I couldn’t help but notice that Bloomberg reporter Elizabeth L.T. Moore, in her article “States bracing for social media-fueled election violence” (Aug. 20, Page A2), does her best to not identify where the threats of violence are coming from. She writes, “Narratives that drove the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection …,” without saying whose narrative it is.

Rudy Giuliani, shown in 2020, testified for several hours last week before a special grand jury in Atlanta as a target of an investigation into attempts by Donald Trump to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

The narrative belongs to Donald J. Trump Sr., and it belongs to the Republican Party members who have become his cult. They repeat his 2020 election lies, and lies about election workers, like alleging some Georgia election workers were “passing around USB ports (sic) as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine,” as Rudy Giuliani said. (By the way, those Georgia workers actually were passing around candy, not USB “ports.”) Or that they pulled a bunch of ballots out of a suitcase (which isn’t what happened). Those workers were threatened to the point of having to move out of their homes.

No, these threats to election workers didn’t spring up out of nowhere. They are driven by Trump, and his cultish followers, including those followers in Congress and followers running for Congress. Violence is a standard theme in these Republicans’ rhetoric. The sooner the media acknowledge who is responsible for these threats, the better.

Roger A. Smith
Portland