Democracy “will not falter on my watch”
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is blasting President Donald Trump and other elected Republicans for not observing their oaths of office as she battles death threats and being doxxed. Hobbs’s office says she is facing “ongoing and escalating threats of violence directed at her and her family.”
“The truth is, I was prepared for these threats of violence and vitriol,” Hobbs says in a statement.
“But there are those, including the president, members of Congress, and other elected officials, who are perpetuating misinformation and are encouraging others to distrust the election results in a manner that violates the oath of office that they took, Secretary Hobbs adds. “It is well past time that they stop. Their words and actions have consequences.”
Democracy, Hobbs promises, “will not falter on my watch.”
Her office “has received backlash following the results of the presidential race in Arizona, as many have claimed that the state has seen widespread voter fraud – however, these claims have been unsubstantiated and similar allegations have been dismissed in Maricopa County courts multiple times,” Fox10 Phoenix reports.
Arizona NBC affiliate 12 News also reports law enforcement officers are investigating the “apparent death threat” against Hobbs, who “said the threat was made on Parler, a social media site that’s become a haven for conservatives and extremist views.”
“The threat was something like, ‘Let’s burn her house down and kill her and her family, and teach these fraudsters a lesson,’” Hobbs said.
Hobbs says her personal information including her home address and her son’s cell phone number were also posted to Parler.
“When someone ‘doxxes’ you, there’s the fear they can mess with your credit,” Hobbs said. “So I’ve had to put credit freezes on me and all my family members.”
The attacks began last week and were linked to an old tweet that resurfaced. It reads: “President Trump has made it abundantly clear he’s more interested in pandering to his neo-nazi base than being president for all Americans.”
The tweet was Hobbs’ response to the murder of 32-year old Heather Heyer, an anti-white supremacism activist who was killed by a neo-Nazi white supremacist during the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license