Philadelphia GOP official says Trump 'incited supporters to threaten to kill my children because we counted votes cast by eligible voters'
- Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt called on Mitch McConnell to vote his “conscience” in Trump’s impeachment trial.
- “The former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children,” Schmidt wrote on Twitter.
- Ahead of a likely weekend vote, McConnell announced that he would vote to acquit Trump.
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Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt called on GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to vote his “conscience” as the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump hurtles towards a conclusion.
In a late Friday note directed at McConnell, Schmidt recalls the days after the November general election when Trump attacked him as Republican “RINO,” or Republican in name only, on Twitter for disputing the former president’s claims of voter fraud in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.
“The former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children and put their ‘heads on spikes’ because we counted votes cast by eligible voters,” Schmidt wrote. “They named my children and included my home address in the threats.”
He added: “Please consider when voting your conscience.”
However, ahead of a likely weekend vote, McConnell announced in a letter on Saturday morning that he would vote to acquit Trump in the former president’s Senate impeachment trial for “incitement of insurrection” related to the January 6 Capitol riots.
Read more: Meet the little-known power player with the ‘hardest job’ on Capitol Hill. She’s shaping Trump’s impeachment trial and Joe Biden’s agenda.
The attacks on Schmidt’s family were accelerated by a November tweet that was posted on the former president’s now-disabled Twitter account.
“A guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Commissioner and so-called Republican (RINO), is being used big time by the Fake News Media to explain how honest things were with respect to the Election in Philadelphia,” Trump tweeted. “He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!”
After the tweet was posted, Schmidt, his wife, and children received threats sent by text and email, according to The New York Times Magazine.
“You lied,” one message read. “You a traitor. Perhaps 75cuts and 20bullets will soon arrive.”
Two emails sent to Schmidt’s wife read, “ALBERT RINO SCHMIDT WILL BE FATALLY SHOT,” “COPS CAN’T HELP YOU. #Q,” and “HEADS ON SPIKES. TREASONOUS SCHMIDTS.”
In November, Schmidt also revealed that staff members in his office had been subjected to death threats and said that critics were “coming up with all sorts of crazy stuff” to discredit the work of the office.
Last month, Schmidt announced that he would not run for reelection in 2023 and insisted that the Pennsylvania vote count was “free and fair,” despite the relentless stream of debunked election-related conspiracy theories from the former president.
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