Fearing for her life, Iowa Democrat abandons race to unseat GOP Rep. Steve King

[womanofthehills]

THIS IS BAD - THREATS OF MURDER AND "RECENT EVENTS AT MY HOME"

The Democratic candidate running against anti-immigrant Republican Congressman Steve King (IA) announced Saturday that she is dropping out of the race for her own safety.

In a Facebook post published Saturday night, Kim Weaver wrote, “Over the last several weeks, I have been evaluating personal circumstances along with the political climate regarding this campaign. After much deliberation, I have determined that the best decision for me is to withdraw my candidacy for the US House race in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.”

She explained that beginning during her 2016 campaign, she has been receiving threats of physical violence and murder, and said that “recent events at my home” were forcing her to re-evaluate her decision to run against King.

“While some may say enduring threats are just a part of running for office, my personal safety has increasingly become a concern,” Weaver said.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/fearing-for-her-life-iowa-democrat-abandons-race-to-unseat-gop-rep-steve-king/

[pbmus]

1. Holy shit ... Iowa....

[emulatorloo]

4. Steve King supporters are insane.

Not all Iowans are like that. But doesn't surprise me coming from King folks.

[LonePirate]

30. And I am sure he never once called on them to stop.

[NastyRiffraff]

64. Steve King is insane

No wonder his supporters are drawn to him. I'll bet he won't say a damn word about it either.

[burrowowl]

2. Scary!!!!

[kimbutgar]

3. GOP gangsters of politics

Sadly no one in the Iowa GOP will speak out against the threats, King included. Shows you how Iowa's GOP gone so low they are scum with no integrity whatsoever. Shame on king for allowing this and not speaking out. The coward couldn't deal with a legitimate opponent.

King is trash imo.

[emulatorloo]

5. King's probably bragging about it to his cronies

[caraher]

66. King is claiming she is lying about the threats

He said he wants to run against her.

[IndianaDave]

13. King is amazingly ignorant, bigoted, illogical and cowardly.

In other words, he is a proud member of the Republican party!

[Bettie]

47. Definitely not "fringe" he's

their mainstream these days.

[still_one]

6. I really hope the FBI has been called into this

[shenmue]

7. Yes

[bresue]

19. I tweeted to Scott Dworkin

He seems to know the right channels...maybe he will report it.

[still_one]

26. Thanks

[global1]

8. So This Is What's It's Come To.....nt

[still_one]

9. With all the outrage over kathy griffin and bill maher, I wonder if at least as much outrage will

be expressed over this by the media

[gratuitous]

10. Bwahahahahahaha!

Good one. Wait . . . were you being serious?

[still_one]

11. Hmmmmm

[dchill]

12. Exactly.

[superpatriotman]

44. Good point

Our stupid outrage at our friends is misguided and a huge waste of moral energy.

There are plenty of truly evil enemies and bogeymen to fight with.

Where, oh where is the DCCC on this? And the DNC?

Crickets.

[still_one]

45. Your point regarding where is the DNC is a good question. I will qualilfy that by saying because

we are not aware of it doesn't mean they are not involving themselves, and it just isn't getting covered by the press. I don't know. But if they aren't, they certainly should be, as should the FBI and law enforcement.

As for Maher and Griffin, my point was that the media should be covering this at the very minimum as much as they are covering Maher and Griffin.

[jazzcat23]

14. We need tougher candidates!

If this is all it takes, are some threats, we will never get back control from these lunatics! This isn't the first time it's happened and since it appears to work, it won't be the last. Strap on your balls, girls! Don't back down, call for back-up and hang in there. Sue the bastards, whatever it takes...do not quit! We need to be tougher than they imagine...take no prisoners!

[Hekate]

16. Okay, you go do that yourself, jazzcat23. Then tell us how it feels to have yourself & family....

...threatened with physical violence up to and including murder.

Be sure to let us know how it feels up close and personal.

By the way, do you have any idea at all just how offensive your post is?

[montana_hazeleyes]

17. I so agree with you Hekate.

Also she mentioned recent events at her house. This has even gone beyond threats!

[jazzcat23]

76. Really

Does anyone know what those 'events' were? Was her house sabotaged, were her windows shot out? What? Lots of assumptions going on there.

[Leith]

21. I Was Wondering That, Too

How many of us could get anonymous threats to the lives of our families and just laugh it off? Maybe we "girls" don't need to strap on a pair as much as the thugs be turned over to law enforcement so that they learn how to act like civilized people?

