Eric Swalwell.Photo: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images
California Rep.Eric Swalwellsaid this week he’s going to “start fighting back a little bit publicly” when it comes to death threats he says he’s received in recent months.
Speaking to Democratic National Committee chairman Jamie Harrison in Harrison’sWelcome To The Partypodcast last week, 41-year-old Swalwell said he had reached a “tipping point,” noting that the threats against him often subsided once those making them were called out publicly.
“I started posting some of the most outrageous threats for two reasons: One, I had just kind of reached a tipping point … [and] I thought, ‘I’m not just going to let you threaten to kill me,’ " Swalwell, a Democrat, said on the podcast.
In a viral Twitter thread published in December, Swalwell highlighted one of the threats against him, in which he said a user direct messaged him that he should be “shot.”
In the exchange, per Swalwell, the person wrote, “Traitor hopefully you get hung one day,” and “Traitor u should be shot.”
After the lawmaker wrote the user back, the two began an exchange, and the person eventually conceded that they were glad the two had talked, writing, “I was totally wrong about u from so far talking to u. Am I reading the wrong articles or is the media targeting u as much as possible.”
Speaking about that exchange on Harrison’s podcast last week, Swalwell said that, once he publicizes the exchanges, “These guys back down. And also I have noticed fewer threats come in once people realize you may become famous for these threats that you make.”
He added that leaders in both parties need to publicly denounce threats of violence.
“This just can’t be a country where that’s okay,” he said.
Lawmakers and election officials from around the country have said they’ve been on the receiving end of often graphic death threats in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump has continued to falsely claim was stolen from him
Election officials on both sides of the political aisle described in emotional testimonies delivered before a Senate committee last year that, as legal challenges to the election ramped up, Trump supporters left them messages saying they were being watched and their families could be harmed if they didn’t swing the election to benefit him.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Samuel Corum/Getty
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
According to a report released last June, Republican Rep.Liz Cheneyreceived “a stream of death threats” since she joined a small group of Republican lawmakers in voting to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
ANew York Timesstorypublished at the time revealed that Cheney’s campaign paid $58,000 for individual security detail between January and March as a result of those threats.
source: people.com
