There are certain Congress members who look like they are about that life. All of “the Squad,” aka the A-Team, look like they can fight. They all look like they just finished telling someone, “I’m getting tired of people playing with my money.” On the other hand, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) does not. He looks like he knows how to hide and work a cellphone.
Using looks and moxie as the only determining factors, I don’t understand why anyone would ever want to mess with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile. He’s a strongly worded, say-what-I-mean type who grew up in Brooklyn.
So it’s probably better for the California man who was arrested Tuesday and charged with sending threatening messages to relatives of Jeffries that police identified him before Jeffries did.
From Politico:
Robert Lemke was arrested in Northern California after reportedly sending menacing text messages about the 2020 presidential election to the congressman’s brother and sister-in-law, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in New York. The complaint, which did not name Jeffries, said Lemke included a picture of a house in their neighborhood.
“Your brother is putting your entire family at risk with his lies and other words. We are armed and nearby your house,” one of the messages read, according to the complaint. “You had better have a word with him. We are not far from his either. Your words have consequences. Stop telling lies; Biden did not win, he will not be president.”
The messages were sent on the same day that Trump sycophants stormed the Capitol. On Tuesday, Jeffries told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes during an appearance on the network that he was the lawmaker mentioned in the complaint. According to Jeffries, his brother started getting the alarming messages as armed crazies were storming the Capitol and Congress members were being evacuated.
“What was chilling in the message that was received is that this individual said, ‘Stop telling lies. Biden did not win. He will not be president,’” Jeffries told Hayes. “And so he was radicalized by the big lie that Donald Trump told and that has been supported by so many Republicans in the House and the Senate.”
Another one of Jeffries’ New York-based relatives also got a threatening message from Lemke.
“Words are putting you and your family at risk,” the message said, according to the complaint. “We are nearby armed and ready. Thousands of us are active/retired law enforcement, military, etc. That’s how we do it.”
Lemke was arrested in Bay Point, Calif., and “was charged with making threatening interstate communications, which can carry up to a five-year prison sentence,” Politico reports.
“Rather than peaceably disagree, