ELECTORAL VIOLENCE

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Women and minority candidates face a barrage of threats of violence. When opponents smear candidates and threaten them with rape, assault, torture, murder as well as incarceration without evidence of criminal activity this is electoral violence, intended to intimidate voters and candidates and subvert the electoral process. Item, often purportedly humorous, depict all manner of violence against candidates, including several that glorify Trump as the perpetrator of that violence. One notorious if unauthorized 2019 video shown at a meeting of Trump supporters at his Miami resort depicts the president (in a parody of the film Kingsman) committing mass murder of congregants inside a “Church of Fake News.” The Trump figure beats, shoots and stabs political opponents, including Hillary Clinton, as well as members of the news media and figures labeled feminism and Black Lives Matter. Another faked image by a Trump fan of a border patrol Facebook page shows the president choking Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2016, Trump supporters called for Hillary Clinton’s imprisonment – “lock her up” -- and in 2020, Trump opponents turn that back on him.