Former members of Congress are deeply concerned about political violence in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, said former Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama and former Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia in a joint appearance Thursday sponsored by the liberal Center for American Progress and the bipartisan McCain Institute.
Jones, a moderate Democrat who lost re-election in 2020, and Comstock, a moderate Republican who suffered defeat in 2018, said there was an increasing acceptance of political violence across the political spectrum. But they place much of the blame on former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
A Survey in October from the Public Religion Research Institute, an independent research organization based in Washington, found that 23% of respondents believe that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save our country because things are getting so far out of hand.” are.”
That represented a 15% increase in 2021 and was the first poll in eight times the group has asked the question in which support has risen above 20%.
A third of Republicans and 46% of people who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump agreed with the statement.
Comstock noted that anti-Semitism on some elite college campuses also represents a troubling trend, and Jones described a growing acceptance of violence “across the board.”
The country “seems to be split down the middle politically,” with each side believing the other is a threat to democracy, Jones said.
“They are willing to accept some violence to protect democracy,” he said. “Trying to build a bridge between these two camps that would take up arms against each other for very different reasons, but all in the name of saving democracy, is really, in my opinion, a path to disaster, possibly even.”
Trump plays a central role in the growing division
But they suggested that the most direct and deliberate threats appeared to come from Trump and the movement he led.
Jones, a U.S. attorney who prosecuted anti-Black violence cases before his election to the Senate, said there are politicians who continue to exploit “dog whistles” or coded language that their supporters understand as advocating violence.
Some leaders who exploit impassioned rhetoric don’t necessarily mean to incite violence, he said. But others do so intentionally, he added, indirectly but unmistakably referring to Trump.
“Look, I think there are a few – who will remain unnamed, but the initials are DT – [who] have an intention,” Jones said. “I think they’ve had this before. They know exactly what they’re saying.
“How do we see this?” he continued. “How do we talk when there are political leaders out there who are literally calling for the execution of a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who are calling their political opponents vermin that need to be exterminated? This is a clear signal to people.”
Trump used this language at a rally in New Hampshire last month.
“We promise you that we will eradicate the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left-wing thugs who live like vermin within the borders of our country,” he said.
Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, which inspired the attempt to stop the president’s peaceful transfer of power in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, were a key driver of political division, said Comstock, who opposed Trump in 2016.
Virginia’s close general election this year did not generate the same backlash as Trump’s re-election loss in 2020, she said, praising Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state party leaders for publicly accepting the election results and “this Don’t stoke paranoia.”
“Surprise: If Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot, the vote is really safe and secure,” she said.
MPs face death threats
Jones and Comstock cited a current survey A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts on behalf of the US Association of Former Members of Congress shows that 84% of former members surveyed are concerned about the possibility of violence surrounding the presidential election.
Almost half of the almost 300 respondents said that they or their families had received threats at least somewhat frequently during their time in office. Women and deputies of color reported more incidents: 69% said they experienced threats at least somewhat frequently.
And the problem could be even worse for local government officials, who lack the security available to members of Congress, Jones and Comstock said.
Comstock praised Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, for standing up for frontline election workers who received threats and abuse from Trump supporters after the 2020 election.
Maricopa County, Arizona Supervisor Bill Gates did not receive the same support from Republicans in his state as he was mistreated following election losses by Trump and Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, Comstock said.
“He’s just this local supervisor who doesn’t have the protections that we had in Congress and in the Capitol Police,” she said. “So it was just a very abusive process.”
Gates and Raffensperger should be viewed as “heroes who are at the forefront of defending democracy,” Comstock said.
State and local election officials I said They are having difficulty retaining and recruiting workers as people in these non-political jobs face increasing abuses from partisans.
