Post the riots at the Capitol Hill that took place earlier this year, and the proceedings against the impeachment of former President Donald Trump many Representatives feared for their life, regarding its voting.
Many Representatives questioned their life decision to enter the domain of politics, as they never thought that such a detail would entail, where they might face threats for their belief that President Trump should be impeached even amongst Republicans.
As per the complaints registered by Capitol Police, of threats against elected officials the statistics have skyrocketed since 2017, which saw 3,900 threats; 2018 the number was slightly over 5,000; followed by approximately 7,000 such cases being registered in 2019 and breaking all records to register over 8,600 cases in 2020. What is alarming is that the initial 2 months of 2020 saw more threats being made towards the officials than all of 2017.
Trump supporters in popular polls still believe that the Capitol Hill riots were actually, left-leaning people, who caused the ruckus to make the then President look bad. In documentaries released on the Riots, some allege that in advance of the riots, people saw at the scene tweeting about ‘Stop the Steal’ and they were ready to give up life for ‘this fight’.
These condoning incidents are often downplayed by the right-wing media, by labeling the allegations as ‘overreactions’ and ‘outrageous’. It is unhealthy to have qualms with powerful people, who are ready to threaten violence upon sacred public institutions of importance and reflects badly upon them when they are actually elected as caretakers of the nation.
Trump, has encouraged accountability in his own way, as he was often seen doing so on public platforms. Although he did not use violent threats against them, his words of criticism would be sufficiently intimidating to an average citizen.
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Any official is more empowered than an average citizen, and when they feel that the law of land is operational in a manner that proves to be a noose for their safety, one can only imagine how distanced a normal American may feel to actual freedom of speech and expression.
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