For many Americans, Donald Trump’s conspiratorial lies about his 2020 defeat have become a nuisance, creating an annoying background noise to our daily public life. But as we’ve discussed, for those responsible for monitoring domestic security threats, the Republican’s nonsense is more menacing.
Politico reported last summer, for example, on “concerns” at the Department of Homeland Security about Trump’s election conspiracy theories. CNN reported soon after that Justice Department officials also concluded that the former president’s delusional claims increased the risk of political violence from his most rabid followers.
NBC News reported in August that the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to local police departments, warning that false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election were “fueling calls for violence on social media.”
The problem doesn’t appear to be going away. CNN reported:
The full “Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland” was issued and published online this week, and it covers a fair amount of ground, including referencing the recent hostage attack at a Texas synagogue and the threats directed at multiple Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
But the document’s repeated references to election-related concerns stand out.
The Department of Homeland Security noted, for example, that “widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud” is a key factor “...
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