“I hope you die. I hope everybody in your fucking family dies.” That’s the voicemail Rep. Fred Upton, Republican from Michigan, found after he cast a vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill last Friday. The caller called him a “fucking piece of shit traitor.” Upton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he’s gotten other calls, and it’s like the others in that group of 13 have as well, because they’ve been targeted after poster child for deplorables Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted out the names and phone numbers of the 13 “traitors.”
The Marjorie Taylor Greene wing of the caucus attacked immediately after the vote. “I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill,” Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said. “That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said. “Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you,” Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina warned just before the vote.
The Marjorie Taylor Greenes among the House Republicans aren’t just siccing their violent followers against the 13, they’re lobbying leadership to strip the 13 of the committee assignments. “Several of these lawmakers,” Punchbowl News reports, “are also ranking members—top Republicans on committees—and those could be at risk, too.”
Meanwhile, there’s a guy who really should be not just stripped of committee assignments, but expelled. Rep. Paul Gosar—the Arizona dentist who is so awful his six siblings have appeared in ads begging the voters to reject him—is making videos of his violent homicidal fantasies against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden and tweeting them out.
That’s got regular people outraged—regular people meaning Democrats in the House who treat death threats as serious problems and not just how we express political views.
Now that’s someone who should be expelled. As of now, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hasn’t said a thing about Gosar, or the 13 “traitors” the deplorable crowd is trying to get kicked out, if not killed.
Upton is worried. He told Cooper, "I'll tell you it's a terrible way—we have seen civility really downslide here. I'm concerned about my staff. They are taking these calls."
"These are very disturbing, adult language," he added. "To say the least, that truly is frightening."
