2024 began with a wave of threats and swatting incidents directed at high-profile public officials — many of them women — and government institutions. The spate of threats of violence comes as the United States marks the 3rd anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and enters a critical presidential election year that will again test the resilience of American democracy.
In the past few days, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said she was a victim of a “swatting” — a form of harassment where a caller falsely reports a violent crime taking place at a person’s home to send a heavily armed tactical police unit to the residence — at her home. Members of the Colorado Supreme Court have faced threats in the wake of decisions on former President Donald Trump’s eligibility for the ballot. On Wednesday and Thursday, emailed bomb threats spurred state capitols and other government offices to evacuate.
Both the Colorado Supreme Court and Bellows, Maine’s chief election official, have ruled Trump is ineligible to appear on the 2024 primary ballots in those states due to a 14th Amendment clause barring those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding office. Trump has appealed both decisions; the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to settle the question of his eligibility for the ballot in those states.
President Joe Biden is kicking off his January campaign schedule with a Friday afternoon speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a pivotal site in the American Revolution, marking the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection and emphasizing threats to democracy.
In a Tuesday call with reporters, Biden campaign aides described the 2024 contest as an existential flashpoint that will “determine the future of American…
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