In a sit-down interview with The Western Journal, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann revealed that as media coverage of the state’s election audit has increased, so have the disturbing threats that come from all over the country — even the world.
Fann, who approved the ongoing Arizona audit of allegedly questionable balloting practices in her critical swing state, hasn’t exactly been mimicking the rhetoric of Sidney Powell or Mike Lindell when it comes to election integrity.
She wants to make sure her state’s elections are secure, plain and simple.
“We have one goal, and one goal only, and this is election integrity,” she told TWJ.
Yet the efforts of the state GOP to examine an election that saw former President Donald Trump fail to secure a second term in the White House have attracted much outrage and controversy across the country.
And sadly, in a time like ours, this almost inevitably comes with threats, ranging from foolish, reckless pranks to open death wishes against GOP leaders and their entire families.
“You must be getting threats. Is that anything that you’ve taken seriously? Do you have reason to believe that there’s, you know, actual danger to you or your members here?” TWJ’s editor-in-chief George Upper asked Fann in the course of their interview.
Fann replied that while there have indeed been all kinds of comments pouring in from around the world, some have been more severe than others.
“It’s escalated, I can tell you when this whole thing first started they were kind of side remarks, one thing or another,” she replied, explaining that it’s gone from insignificant comments to faked bioterrorism attacks and even death threats.
“A couple of months ago was the white envelope,” she said, “and so we had to go through all of the security procedures around here.”
In May, Fann’s office received an “unidentified white powder” in the mail which prompted a response from the state’s Department of Public Safety, as Newsweek reported at the time.
Thankfully, it was found to be harmless, as Fann explained this week.
“Luckily they tested it and found out it was antihistamine that someone had ground up into a power so it was somebody that was obviously not serious,” she told Upper.
She has noticed a correlation between how much media coverage is being afforded the state election audit and how serious the threats she’s receiving have become.
“I notice that the more the media ramps this up and the more that there’s this information, it does stir up a certain segment of the population and I can see the ramping up,” she continued.
“There was an email last week that said something about my family should die or something like that.”
“I just turn it all over to DPS,” she added.
“This is nationwide/worldwide thing, so some of these threats are not coming from Arizona people,” Fann explained.
“One of them came from California, there’s a couple that came from other areas, some it’s really hard to track down, because it’s all on the internet, and you know what they say about the internet: ‘You just never know where it’s coming from.’”
Indeed, you don’t — and it doesn’t matter how much Fann has emphasized that she is only interested in election integrity and that the audit efforts are a long way off from installing Trump back in the White House anytime soon. She has a big, fat target on her back as the woman who approved the Arizona audit.
As Fann herself said, there’s no denying the connection between media coverage and the anger over the state GOP’s efforts to audit the election.
The establishment media has long been fanning the flames of deep divide and outrage; thanks to the internet, they rely heavily on this divisive culture and sensationalism for clicks, at the very least.
We live in a time when the left — even when their guy is in the White House and the evil Orange Man is safely tucked away in Florida, banned from social media, and forced to issue his vocal, blunt opinions through media releases on his website — is still infuriated at even the slightest hint that people out there still think that said Orange Man should be in the White House.
This is all the more reason to admire Fann’s nonchalant response to the chilling threats she’s received. The more attention these hysterical, uninformed leftists get, the less chance we have at restoring anything close to civility and basic human decency to the political discussion.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
