On Monday, just before the Electoral College was scheduled to convene, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a ruling denying Trump's challenge to the election results and request to have all the state electors vote for him.
Even before the ruling was issued, some of the Justices started receiving hate mail and voicemails, and some were based solely on misogyny and anti-Semitism. After the ruling, the hate and vitriol continued to flow.
Justices Jill Karofsky and Rebecca Dallet appeared to have caught the brunt of these attacks. As reported by Ruth Conniff of Wisconsin Examiner, these attacks included a bizarre rant on a white supremist website:
Karofsky and Dallet were the targets of an online anti-Semitic attack on a blog reposted by the white supremacist website Daily Stormer that identifies Karofsky and Dallet as “Wisconsin Jews.”
“Powerful Jews came together to assure their people hold as many positions of power as possible,” it asserts, and repeats anti-Semitic canards about a cabal of wealthy Jews who dominate Ivy League universities and businesses.
Both the blog post and the obscenity-laced messages to Karofsky’s office focus on her comment that the Trump campaign’s effort to throw out votes “smacks of racism.”
During oral arguments, Karofsky pointed out to Trump campaign lawyer Jim Troupis that he was seeking to throw out votes only in the two Wisconsin counties with the highest number of Black voters. “This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smacks of racism,” Karofsky said. “I do not know how you can come before this court and possibly ask for a remedy that is unheard of in U.S. history. … It is not normal.”
The anti-Semitic blog post asserts that the “racism hoax” is “very close to the hearts of the Jews.”
Bill Lueders of The Progressive, who originally broke the story, shared some of the vulgar voicemails left for the two justices, including this doozy for Karofsky:
:“You got a lot of guts,” one caller stated, as recorded in an MP3 file released Wednesday to The Progressive in response to an open records request. “You refer to Trump as a king? Yet you are the tyrant bitch. You are the tyrant bitch who allows cheating and fraud to put a socialist puppet of China in the White House. Trump is not a king. Trump is a President legally elected by the people, not the fraud you allow, you fucking bitch. You’re the socialist tyrant bitch. Trump is an American patriot. And you’re fucking garbage, you fucking piece of shit pig.”
Dallet, who didn't release as many pieces of hate, had received this:
The voicemail left on Dallet’s office phone was from a woman caller who did not leave her name. The message said: “Hey, you’re a piece of shit. Not any old piece of shit—an Obama, George Soros, liberal, lefty piece of shit.”
In another article, Lueders reports that even Justice Brian Hagedorn, the lone conservative to side with democracy, also was subjected to the messages of hate, although not nearly at the level of vitriol and intensity which were directed at the women Justices. Some of these messages included these:
“I think you should resign,” declared one message left on Hagedorn’s public phone line by a man who identified himself as Ron, last name phonetically Olincheck [caller number 17 on linked recording]. “You gave us a lot of lies. You said you were a Republican conservative. You’re not. You’re terrible. Hopefully someday, you’ll get paid back on this. Resign. You’re a piece of garbage.”
Other callers voiced similar assessments. “You are an absolute disgrace,” said one male caller who did not give his name [message 2]. “And we the people of Wisconsin are completely embarrassed to have you on the court. Not sure how you can look at yourself in the mirror, but you are a coward.” The last four words are spoken as: “You. Are. A. Coward.”
I really don't understand what these haters were thinking or expecting, especially considering that Trump had already lost scores of similar challenges across the nation, including some in Wisconsin.
If one really wants to subject themselves to this vitriol and insanity, Lueders did provide to MP3 recordings of the voicemails sent to the three justices. However, I would call these NSFW, due to the length if not necessarily the language::
Jill Karofsky's can be found here.
Rebecca Dallet's can be found here.
Brian Hagedorn's can be found here.
