A California man “upset about President Biden’s victory” pleaded guilty on Friday, October 16, 2021, to “making threatening interstate communications to a journalist’s relative living in New York,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The journalist was George Stephanopolous.
On January 6, 2021, while Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and assaulted police, Robert Lemke, 35 (no photo available), texted “threatening messages to journalists, members of Congress, politicians and their relatives,” the newspaper said.
For the sickening details, read the stories here and here, and watch a video here.
It’s one thing to be upset about your candidate losing an election; that’s allowed. It’s something else to threaten journalists for simply reporting the election results; and something else altogether to threaten their families.
This man — apparently a former Air Force officer — probably is going to prison, and should, he belongs there. A judge is justified in making an example of him.
Unfortunately, his isn’t an isolated case. Plenty of Trumpers have exhibited similar viciousness. If we don’t want our society to decline into endemic political violence, it’s essential to subject people like these to the rule of law. Our democracy needs to defend itself against people like this if it’s to survive.