NEW: Michigan’s Dem AG to Skip Her Own Party’s State Convention Out of Fear For Her Safety

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) said during a roundtable discussion on anti-Semitism on Thursday that she would not go to her own party’s state convention next month over fears for her safety.

“I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed,” Nessel told the group, according to local reporting.

Michigan Advance’s Katherine Dailey reported that Nessel added, “I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”

Dailey reported that during the conversation, Nessel, who is Jewish, also told the group she had asked party leaders to address past harassment at the state party convention:

She criticized party leadership for not responding to concerns she said she has raised about members who have harassed her in the past, and compared the rise of antisemitism on the political left and in the Democratic Party to the proliferation of neo-Nazi organizations in far-right fringe politics.

Nessel’s stunning remarks and boycott of her own party’s convention come amid a heated Democratic Party primary in the state, pitting progressive Abdul El-Sayed against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in a contest that many pundits see as a bellwether for whether or not the Democratic establishment can stop the rising tide of Democratic Socialists.

“I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan, that some things have changed,” Nessel added, concluding, “This cannot continue, and the fact of the matter is, we have to be able to be a society where we can have intelligent discourse and debate about ideas without people being threatened, and certainly without people carrying out those threats.”

Derrick Honeyman, a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party, told Michigan Advance that the party is working hard at “ensuring party-hosted events are safe and secure environments for all attendees.”

“We reject antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hateful conduct. We are working diligently with stakeholders, elected officials, and party membership to prepare for our August convention and look forward to welcoming Michigan Democrats to the Lansing Center on August 29,” Honeyman added.

__

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!