October 08, 2018 10:53 AM UTC

A Few Words On Threatening Cory Gardner (Or Anyone Else)

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• by: Colorado Pols

9NEWS’ Jacob Rodriguez reports:

Colorado GOP Sen. Cory Gardner’s wife received a text message with a video attachment showing a beheading, a spokesperson for the senator confirmed to 9NEWS.

Gardner’s spokesperson said someone also released the names and home addresses of Gardner’s family members. U.S. Capitol Police are aware and involved, according to Gardner’s office.

The story was originally reported by Fox News and Gardner’s spokesperson would not elaborate beyond confirming the accuracy of Fox News’ reporting. [Pols emphasis]

From the original Fox News story:

In the wake of his vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Saturday, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., revealed to Fox News on Sunday that his wife had received a graphic text message with a video depicting a beheading, and that someone has publicly posted the names and addresses of his family members.

Without exception, it is totally unacceptable to make any kind of violent threat to either a politician or their family members. Anyone who engages in such behavior should be prosecuted to the limit of the law, and it’s very important that the rhetoric employed by all sides in our fractious political debates not incite violence against the other side.

Period. There’s no “whataboutism” to engage in, no mitigating counterpoints to justify violent threats.

With that said…

Sen. Cory Gardner has a long track record of dishonesty that necessarily impacts his credibility when he makes claims without supporting evidence. This is a man who has lied brazenly about his own policies like the “federal personhood bill,” the impact of the Affordable Care Act on his and hundreds of thousands of Colorado families, the “paid protesters” allegedly dogging his every step, and most recently caught straight-up lying to constituents calling to inquire about his “undecided” vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.

As of this writing, Sen. Cory Gardner has not released the details of either of these two alleged threats. We’re not “dark web” users and we certainly don’t track every message that’s posted to every political message board, but we’ve not seen any personal information on either Sen. Gardner or his family publicly posted–and we wouldn’t link to it if we did.

Assuming this is all on the level, forthcoming details about a criminal investigation into these alleged threats will render questions about Gardner’s truthfulness in this case moot. After all, that’s the standard Republicans want to apply everywhere, isn’t it? If that confirmation never emerges, we’ll have no choice but to add this to the long list of stuff Cory Gardner says that may or may not be true.

Sorry to have to revisit this uncomfortable reality, but somebody’s got to.