'Dangerous': Rep. Eric Swalwell Blasts Trump for 'Glorifying Violence' as Election Officials Face Threats
Mar. 30 2024, Published 4:30 p.m. ET
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has blasted former president Donald Trump for "glorifying violence" as election officials continue to face threats in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential race in November, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In an interview with MSNBC on Saturday, the California lawmaker said that he was "much more concerned" about the possibility of violence this year as the presidential race heats up.
Swalwell spoke out during an interview with MSNBC on Saturday.
"We're still a country that's armed to the teeth, right? The most dangerous people have access to the most dangerous weapons in this country," Swalwell said.
"The violent rhetoric — we saw, you know, just yesterday from the former president's Truth account, where he’s glorifying violence — continues to go up."
Wallace and Weissmann accused Flynn of allegedly playing a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection to help Donald Trump.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has faced criticism after sharing a violent image of President Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck to his Truth Social account on Friday.
"This image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you're calling for a ‘bloodbath’ or when you tell the proud boys to ‘stand back and stand by," said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler. "Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously."
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"Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously," said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler.
During his interview on Saturday, Swalwell added, "One part of this that really concerns me is that the Department of Justice, who is charged with investigating these threats, they are overwhelmed because the investigators are being threatened."
"So the people who would be typically investigating someone who’s threatening an elected official, or a poll worker — that FBI official, that U.S. attorney — is also being threatened," he continued.
"So this is just an attempt, as I said, to overwhelm the system. And that makes me very nervous seven months out."
Swalwell noted the rise in threats of violence against election officials.
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The Department of Justice is currently investigating dozens of threats made to election workers, according to federal officials.
"These are the first responders of democracy and we will continue to investigate and prosecute those who would threaten to do them harm,” said Gary Restaino, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, at a press conference on Monday.
The DOJ has charged 20 individuals so far and convicted 13. Ohio man Joshua Russell was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison on Monday for threatening Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who is now the state’s governor.
"You have a few short months to see yourself behind bars, or we will see you to the grave. You are a traitor to this nation, and you will suffer the [expletive] consequences," Russell allegedly said in a voicemail left with Hobbs' office.
“This new era in which the election community is scapegoated, targeted, and attacked, is unconscionable and in addition to the obvious toll taken on individual victims, risks depleting the ranks of experienced election officials vital to the effective administration of our elections,” said John Keller, a DOJ official who leads the Election Threats Task Force.
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