After attack on Pelosi husband
A week before the midterms, the fear of political violence – and Trump’s election observers – is growing
Donald Trump at an appearance in Wisconsin in August 2022. His supporters are increasingly mobilizing election observers for the midterms.
© ALEX WROBLEWSKI / Picture Alliance
Just days before the midterms, the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband is casting its shadow over the country’s political mood. As Trump supporters mobilize election observers, many Americans are concerned about intimidation and violence.
The attack on Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband did not come out of nowhere. The robbery — in which the perpetrator said he planned to hold Pelosi hostage and shatter her kneecaps if she didn’t tell the “truth” — was just the tip of the stick years of political hate campaigns against one of the most powerful women in America. Since Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House in 2006, she has become a walking target for Republicans. She has already been targeted in dozens of election commercials – in the truest sense of the word – ex-President Donald Trump spread the nickname “Crazy Nancy” and the Democrat was proclaimed a hunting trophy during the storming of the Capitol.
As on January 6, Nancy Pelosi was lucky not to be in the wrong place at the right time. Instead, it hit her 82-year-old husband, who had to be hospitalized with a fractured skull as a result of the brutal attack.
Shocked by the act, just days before the hard-fought midterm elections, President Joe Biden condemned in the strongest terms any form of politically motivated violence. When he voted early, he blamed Trump and his Republican supporters for the whiplash in the country with their hate speech against alleged election fraud. “It’s one thing to condemn the violence,” Biden said Saturday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. “But you can’t condemn the violence if you don’t condemn the people who keep claiming that the election wasn’t real (…).”
Trump’s Republicans sow mistrust of midterms
Almost two years after the 2020 presidential election, ex-President Trump is still spreading the “big lie” about the stolen election – still without any proof. To quickly uncover a possible fraud this year, his staunch Republican supporters have one Swarm of election observers mobilized. “We’re going to be there enforcing these rules, and we’re going to contest every vote, every ballot, and you’re going to have to live with that,” Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon announced on his popular podcast. In Michigan, a right-wing group announced in a press release in September that they had started “Operation Overwatch” – including the tenfold warning “We are watching”.
It is a call to distrust every election result as a matter of principle – and one that has long since not only come from radical Trump fans. The Republican National Committee, the party’s umbrella organization, recently announced that thousands of training sessions had been held across the country on how to monitor the midterms and how to report complaints about irregularities. In key swing state Pennsylvania, Republican party officials are even boasting that they have increased the number of poll watchers six-fold since 2020.
The appeal by leaders of the “Grand Old Party” poses a dilemma for election officials across the country. Normally, the officials rely on the one hand on election workers who register the voters, who are available to answer questions and count the votes – on the other hand on trained election observers who accompany the entire process. But now there is growing concern that some of the helpers could become troublemakers themselves. Even a handful of bad election observers could bring chaos to the electoral system and sow distrust, they say.
Concern about intimidation and harassment at the polling station
In the run-up to the elections, one thing is already certain: many Americans will go to the polls on November 8 with a queasy feeling. Two out of five voters are, according to one current Reuters/Ipsos survey concerned about threats of violence or intimidation at polling stations. The fear was voiced more frequently by Democratic voters (51 percent), although a significant proportion of Republicans (38 percent) also shared the same concerns. While no violent incidents involving early voting have been reported nationwide, there have been indications of intimidation.
beat like that Election officials in Arizona already alarmed, after citizens casting their ballots in a suburb of Phoenix were followed and filmed by self-appointed election observers. The official complaint to federal authorities said voters were called “mules,” a term coined by Trump personally in connection with allegations of voter fraud.
In another incident, election officials also filed a complaint after “persons dressed in camouflage” took pictures of a voter and his license plate at the Maricopa County polling station. And it was only on Friday that police officers had to move out to scare away two armed men from the mailbox in front of said polling station.
Security authorities warn of “complex threat environment”
In view of these incidents, the American security authorities are also alarmed. Election officials across the country have been urged to secure their voting systems and be vigilant against political violence in a “highly complex threat environment,” senior US cybersecurity official Jen Easterly said on Sunday. In an appearance on “CBSThe head of the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it was concerned about a range of threats – including cyber, insider, physical and disinformation – although there were no “specific or credible” threats so far.
In the few days leading up to the midterms, the warning is one of a series of reports being distributed by various law enforcement agencies. As recently as Friday, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Counterterrorism Center and the Capitol Police published a letterin which they warn that political candidates, election officials and the public are at increased risk of violence.
For Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul, this warning comes too late.
Sources: “NYTimes“, “Washington Post“, “CNN“, “Reuters“, with DPA and AFP material