The death threat sounded like it came from a granny.
Tom John, an Indiana delegate supporting John Kasich, listened in shock to the voicemail: “Yes, this message is for Tom. I, too, hope and pray that he dies.” The message was left on his office voicemail.
John is far from alone. Politico today reported about delegates in Colorado, Louisiana and Indiana had received threatening or aggressive phone calls or emails, many of them apparently over their support for candidates other than Trump. Many of these hostile messages explicitly demanded that the delegates throw their support behind Trump.
John tells Heat Street he’s received around 30 hostile email and voicemail messages, ranging from vulgar to truly disturbing. One email mentioned John’s family, adding that “traditional burial is polluting the planet.” “Good luck becoming the delegate, we are watching you,” concluded the note, signed “The American.”
John says other delegates he knows have received far worse. Some of the messages have been turned over to the Indiana State police, which is reviewing them to determine if they may be criminal threats.
Craig Dunn, chairman of Indiana’s 4th congressional district, wrote in the Washington Post about a deluge of hate messages he received after publicly saying he did not support Trump.
The chairman of Colorado’s GOP received a call telling him to “put a gun down his throat,” Politico reported, and another warning him to hide his family and “pray you make it to Cleveland.”
Several state GOP chairs have raised concerns about delegate safety, especially after mayhem-maker Roger Stone, a political operative and Trump supporter, threatened to publicize delegates’ hotels and room numbers at the convention, Politico reported.
John says he and his wife had a serious talk about the potential dangers of attending the convention before still deciding to go. “I have complete faith in the law-enforcement officials in Ohio and the Secret Service,” he says. “But I’d be lying if I said there isn’t a little pause when you have this rhetoric going on because it gives people license to behave in a way they otherwise wouldn’t.”
— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for Heat Street and is a fellow for the Steamboat Institute.