[Hekate]

23. That is definitely the piece missing from this account: the police, legal accountability, protection

...and community support. Most of all, community support for what used to be community norms.

I'm disgusted that this town has not stood up to a pack of murderous thugs.

[smirkymonkey]

31. This is just so wrong I don't even know what to say.

It really angers and saddens me that a candidate can be driven out of a race because of threats of violence. What the hell is wrong with people in this country? Actually, what is wrong with the right-wing in this country? They are a sick group of people!

[KingCharlemagne]

42. The pigs in Iowa support the fascists. Only reliable protection will be community-based. - nt

[SergeStorms]

25. If you're waiting......

for Republicans to act like "civilized people" we'll never have another Democratic Representative or Senator elected again. Just sayin', you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Republicans WILL NEVER learn how to 'play nice'.

[jazzcat23]

77. Who said I'm laughing Leith???

I already said I've been there, I've dealt with threats and violence and murder. Have you?

[Leith]

79. Don't Attack an Ally

I never said that you were laughing. In fact, I wasn't replying to your post at all. Would you prefer the verbs "ignore" or "shrug off?"

Yes, I have been in the situation where a guy in a ski mask pointed a gun at me. Probably not enough to join the club, though.

[jazzcat23]

80. OOps

then you have my sincere apology! (You can use whatever verbs you like) Just having a gut reaction...my bad.

[DFW]

24. This is not the Netherlands

"Ordinary" people in the States have guns all over the place, and no one really pays any attention to who is a nut case and who isn't until after the murders and the "who knew?" wailing of those who knew all too well. When nut cases threaten violence and they are armed to the teeth, one can't dismiss every threat as idle.

[mnhtnbb]

33. Gabrielle Giffords would agree, I suspect.

[DFW]

34. Gabby was always in favor of gun ownership rights, but within sensible limits

Even after she was shot, and she formed her PAC with Mark, she made sure it included the words "Responsible Solutions," meaning she was for common sense licensing, but she never liked the words "restrictions." Where she comes from, it was an uphill battle anyway, getting elected to the House as a Democrat, and she had lived out there all her life.

I knew her for several years before she was shot, and it was heartbreaking to see what the injury did to her. I was afraid that it might have affected her memory, but that fear was unfounded. We had been at the same New Year's Eve party 7 days before she was shot, and I thought she was gone. But when I saw her two years later, she recognized me immediately and grabbed me for one of her famous hugs (her slogan before she was shot was "I don't do handshakes, I do hugs&quot .

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

I HATED it when she resigned from the House, although I knew she had to.

[angrychair]

54. Republicans in Congress

Would cheer for the shooter and not for the courage of Giffords in republican45's America.

[Initech]

58. It really sucks that we live in a world where death threats are the new normal.

This should not be normal.

[jazzcat23]

75. Actually, no...

why is it offensive? I speak the plain truth. We cannot keep running away from these people, who want to try to intimidate us. There's a reason we have protections in place, (police?) and candidates also have plenty of back-up if they want or need it. Besides, they should already be aware of what may happen because they are putting themselves out there for scrutiny and whatever comes with that. And Hekate, I've already been there...up close and personal. I've lost a family member to violence. I deal with threats every day. Wanna know how that feels? It's scary, true, but I am not going to become a prisoner in my home because 'someone might get me', I'm not going to run away to a "safer" place...there's nowhere that's really safe anymore. I'm not giving up my life out of fear of what may happen (or not) at any given time. We can't do that or we seriously lose our future. You keep your head in the sand if you like, but I'm going to fight.

[Jacquette]

78. It could have been phrased better but the sentiment is correct.

What if Lincoln, JFK, Johnson, King or Gandhi had the attitude: Gee this is getting tough. Better haul ass.

We have to confront them or we'll be living in some dystopian combination of 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. It's going to get worse. Much worse. If/when DT and the rest of the Gop cabal goes down? It will tear this country apart. Black against white, boomers against millenials, Christian against Muslim, citizens against illegals, male against female and the old faithful...liberal against conservative. It's already bubbling just under the surface, ready to explode.

[msongs]

18. let us hope another candidate or two step up for the seat or the nazis win nt

[SergeStorms]

27. They've already won.......

by scaring off the original contender, it will only embolden the crazies to intimidate any future candidates. They've won, and they now know how to defeat any other candidate without casting a single ballot.

[FBaggins]

35. Not really. This was actually good news for those opposing King

She was far from the ideal candidate. She lost to him in November by 20+ points... and that was before stories came out that she used to scam people as a "psychic".

