August 5, 2009: Democrat Receives ‘Serious’ Death Threat over Health Care Reform Support

Democratic Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) says that his office has received a very credible and disturbing death threat over his support for the Obama administration’s health care reform proposals. Miller, unlike many of his colleagues, has not scheduled any “town hall” events to discuss health care reform with his constituents (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009). “We have received a threatening phone call in the DC office, there have been calls to the Raleigh office,” says Miller’s communications director, LuAnn Canipe. “The call to the DC office was, ‘Miller could lose his life over this,’” she says. “Our staffer took it so seriously, he confirmed what the guy was saying. He said, ‘Sir is that a threat?’ and at that time our staffer was getting the phone number off caller ID and turning it over to the Capitol Police.” Canipe says the police have not yet reported back to them what, if anything, they have found. She says Miller was not planning on holding any town hall meetings anyway, and would not schedule any now: “Our point is, we’re not gonna be bullied into having a town hall so it can then be interrupted by the fake grassroots folks.… We don’t want to people to think we’re shutting out our constituents. We’re meeting with them one on one to discuss health care reform.” [TPMDC, 8/5/2009; MSNBC, 8/13/2009] Afterwards, Miller expounds on his reasoning for not desiring to hold town hall meetings during the remainder of the summer recess: there is, he says, “a lynch-mob mentality out there. There is an ugliness to it.” [MSNBC, 8/7/2009]