GOP candidate calls for 'pitchforks and torches' as he fumes over the 'liberal media'

The Trump-endorsed GOP candidate for Wisconsin governor called for people to take up “pitchforks and torches” in reaction to a story that detailed his giving to anti-abortion groups and churches, News8000 reports.

Tim Michels, who faces Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, slammed a story published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailing charitable giving by his and his wife’s foundation to anti-abortion and anti-LGBT causes.

“I believe people should just, just be ready to get out on the streets with pitchforks and torches with how low the liberal media has become,” Michels said Thursday on a conservative talk radio show. “People need to decide ‘Am I going to put up with this? Am I going to tolerate this, taking somebody that gives money to churches or cancer research and use that as a hit piece in the media?’ I’m appalled. It’s disgusting.”

According to a tweet from Evers’ spokesman, Sam Roecker, Michels is inciting violence.

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“Instead of explaining why he’s funding groups working to ban access to abortion and contraception, Tim Michels is encouraging violence,” Roecker wrote. “He’s too radical for Wisconsin.”

Michels fired back by accusing Evers and the “corrupt media” of turning his charitable giving “into something malicious.”

“I will never, ever apologize for giving to charitable causes, or for being a Christian,” Michels wrote. “However, the Journal Sentinel should be ashamed of their anti-religious bigotry.”