Of course that wouldn't excuse any of her claimed treatment, but we needed a new candidate if we were going to unseat King.

[NCjack]

43. Apparently, she's not psychic, or she would have known that this run wouldn't work. nt

[Hekate]

57. Brilliant case of victim blaming. "She was far from ideal"--but SHE STEPPED UP ...

...and was threatened with the Gabby Giffords solution. Great, you and jazzcat just find the ideal Dem candidate who isn't afraid of death.

[FBaggins]

60. That's ridiculous nonsense

I didn't "blame" her. I just disagreed with SergeStorms' contention that this was a victory for King and his backers.

"SHE STEPPED UP"

And lost badly... now she "stepped down" - which is good news for people who want to beat King.

[Hekate]

61. Who ya got? Some rootin' tootin' open carry gun totin' NRA member who says he's a Democrat?

[FBaggins]

73. I have to have someone in mind?

I think I can oppose a scam artist without picking a replacement a year early.

Why not ask her who it should be? I'm sure that someone on the other side can tell her.

[SergeStorms]

29. Well, I agree with you, jazzcat23.

The minute we let these bastards intimidate us into turning tail and running, it only emboldens them to continue the same behavior in Iowa, and also to spread the same intimidation elsewhere. Ask for state sponsored security. They shouldn't be able to refuse you. Once this starts it will never stop. Potential candidates must think about this BEFORE deciding to run, not during. This woman wasn't prepared for the monsters she'd come up against, and make no mistake, Republicans HAVE BECOME MONSTERS!

[treestar]

51. I have to agree

We can't let them get away with this.

[tblue37]

53. We don't know everything that happened to her and her family. nt

[mythology]

67. Sexist nonsense from an internet tough guy or lady

It's easy to say this when it's not your family being threatened. Sure maybe 99 out of 100 of these threats are baseless, but the one that isn't is terrifying. Perhaps you should find the intestinal fortitude to go run for office there. Show everybody how it's done.

[Salviati]

15. Make no mistake, the people making these threats are terrorists.

If our federal government weren't so dysfunctional, the feds should be tracking them down and throwing them in prison for a long time.

[rockfordfile]

20. Yes they are right-wing terrorist.

[womanofthehills]

32. Unfortunately this is also happenening to a DNC woman staffer - Alexandra Chapula(exposing Manifort)

This article is from January 2017.

About a month-and-a-half after Chalupa first started receiving hacking alerts, someone broke into her car outside the Northwest Washington home where she lives with her husband and three young daughters, she said. They “rampaged it, basically, but didn’t take anything valuable — left money, sunglasses, $1,200 worth of golf clubs,” she said, explaining she didn’t file a police report after that incident because she didn’t connect it to her research and the hacking.

But by the time a similar vehicle break-in occurred involving two family cars, she was convinced that it was a Russia-linked intimidation campaign. The police report on the latter break-in noted that “both vehicles were unlocked by an unknown person and the interior was ransacked, with papers and the garage openers scattered throughout the cars. Nothing was taken from the vehicles.”

Then, early in the morning on another day, a woman “wearing white flowers in her hair” tried to break into her family’s home at 1:30 a.m., Chalupa said. Shulyar told Chalupa that the mysterious incident bore some of the hallmarks of intimidation campaigns used against foreigners in Russia, according to Chalupa.

“This is something that they do to U.S. diplomats, they do it to Ukrainians. Like, this is how they operate. They break into people’s homes. They harass people. They’re theatrical about it,” Chalupa said. “They must have seen when I was writing to the DNC staff, outlining who Manafort was, pulling articles, saying why it was significant, and painting the bigger picture.”

Chalupa this month told Politico that, as her research and role in the election started becoming more public, she began receiving death threats, along with continued alerts of state-sp

onsored hacking. But she said, “None of this has scared me off.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446

and from NEWSWEEK - March 21, 2017

Yes, there had been an “attempted home break-in” last year, in her leafy, virtually crime-free neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C., as Politico’s Kenneth P. Vogel and David Stern reported in January. Her iPhone was hacked, too, and a death-metal track popular in Russia appeared on her playlist. Her car was broken into and trashed twice, with nothing stolen. The second time, the burglar left a red, traditional Ukrainian blouse draped across the back seat. She reported the incidents to the D.C. police and FBI, which by then had opened a counterintelligence investigation into Russian subversion. No arrests have been made.

More strange things have happened since, to her and some of her friends, that she’s not ready to go public about

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-comey-russia-stranger-things-571349

[Hekate]

59. Kicking this in hopes that everyone in this thread reads it. We've been skillfully invaded...

...and our home-grown thugs have been empowered and enabled by the Trojan Horse Mad King. This is absolutely sick.

