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Conservative Writer Details Threats And Intimidation From Trump Supporters

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Conservative writer David French discussed a piece he's written detailing the threats and harassment that have been aimed at both himself and his family since he began writing articles in opposition to Donald Trump, saying he worries that soon the taunts and intimidation will turn into real violence.

French, who is a contributor to National Review, told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that he has been a target of Trump supporters for over a year.

"When I was publicly writing against Donald Trump, people went after my family in some of the worst ways, images on Twitter of my youngest daughter, threats to our family, a person broke into phone line in a conversation between my wife and her father, which was a very bizarre incident, broke into a phone conversation and started screaming profanities about Trump, death threats, images sent to my family of people being killed and murdered. It's hard to describe the extent of it, hundreds and hundreds of messages that were explicitly racist and explicitly sexist and threatening my family in every possible way."

Unfortunately, he stated he is just one of many being attacked this campaign season by Trump's online minions.

 

"It's been going on now for, actually, a little over a year. I only wrote about it because I'm not the only one. If it was just me, if, for some reason, this small group of trolls had decided to attack me, I'd handle it quietly. I'd deal with it with law enforcement but it turns out that hundreds of journalists have actually been targeted for levels of abuse. Many of them are now carrying weapons for the first time, are installing security systems in their home and a lot it, these are conservative journalists who've been against Trump, many of them are Jewish journalists. I'm not Jewish, but they've received an avalanche of antisemitic messages, unlike anything we've ever seen in modern American politics."

French is concerned that, at some point, journalists may actually be at physical risk from the more aggressive antagonists .

"I absolutely understand that people are angry but there is a way you express anger and that's by voting or by expressing your opinion. What we're seeing here though, is an actual, organized effort at intimidation and fear. There are lines that are being crossed here in the worst way. We're getting close to a situation where you're going to see it moving from threats and into action."

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