This Isn't Normal

“Credible death threats.”

This isn’t, “You suck.” This is, “You should die.”

U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the 1st District Ottumwa Republican, went public with reports that she received threats on her life after she refused to back Ohio Representative Jim Jordan — Donald Trump’s pick as the next U.S. speaker of the house — in the second round of voting Wednesday.

(U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks).

The following message was posted on Miller-Meeks’ Twitter (X) account regarding the threats:

Miller-Meeks did support Jordan in the first round of voting on the house floor on Tuesday. She said that she did that for the good of the party.

Nick LaLota, a Republican congressman from New York, also said that he received death threats because of his opposition to Jordan as speaker. So did Georgia Republican Representative Drew Ferguson.

And Nebraska Republican Representative Don Bacon said that his wife slept with a gun underneath her pillow after she received numerous threatening messages.

(Reminder: Republicans previously ousted Kevin McCarthy, their Republican colleague from California, as speaker October 3rd. That’s largely left the body useless to address any of the nation’s challenges or pass an aid package to help Israel after Hamas’ attack).

Jordan — who has never sponsored a bill that passed into law during his 17 years in the house and refused to publicly admit that Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election — eventually lost three rounds of voting on the floor as he tried to become speaker.

Numerous national reports talked about bullying tactics that Jordan and his allies used to try to pressure other Republican lawmakers to support his bid to become speaker.

Miller-Meeks decided that someone else should take over as speaker. Unlike Miller-Meeks, her three Iowa Republican colleagues in the house (Randy Feenstra, Zach Nunn and Ashley Hinson) supported Jordan throughout the three rounds of voting.

Following Miller-Meeks’ decision to share her claims of death threats with the public, there was no public rallying to her defense by top Iowa Republicans.

Hinson was the only one of the three Iowa Republican house members to post a message on Twitter (X) that addressed the death threats.

I also couldn’t find any posts on the platform from any other prominent Iowa Republican to condemn the threats. I found nothing from Senator Chuck Grassley, Senator Joni Ernst, Governor Kim Reynolds or Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann.

Death threats for refusing to support Jordan.

What is happening?

Miller-Meeks, as of Saturday night, had nearly 4,000 comments following her Twitter (X) post about the threats. Most were negative towards her and dismissed or ignored the death threats.

Here is a sample of the criticism directed at her:

This is the current political atmosphere: dismissing, ignoring or not believing an elected official who says that harassers threatened to kill her.

This is not how everyone behaves. Not everyone threatens violence or bullies others. But it sure feels like this happens a lot more over the past half dozen years or so. What’s changed?

This is not normal behavior. Is it?

Thanks for reading.

What else am I doing?

I am the new editor of American Farmland Owner’s weekly newsletter. Each week, we will navigate how agricultural industry trends, politics, economic forces, climate challenges and technology will impact farmland owners across our country.

Here’s the link to the first newsletter where we look at whether buying farmland makes sense right now, along with the impact of higher interest rates:

American Farmland Owner newsletter

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