It’s Dangerous To Be a Republican

Death threats have been made against a number of President-Elect Trump’s cabinet nominees:

Nearly a dozen of President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response, Fox News Digital has learned.

The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. One of the officials issued a statement describing his incident as having involved a “pipe bomb threat” with “a pro-Palestinian themed message.”

Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director; Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense; and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.

More at the link. The FBI has gotten involved:

The FBI also issued a statement on Wednesday noting the bureau was “aware” of the spate of incidents.

“The FBI is aware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and we are working with our law enforcement partners,” it said.

One always must consider the possibility that threats of this sort are hoaxes, i.e., that, in this case, they might come from Trump supporters–Jussie Smollett in reverse. Maybe the investigations will identify some of the perpetrators. In the meantime, I think by far the most likely possibility is that this is another instance of the Trump Derangement Syndrome and the propensity toward violence that have characterized the Democratic Party for years. Death threats against public officials are almost always hollow, but in the world of James Hodgkinson, Nicholas Roske, Thomas Crooks and Ryan Routh, they must be taken seriously. When they are directed against Republicans, anyway.

And in this instance, it seems that there may have been some coordination, or that a single group carried out all the threats. Otherwise, it would be quite a coincidence for so many threats to have been made almost simultaneously. In principle, that should increase the likelihood of the perpetrators being caught.

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