Pennsylvania GOP Leader Says Her House Would Be 'Bombed' If She Disputed Trump's Fraud Claims

The Republican leader of the Pennsylvania State Senate said that her house would be "bombed" if she publicly denounced President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. Sen. Kim Ward gave an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, discussing the public pressure on Republicans to stand by Trump and the legitimate fears that accompany it. She believes her life would be in real danger for publicly questioning the president.

Ward was asked about an open letter signed by 64 lawmakers in Pennsylvania's lower chamber, which urged the state's Congressional delegation to block certification of the state's electors for President-elect Joe Biden. Ward did not sign the letter, and claimed that she had not seen it before the interview. However, she said: "If I would say to you, 'I don't want to do it,' I'd get my house bombed tonight."

Ward's fears are shared by many other election workers around the country, from elected officials to appointees to ground-level contractors for the companies that make voting machines. Her statement emphasizes that the president's opponents are not just worried about playing politics or curating their careers — they are afraid for their lives.

On Sunday, a Black lawmaker in Michigan told Detroit News that she recieved phone calls threatening to lynch her, after she condemned her local colleagues for accommodating Rudy Giuliani's voter fraud hearing in the state. Meanwhile, Georgia voting systems manager Gabriel Sterling gave a news conference last week saying that "someone's going to get killed" if Trump does not set the record straight, according to Forbes.

Sterling told the story of an anonymous 20-year-old contractor for Dominion Voting Systems, saying that he has faced death threats and calls for him to be "hung for treason" since the 2020 presidential election. Dominion is a frequent, direct target of the president's tweets and other conspiracy theories online, leaving little doubt where these threats of violence come from.

Last month, the FBI began investigating some of these threats and calls for violence, according to another report by Forbes, but so far have declined to comment on it publicly. In the meantime, the president has not heeded any warnings to tone down his rhetoric before something terrible can happen.

Trump's conspiracy theories about the election have no supporting evidence behind them, and dozens of his lawsuits have now been dismissed or lost in courts all over the country. Now that most states have formally certified their election results, Biden will take office on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.