Violent rhetoric is harming everyday Americans

It’s not just politicians who feel the effects of violent speech

Just over a week ago, the United States was rocked by the most shocking instance of political violence in years: an attempted — and thankfully failed — assassination attempt on a major party’s presidential candidate. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a larger trend of political violence that is eroding the fabric of American civic life. 

There are many causes and dynamics to the problem of political violence, not all well understood. But the role of words, and of rhetorical choices by political leaders, is inescapable. 

Specifically, lies matter. Above all, rhetoric that stokes the public’s fears with unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, election theft, and deep-rooted criminal conspiracy has real world impact. These lies are intimately connected to the violent rhetoric that threatens everyday Americans, not just presidential candidates.

Over the past three years, our team has worked on a suite of lawsuits on behalf of civil servants and ordinary voters targeted with knowing and defamatory lies. As detailed in the pleadings in each of these cases, political lies precipitated threats of violence and upended lives.

These include the cases on behalf of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ “Shaye” Moss, who were falsely accused of counting fraudulent ballots in Fulton County, GA in an effort to steal the 2020 presidential election. Those lies — which were directly amplified by former president Trump — and the vitriol and death threats they incited, ultimately drove the FBI to advise Ms. Freeman to leave her home. Ms. Freeman’s and Ms. Moss’s names were included on a “death list” found on a suspect arrested shortly after the January 6th attack on the Capitol. A different threat made towards Ms. Freeman resulted in another man pleading guilty to a criminal charge of sending a threat using a telecommunications device.

There was the case on behalf of Robert Weisenbach, an Erie, PA postmaster who was falsely accused of backdating mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election — another accusation that was supported by the former president. He, too, was forced to flee his home with his family. 

Then there is the case on behalf of Mark Andrews, a private citizen in Georgia accused of committing voter fraud, who was featured in the widely-debunked conspiratorial film 2,000 Mules — a film promoted by the former president as “the greatest [and] most impactful documentary of our time.” As a direct result, Mr. Andrews and his family were also subject to violent threats. 

These are just regular people. 

They did not seek the public spotlight, they do not have access to a political platform to widely and loudly defend themselves, and their public appearances are not mapped out and secured by the U.S. Secret Service. Whether they vote for Republicans, Democrats, third parties, or no one at all: whatever harm comes their way, they have to manage the threat of violence as private citizens. 

Nor is the harm limited to their physical safety; these pernicious lies imperil our very democracy, which depends on regular people participating in the process just as much as it relies on elected officials. Our decentralized election system, built through the collaboration of the federal government with thousands of county and municipal offices and fifty state governments, is the cornerstone of our democracy. But it depends on unelected civil servants, like our clients, feeling safe enough to do the unglamorous work of setting up polling places, delivering the ballots and materials needed for elections, assisting voters, and tallying ballots, among countless other tasks. Without these people, our democracy grinds to a halt. 

So yes, we should care about the words we choose when speaking about our political opponents. 

There are real consequences for all of us when even well-intentioned rhetoric can be interpreted as calls for political violence, whether it’s one candidate speaking about “bullseyes” or another candidate speaking about “bloodbaths.” But challenging and seeking legal redress for the harms caused by knowing or reckless lies remains as important now as it did before the assassination attempt. 

Because when those lies are allowed to run unchecked, it isn’t only public officials who pay the price. 

Photo credit: Alyssa Pointer via AP