Donald Trump’s words are again having real impact, and again, lives are in danger as a result. This time the threat is aimed at Jeff Flake, the recently retired Republican senator from Arizona. Unwilling to completely toe the Trump line, Flake decided it was time to move on from the Senate, but Trump supporters aren’t letting go. Flake talked with the Guardian and said he is continuing to get threats from Trump supporters.
Flake revealed that an unidentified man carrying a rifle scope had recently arrived at three locations in Arizona associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, looking for the former senator, a devout Mormon.
According to Flake: “It was a man living out of his car. He told someone he had just attended a Trump rally.” He added: “He showed up at another event two weeks ago.”
Last week, a Chicago man pleaded guilty to a federal retaliation charge after leaving a threatening voicemail for Flake during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
The defendant, 58-year-old James Dean Blevins Jr, said on the voicemail: “I am tired of him interrupting our president, and I am coming down there to take him and his family out,” according to prosecutors.
Flake told the Guardian that these were just two in a series of threats he and his family have received.
There is no doubt Donald Trump is inspiring domestic terrorism, even against members of his own party.