Colorado Supreme Court threatened by MAGA after kicking Trump off ballot

NBC

The day after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist who is disqualified from holding public office, social media has been flooded with threats against the presiding justices and Democrats.

In a recent 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court held that Trump violated section 3 of the 14th Amendment and was consequently ineligible to hold public office. The court ordered Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, to remove Trump’s name from the ballot—though it also stayed its own order until January 4th on the assumption the former president would appeal. 

Since then, a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog called Advance Democracy identified “significant violent rhetoric” against the Colorado Supreme Court justices and Democrats. 

The nonprofit’s president and ex-FBI investigator, Daniel J. Jones, told NBC News: “We are seeing significant violent language and threats being made against the Colorado justices and others perceived to be behind yesterday’s Colorado Supreme Court ruling.”

Advance Democracy also reported that the justices’ phone numbers, email addresses, and office building addresses were posted on social media.

“The normalization of this type of violent rhetoric—and lack of remedial action by social media entities—is cause for significant concern,” Jones continued, “Trump’s statements, which have sought to delegitimize and politicize the actions of the courts, is serving as a key driver of the violent rhetoric. Political leaders on both sides of the political aisle need to speak out against these calls for violence, and social media platforms need to reassess their role in hosting and promoting this rhetoric.”

This is nothing new. Trump’s increasingly deranged rhetoric has been reflected and regurgitated by his MAGA base, particularly in response to law enforcement action against Trump himself. 

After the FBI searched Trump’s Florida home in the classified documents case, a Trump supporter attacked an FBI field office in Ohio. When Obama-appointed judge Tanya Chutkan began presiding over Trump’s January 6th trial, Trump supporters threatened to kill her. When a Georgia grand jury indicted Trump, they were doxxed by Trump supporters. 

Despite this, Trump has refused to condemn the violence and urge his supporters to behave peacefully.