Some of Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters have issued new calls for violence against Mike Pence on an online forum that has attracted the attention of law enforcement, Rolling Stone reports.
A post titled “(Expletive) Mike Pence” was the top post Wednesday on “TheDonald,” an online forum for what the report describes as the “Trumpiest of the Trump faithful.”
The Reddit-style forum, which was used by some plotters of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol according to the report, has “revived” calls for violence against the former vice president after Trump supporters during the insurrection chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”
And some of the comments are getting ugly.
Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson writes that a top comment on the post calling for “divine retribution” against the “traitor” reads: “May GOD Strike him down for his lies and treachery to the American People,” while others fantasied about a public execution.
“I want to watch his toes dangle in the breeze,” another user wrote.
Dickinson writes that “Extremist MAGAdonians soon became baroque in their dark fantasies of how Pence might get hanged, with one adding a second-amendment twist: ‘Make it like an adult version of the pool drop kids play at parties,’ suggested user bubadmt. ‘Except you take the shot at a target from 200 yards away, a bullseye releases the trap door.'"
“It may be tempting to dismiss such comments as wingnuts blowing off steam, rather than as indicative of genuine violent sentiments. But TheDonald — which bills itself “a high-energy rally for supporters of President Trump” — has a dark history," Dickinson noted.
The forum started out as a subreddit but was kicked off the platform for “rule-breaking content,” the report said. It was shuttered in the aftermath of Jan. 6 but shortly afterward restored to its current url, Patriots.win.