[world wide wally]

22. He should be banned from running... Period

[democratisphere]

28. Great. Know candidates are going to succumb to death threats by deplorables of the right.

Deplorables are always going to shoot their mouths off and make threats. F'em and move forward, have no fear! drumpf has empowered the lowest form of scum of our nation.

[beachbum bob]

36. if threats is all it takes, every democratic candidate will get them,..so do we all run and hide?

If Weaver can't stand up for herself, no way she could stand up for her voters. Best she quits now and democrats find a candidate that doesn;t run away from the fire

[Blue_true]

49. Those were my thoughts also.

If thugs realize that they only have to threaten your family and maybe step on your lawn, that will become the standard for getting Democrats to quit races. I seriously question the rationale of will of the candidate that quit and am sure Democrats should be able to find a better candidate.

[LBM20]

37. Has she been reporting this to local police, state police, her AG's office, and the feds?

REPORT all this and have them investigate and prosecute. Don't just back down.

[dalton99a]

38. Sounds like King's thugs have broken into or vandalized her home

[Tommy_Carcetti]

39. Steve King is literally a white nationalist. He makes no apologies about it.

As such, the low quality of the people who are in support of him is sadly not surprising.

[DBoon]

50. yes this is how Nazis operate

and I mean Nazis quite literally

[onecent]

40. Something needs to be done about this. This isn't right and it's should be looked at by

someone.......Doesn't anyone what what the republicans are doing to the democrats????

[Historic NY]

41. Well she says after several week, of deciding, she also didn't want to

give up her government job or move. Perhaps another factor she lost to him last time by 22 points. As for threats she said she has had them in the past also from a March posting.


Above this, my personal health is an issue. In order to sufficiently devote myself to the campaign, I would have to quit my job and shift to campaigning full-time. With recent legislation on health insurance, I must admit that the possibility of seeking a new job after the election exposes too much of a risk for me in not being able to secure health insurance.

Most importantly, my mother lives in Des Moines and has been experiencing ongoing health issues. I feel that it’s necessary to be more available to support her. Considering this, along with the time and energy it takes to succeed as a candidate, I realize that I can’t fully commit to both.

With all this in mind, I have made the difficult decision to end my campaign, and to move out of the district and back to Des Moines where I grew up.

[Takket]

46. once again, our election process is tampered with

the concept that we have free and open elections in this country is absurd.

[YCHDT]

48. This is a text book example of terrorism but no mention from Donny 2 Scoops

[heaven05]

52. So far

hate is winning no matter what anyone says. Really must have gotten a scare. AmeriKKKan fascist have been empowered by the orange disaster in the WH.

[muntrv]

55. But...but there are no white American terrorists. Cheeto Jesus see so!

[Scurrilous]

56. K&R

[Sienna86]

62. House of Cards stuff

Sorry she withdrew.

[bora13]

63. if it were me

I would be out there defending my home like it was custer's last stand against these
ass clowns.
Quit?
Why live.

[7962]

65. Read the story, but there's no incidents mentioned. In any articles. Why not?

I looked up 3 other articles by local Tv & newspaper and nothing in those either.
No one should be threatened. But where are the threatening messages? What incident at her house? Police reports? This just doesnt sound right to me. She lost all but 1 county in the last race she ran against him, and she also caught a lot of flack for being an "internet psychic" whatever that is.
Yes, there are no doubt some idiot crazies out there, but when stories like this are posted, there really should be some proof of the allegations.

[SharonClark]

72. Agree 100%

[AlexSFCA]

68. The most important news!

This is the single most important news and it is not being covered. Steve King is an alt right hero and his suporters will stop at nothing. I completely understand Kim's decision. We just saw what happened in Portland, and the collosal rise of the formerly underground white supremacist movement is not only mainstream now but it is the direction of current administration. 2018 is looking more bleak day by day.

[Ligyron]

69. She shouldn't have done that.

You don't run from those people.

[moondust]

70. Someone borrowing from Putin?

Opposition can be hazardous to one's health.

If she has evidence I certainly hope she has turned the case over to the FBI.

[SharonClark]

71. This OP is over the top

Steve King is scum but Weaver should provide evidence instead of a vague statement about death threats among the several other reasons she gave. She sounds tired and overwhelmed by her personal and work life right now. She needs a break. She does not need progressives promoting her questionable conspiracy theories.

[spanone]

74. ...a dying democracy.