‘You’re Gonna Die, You Piece of Sh*t’: CNN Airs Profanity-Filled Segment on Death Threats to Public Officials

CNN anchor Jake Tapper featured a segment on Thursday’s episode of The Lead that dove into more than 500 federal cases of death threats made to people who worked in government, including election officials and members of Congress. The threats were made in voicemails and contained some harsh language filled with curses – and CNN aired most of the content uncensored.

The report by senior national correspondent Kyung Lah centered on the people who made the threats, including one Iowa man who is about to serve a federal prison sentence for the threats he made to an official in Arizona after the 2020 election. CNN played the message he sent to Clint Hickman, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors:

Hello, Mr. Hickman. You’re going to die, you piece of shit. We’re going to hang you.

Another threatening voicemail from a different caller sent to Hickman was even more graphic:

Hey, Clint, you fucking liar. You goddamn CCP, butt-rimming piece of shit. Pile of shit. You fucking Great Reset corrupt politician.

But the point of Lah’s report was that the barrage of similar threats made to people in positions like Hickman was scaring people off from working to help make elections safer and more secure. Hickman said:

I’m just a public servant and representative that has the audacity to take part in running fair and clean elections. And if law enforcement can catch him, I’m absolutely there to see people to go to jail because I’m worried about our election workers.

The other messages played were equally profane:

“We’re going to fucking hang you, traitor.”
“Give ’em a fucking Alabama necktie, you piece of shit.”
“You piece of shit.”
“I will take a bullet to your fucking head if you fuck with my rights anymore.”
“Tell [Rep.] Matt Gaetz to watch his back. Tell him to watch his children. He’s going to fucking die.”
“When we come to lynch your stupid, lying commie ass.”

And this is what made the air!

Lah reported that “one in five election workers signaled they wanted to quit after the midterms. More than half worried about their safety.”

Watch the video above via CNN.