by their concerns over physical safety,” he said.
In Washington D.C., federal Judge Reggie Walton says he received one or two threats in his first 18 years on the bench, handling major criminal cases. But since Walton, who is Black, began hearing cases against Jan. 6 Capitol attackers, people enraged by the prosecutions routinely leave threatening and racist messages on his office phone, including one chilling threat targeting his family.
“An individual from Texas called and left two messages – the first one threatening me personally, and the second one making a threat against my daughter,” Walton told Reuters. The caller knew his daughter’s name, and his address. “That was very disconcerting,” he said. “I surely would not want something to happen to a family member.”
Walton said he turned the calls over to the Marshals Service, which contacted the FBI. Federal agents visited the man in Texas, Walton said, but decided not to file charges. “They were of the view that he was apologetic and contrite about what he had done,” he said. The incident has not been previously reported. Walton said he was disturbed by the decision not to arrest the man but felt it “should be independently made,” without pressure from him.
Threats against judges can be prosecuted under multiple federal statutes, some punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. But many menacing messages don’t meet the standard for a criminal offense – generally defined as a direct threat that puts a person in fear of death or violence – because of the U.S. Constitution’s sweeping free-speech protections. Drawing the line can be difficult, say former Marshals and judges. Federal agents often look for language reflecting a clear intent to act, rather than simply suggesting a frightening outcome.
“If somebody says, ‘Judge, you should be hung from a gallows in front of the courthouse,’ that’s different than, ‘Judge, I am coming to your courthouse and I’m going to hang you’,” said Carl Caulk, a former assistant director of the Marshals Service who retired in 2015.
“Like drinking through a fire hose”
The most serious threats lead to criminal investigations, typically by the FBI. Agents sometimes warn threateners of prosecution if they do it again, rather than arrest them, according to judges and prosecutors. But the volume of emails, phone calls, social media posts and other communications that contain threatening language is so enormous that law enforcement has struggled to keep up, judges and prosecutors say.
“It’s like drinking through a fire hose, and you know we only have so much bandwidth,” said Trainum, the former senior Marshals official. “We have to go through all of the ones that we receive and triage them to some degree. All of that takes time. All of that takes resources. All of that takes personnel.”
State judges also face politically inspired threats.
Arizona’s Maricopa County, an epicenter of unfounded election conspiracy theories, logged more than 400 cases of threats and harassment targeting judges, their staff and the courts between 2020 and 2023, according to previously unpublished county data reviewed by Reuters. Maricopa officials didn’t track threats until noticing a spike in 2020, a county official said.
In Wisconsin, a presidential battleground state, lawmakers are considering stronger protections for judges following 142 threats made against state judges in the last year, according to data from the Wisconsin Supreme Court Marshal’s Office.
In Colorado, after the state’s seven supreme court justices ruled in December to disqualify Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot, the ex-president blasted the court in speeches and social media posts. The judges faced multiple incidents of threats and harassment, including four “swatting” attempts, or hoax calls intended to draw police to their homes, said the Denver Police Department. The department tightened security for the justices. No one has been arrested, a police spokesperson said.
While there is no national data on intimidation of state judges, serious threats against them are growing, according to a survey of 398 mostly state judges, completed in 2022, by the National Judicial College, a judicial education group. Nearly 90% expressed some worry over their safety, and one in three reported carrying a gun at some point for protection, the previously unreported survey found.
Despite the torrent of threats, physical attacks against judges remain relatively rare. Since 2000, at least three state judges and one federal judge have been killed in connection with their work.
But the 2020 killing of the son of New Jersey federal Judge Esther Salas highlighted the risks. The shooter, a self-described “anti-feminist” lawyer, blamed Salas for moving too slowly on a case he was involved in. He dressed as a postal delivery driver, shot her 20-year-old son when he opened the door, and wounded her husband. The shooter later killed himself.
Following her son’s murder, Salas campaigned for new laws to better shield judges’ personal information in public records, and prevent them from being revealed by internet data brokers. In 2022, Congress passed a federal version, named for Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl. New Jersey also passed a strong version of that law, Salas said, but most other states have not. “We need to make sure that judges are safe and are able to do their jobs without feeling like targets in target practice,” she said in an interview.
The Salas case “was a wake-up call for the entire country,” said Davis, the Marshals Director.
An earlier killing offered a powerful lesson for Lamberth, the judge whose sentences for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters have drawn death threats. Seven months after he took the bench in 1987, his close friend Richard Daronco, a federal judge in New York, was murdered at home by the enraged father of a woman whose sexual discrimination suit was dismissed in Daronco’s court.
“We had never even contemplated that one of us could get killed in this job,” Lamberth said.
Soon after, Lamberth, a Vietnam War veteran, received his first death threat. A letter to his chambers said he would be murdered if he did not free a drug dealer he had jailed. Marshals had briefed his family on security precautions, but they were nervous, Lamberth said. “We had to adjust to the fact we could be a target.”
Another scare came after al Qaeda’s September 2001 attacks. The U.S. government feared that Lamberth, then chief judge on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, might be an assassination target because he had authorized the first wiretaps on the Islamist militant group in the 1990s.
“I went everywhere with Marshals protection for a couple of years,” he said.
Still, Lamberth said, he was unprepared for the sheer volume of threats he’s received in connection to the Jan. 6 riot cases. Many are from people on the right enraged by the sentences he’s issued, but he has also received some threats from the left. While many of them are idle, Lamberth said, the Marshals have left the judge with little doubt that some are “dangerous,” and he and his family remain on constant alert.
Whenever he receives a delivery at home, he remembers what happened to Judge Salas’ family in New Jersey.
“Living this way, it does change your life,” he said.
Ex-Ohio state House Speaker, imprisoned in corruption case, indicted on new charges
Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R), who was imprisoned for leading a corruption scheme last year, has now been indicted on new charges.
Householder faces 10 new felony counts after being indicted Monday by a county grand jury.
The new counts include allegations of ethics violations, misuse of campaign funds and theft in office, which could ban him from being an elected official in Ohio.
“This case seeks to hold Mr. Householder accountable for his actions under state law, and I expect that the results will permanently bar him from public service in Ohio,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. “State crimes have state penalties, and a conviction will ensure that there will be no more comebacks from the ‘Comeback Kid.’”
Householder, 64, faces one count of theft in office, one count of telecommunications fraud, two counts of aggravated theft, five counts of tampering with records and one count of money laundering.
Householder’s lawyer, Steven Bradley said Monday he has not spoken to Householder yet, but “we hope to do that soon and will determine how to best proceed,” according to The Associated Press.
Last June, Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison for leading a $61 million corruption scheme. Utility company FirstEnergy had sought to get legislation passed that would be friendly to the Akron-based company, including a $1.3 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of two nuclear plants in the Buckeye State.
FirstEnergy had to pay a $230 million fine for its involvement in the bribery case. Some of the executives were fired. Former Ohio GOP Chair Matt Borges was also found guilty on racketeering charges.
Between this and the order for FirstEnergy to pay $306 million in refunds to consumers they ripped off, it seems "pimpin' ain't easy" for them in Ohio anymore.
As for Householder, human garbage getting more assurance he'll keep his address in an Oklahoma Federal Prison.
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