QAnon-Style Threats Made Against Mayoral Candidate Todd Gloria
Some “citizen,” motivated by a Republican/QAnon misinformation campaign promoted by Carl DeMaio’s Reform California group and aired on TV Station KUSI, sent the image on the left of collage to Mayoral candidate Todd Gloria this week.
The Gloria campaign sent out the following release yesterday, and I'm concerned that it’s not being treated seriously:
“Since KUSI and Carl DeMaio started knowingly misinforming voters about SB 145 in an effort to support my opponent, I have received multiple messages threatening physical violence. After receiving one last night brandishing a gun, it is clear that my campaign team and I must take this seriously. As such, we have reported the threats to the San Diego Police Department, and they are currently investigating.
“While I refuse to let this paralyze our campaign, voters deserve to know that this is what Barbara Bry’s campaign is inspiring. Her campaign is bringing out the worst of who we are. We are so much better than this, and San Diegans should hold her and her campaign accountable this November.”
Barbara Bry has refused to denounce the homophobic rhetoric or blatant misinformation incited by KUSI or Carl DeMaio. Yesterday, KUSI President/General Manager Michael McKinnon and Martha McKinnon both maxed out to Bry’s campaign, per campaign finance disclosures filed two days ago.
While Mayoral candidate Barbara Bry’s campaign has distanced itself from the vile texts being sent (by DeMaio’s PAC) to voters, it has thus far refused to denounce the content of the campaign, namely that Gloria is pro-pedophile.
These texts refer to SB 145, passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, which cleaned up statutory language concerning judicial discretion in sex offender cases.
Sponsored by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, SB 145 has now been morphed into a lie claiming California has legalized pedophilia.
Here are fact checks explaining what SB 145 really does:
CBS8 | USA Today | Reuters | LA Times | Snopes | Politifact
QAnon is a conspiracy cult based around the premise that a cabal of establishment types are kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and killing children to obtain a hormone that keeps them young.
In 2016, an individual discharged an assault rifle inside a Washington DC restaurant, saying he’s come to free children being kept captive on orders from Hillary Clinton.
Adherents to the cult believe President Trump is planning a day of reckoning known as "The Storm", when thousands of members of the cabal will be arrested.
Threats from QAnon followers are often associated with various right wing social media campaigns. Members of the California legislature requested additional protection in 2019 and 2020 based on threats they received.
An example of the connections, via Wikipedia:
In July 2020, Business Insider reported that according to Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media monitoring group, Trump's reelection campaign relied on a network of QAnon-related accounts to spread disinformation and propaganda on social media, especially Twitter. An analysis of 380,000 tweets sent between early April and the end of May 2020, and another of the most popular words used by 1,000 accounts, showed that the QAnon network "is playing a key role in generating and spreading Trump's propaganda.”
The Washington Post reported at the beginning of August 2020 that adverts for Trump's campaign had shown images of supporters with prominent QAnon merchandise. Thousands of comments on YouTube saw these details as signs of victory.
Facebook and other social media platforms have finally banned the group, although the damage has been done. The FBI has identified the group as a domestic terrorism threat.
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