A House Democrat and former impeachment manager during the second proceedings against Donald Trump last year has described reaching a “tipping point” regarding death threats he has received, including from an alleged Joe Rogan listener.
Eric Swalwell told fellow congressman and Democrat National Committee chairman Jamie Harrison in a podcast on Friday how he began calling out his attackers – and was surprised by what he heard back – after reaching a “kind of tipping point”.
The Democrat said of his abusers, one of whom he revealed in December had cited being influenced by Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and Mr Rogan: “I’m not going to let you just threaten to kill me”.
Mr Swalwell said on Friday he began “asking, you know, people on social media to help me identify these people so that perhaps I could shine a light on who they are. And, and most importantly, protect my family.”
He said a man told him that “everything he learned about me and everything that fired him up about me, he heard from Tucker Carlson”, as well as under-fire podcast host Joe Rogan – as the congressman first revealed in December.
“It just shows that you have a lot of lonely people who are easily radicalised and you have people like Tucker Carlson and others who just aim their vitriol at these people, knowing that they’re going to turn and project their anger at lawmakers,” said Mr Swalwell.
He told Mr Harrison, the host of the Welcome To The Party podcast: “So that I thought, you know what, I’m going to start fighting back a little bit publicly to show what these threats are.”
“And what’s interesting is...These guys back down. And also I have noticed fewer threats come in. Once people realise that you may become famous for the threat that you make to me,” Mr Swalwell said.
The Democrat originally revealed his conversation with the man who called for him to be hung on Twitter in December, in a now-viral thread which identified the Fox News anchor and podcast host as alleged causes of anger.
“Meet Jeremy Marshall, who told me he was radicalised by Tucker Carlson,” wrote Mr Swalwell in December, which included allegations that Rogan – the host of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast – was “probably the most influential” to his abuser.
The podcaster has been forced to delete a number of episodes for racial slurs and misinformation following a backlash over the past week, with Spotify describing remarks made by Mr Rogan as offensive.
It has however defended his right to speak on the platform, with which he reportedly has a $100m deal.
Mr Swalwell added during the We The Party podcast that an end to violent rhetoric “has to come from the top. It has to be both parties leaders saying we don’t do that.”
“We’re not a country that resolves its differences through violence. We resolve it through ideas and the ultimate arbitrary at the ballot box,” he added, in an apparent attack on Republicans.
According to the Democrat, a number of individuals have been arrested for threatening him online, including some who “have already been convicted” and “one’s going to get sentenced and a couple of days down in Florida”.
