Jan. 6 Testimony Details Chilling Threats To Family After Trump's Tweet Names GOP Official

In one of the most troubling parts of Mondays hearing of the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, a former Philadelphia city commissioner testified that Donald Trump supporters targeted his family following false and vicious tweets about the 2020 election in which the former president singled him out.

Republican Al Schmidt was one of three commissioners who investigated claims of election fraud in Pennsylvania, none of which withstood careful examination.

Schmidt told the House panel that while general threats were relatively common against the commissioners during the election investigations, the situation became truly frightening when Trump tweeted at me by name, calling me out ... [and] threats became much more specific, much more graphic.

They then included not just me but also members of my family by name, their ages, our address, pictures of our home, just every bit of detail that you can imagine. That was what changed with that tweet, Schmidt testified.

Former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt recalls the horrifying and violent threats made against him and his family after Trump targeted him in a series of tweets. pic.twitter.com/Ovk3GAc4eX
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) June 13, 2022

During Trumps second impeachment hearing in the House, Schmidt tweeted to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), appealing to him to vote his conscience to convict Trump. He pointed out then that the former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children and put their heads on spikes because we counted votes cast by eligible voters.

.@LeaderMcConnell The former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children and put their heads on spikes because we counted votes cast by eligible voters. They named my children and included my home address in the threats. Please consider when voting your conscience.

Al Schmidt (@Commish_Schmidt) February 13, 2021","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Al Schmidt","author_url":"https://twitter.com/Commish_Schmidt","cache_age":86400,"description":".@LeaderMcConnell The former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children and put their heads on spikes because we counted votes cast by eligible voters. They named my children and included my home address in the threats. Please consider when voting your conscience. 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.@LeaderMcConnell The former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children and put their heads on spikes because we counted votes cast by eligible voters. They named my children and included my home address in the threats. Please consider when voting your conscience.
Al Schmidt (@Commish_Schmidt) February 13, 2021

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who was questioning Schmidt at the hearing, showed on a video screen some of the threatening messages Schmidt had received following the Trump tweet. Identifying information and some of the details of the threatened violence had been redacted.

The situation underscored the panels repeated point that incendiary lies relentlessly repeated by a president to trusting supporters do not occur in a vacuum; they can spark threats and even violence.

Zofgren apologized for what Schmidt went through.

Part of Schmidts testimony included video clips from the House panel , including a section from a year ago showing Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani apparently snatching a figure out of the air claiming that 8,021 dead people voted in the presidential election in Pennsylvania. He sarcastically quipped that its easier for dead people to submit mail-in ballots than it is to vote in person.

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