A Pennsylvania Democrat running for a state House seat called 911 after being assaulted at his home, in what he says is the third time in two weeks he’s had to call the police due to incidents at his home.
“A candidate running for a state House seat called 911 Monday morning after being assaulted at his Fayette County home in what would be the third time in two weeks he has had to call police to his residence,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported just days before the midterms.
“Democrat Richard Ringer said he was bloodied and knocked unconscious by an attacker in his backyard around 5 a.m.”
“A guy was standing with his back to me. I went and bear-hugged him, wrestled, ended up on the ground,” said Mr. Ringer, 69, who is running in a contested race for the open 51st House District seat against Republican Charity Grimm Krupa. “He was larger than I am and he pinned me down on my left side. … He hit me 10 to 12 times in the head, in the face and by the eye and he knocked me out.”
Their report was originally posted on October 31, but reads November 1.
Ringer is a Democrat who was a former reporter for the New York Times, Uniontown mayor and Journalism professor. He is running for a seat being vacated by the Republican due to his being arrested for driving under the influence. Republicans replaced state Rep. Matthew Dowling with attorney Charity Grimm Krupa on the ballot.
CBS News confirmed that the state police are investigating. They report, “He (Ringer) does believe it was targeted. The Democratic Party of Fayette County calls the alleged attack despicable. ”
“I personally believe it was political, I truly do,” party chairperson George Rattay told CBS. “What happened to Nancy Pelosi’s husband happened to one of our candidates.”
Authoritarian expert and author of Strongmen (which everyone should read) Ruth Ben-Ghiat advised above a tweet of this story: “This is what authoritarians do. They beat up opposition candidates, hoping they will be too afraid to run. This is how you ‘win’ elections when you can’t prevail in the popular vote: you use violence to clear the field of the competition.”
A challenge of reporting the rise in violence and threats is that it can dampen turnout and create more fear, which is what the terrorists want.
So here’s a reminder sent to CBS from the Pennsylvania Department of State that they and the federal government are on this and they will do their best to keep this election safe and they’ve been trained by the Department of Justice task force and the Department of Homeland Security on identifying and mitigating threats:
“The safety of voters and election workers is a priority. The Department of State takes any reports of intimidation or threats very seriously and will report all threats to the appropriate authorities to thoroughly investigate any allegation brought before them. While we cannot share the details of specific reports of threats, the Department of Justice task force, through the FBI field offices, has shared intelligence, provided training resources on identifying and mitigating threats, and has been responsive to reports received from the department and county officials. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also worked directly with Pennsylvania counties to conduct risk and vulnerability assessments to identify opportunities for counties to enhance their physical and network security posture.”
Ben-Ghiat continued with what is absolutely necessary advice, even though it’s the last thing you want to do: “Please send this to GOP voters you know and ask them if they approve of violence against members of another political party. Frame it as q of freedom and individualism. If they answer yes, ask them WHY. Have discussions w/GOP-voting friends and family using this as a prompt.”
Her advice is important, because our media isn’t doing the job of calling out this terrorism nor are they willing to try to deradicalize this entire terror cell by holding Republican leadership accountable for their depraved lack of decency.
The fact is that the overwhelming amount of murders by extremists come from the right-wing. So while it’s important to note the rise in threats and violence, it’s also important to be specific about where the majority of it is coming from – and that is from the right.
Republicans have endorsed political win by terrorism and violence, to replace elections.
People who refuse to tell their base the truth about the 2020 election, who mock and make light of the savage attack on Paul Pelosi, and who are currently threatening and intimidating voters aren’t doing so because they feel they can win at the ballot box.
They do these things because they know if everyone votes, they lose.
The election is November 8th. Make sure you vote.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
