Taking seriously the threat of election violence

This is the reality we face.

U.S. security agencies have issued a heightened threat advisory, warning of a potential attacks on political candidates, election officials and others. The alert came Friday, the same day that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked in their San Francisco home.

NPR has obtained the bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the U.S. Capitol Police.

Attacks conducted by lone actors pose the most plausible threat to potential targets, the bulletin warned. The risk of violence is fueled by an increase in domestic violent extremism, and those carrying out the attacks would likely do so for ideological reasons.

Most individuals are likely to cite the 2020 presidential election, repeating the false narrative that the results were skewed, and that former-President Donald Trump was the rightful winner, according to the warning.

Since 2021, perceptions of a fraudulent election have contributed to several attacks or violent plots, and the bulletin added that new theories of fraud undermining the midterm elections have been emerging.

The advisory said that last month, domestic violent extremists were identified as claiming the electoral system of being “under attack” and threatened violence against politicians.

With less than two weeks before Election Day, President Biden on Friday called on political figures to “clearly and unambiguously” reject political violence, calling the attack on the Pelosi “despicable.”

The president, citing news reports, drew ties between what Friday’s attacker allegedly said — chanting, “Where’s Nancy?” — and what rioters said while storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“What makes us think that one party can talk about stolen elections, COVID being a hoax, it’s all a bunch of lies — and it not affect people who may not be so well-balanced? What makes us think that it’s not going to corrode the political climate?” he said.

In the bulletin, law enforcement officials warned that the threat of violence extends beyond just politicians, with religious minorities also listed as a potential target.

We have been living under this threat for awhile now, and though I appreciate the heightened attention to it, we could have gotten this months ago. That said, we also could have gotten the clear and unambiguous rejection of violence from a whole swath of Republican elected officials, and I find their failure to take a stand – indeed, in many cases, their deflections and whataboutisms and sometimes-coy sometimes-explicit approval of the violence – to be cowardly and reprehensible. There are plenty of things our Republican elected officials in Texas could be doing right now to actually enhance election security, but instead they’re making the problem worse. And as we know, nothing is going to change as long as they remain in office. This is the reality we face.

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