Electors casting votes for president today in Lansing, Mich. will meet behind closed doors inside the State Capitol at 2 p.m. EST. Officials closed all legislative offices in the face of “credible threats of violence.”
Astonishing, right?
The Washington Post reports:
Gideon D’Assandro, a spokesperson for Republican state House Speaker Lee Chatfield, confirmed on Sunday to the Washington Post that Michigan House and Senate leadership consulted with the state police regarding the threats. The state Capitol, where the vote is set to take place, was already set to be closed to the public Monday.
Details about the threats remain unspecified and unconfirmed. D’Assandro declined further comment about the closures, while spokespersons for Whitmer, Michigan State Police and Democratic leaders in the state legislature did not immediately respond to requests for comment late on Sunday.
Amber McCann, a spokesperson for Republican Michigan Senate majority leader Mike Shirkey, said in an email to the Post that the decision to close legislative offices “was not made because of anticipated protests, but was made based on credible threats of violence.”
Very fine people. Very angry-fine people. Very national-security-threat-angry-fine.
Former Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord is Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. She and a bipartisan group of former national security officials watch with alarm as ordinary conservatives march alongside armed radicals. The line between mainstream and fringe is disappearing, she tells NPR. Mass radicalization is occurring. Elizabeth Neumann, former assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention at the Department of Homeland Security, considers the conservative media world as a portal to a separate reality.
“A Separate Reality” used to mean Carlos Castaneda’s vision-trips with Yaqui Indian sorcerer Don Juan, all fueled by peyote and magic mushrooms. All today’s wingnut seeker needs to get there is a radio, a TV, an internet connection, and an AR-15.