White supremacist's threats led black Charlottesville candidate to drop out of race, feds say
The campaign signs had been printed. The launch party was scheduled. And the African American activist was ready to join the race for Charlottesville City Council.
He had sent out a news release announcing his intention to run the night before the party, on Jan. 7. But just 24 hours later, the campaign was over. Standing before his supporters, the black candidate said he would not be kicking off his campaign after all.
Now, federal prosecutors say they know why: A white supremacist sent him a slew of violent threats the night he announced his candidacy.
Daniel McMahon of Brandon, Fla., was arrested Wednesday and charged with bias-motivated interference with a candidate for elective office, accused of cyberstalking and threatening the candidate to the point that he dropped out of the race, prosecutors said. The candidate is identified in court documents only as “D.G.” but the Daily Progress reported that the details in the charges match the halted campaign of deacon and activist Don Gathers. The co-founder of Charlottesville’s Black Lives Matter chapter, Gathers also served on a committee dedicated to relocating Confederate statues in the wake of the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017.
McMahon, 31, allegedly threatened the candidate with violence because he was a black man campaigning for office, causing him “to fear death and serious bodily injury” if he were to go forward with his campaign, prosecutors said.
“As alleged in the indictment, this defendant was motivated by racial animus and used his social-media accounts to threaten and intimidate a potential candidate for elective office,” U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen, of the Western District of Virginia, said in a statement. “Although the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to broadcast hateful views online, it does not give license to threats of violence or bodily harm.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/white-supremacists-threats-led-black-charlottesville-candidate-to-drop-out-of-race-feds-say/ar-AAHwKJf?ocid=spartandhp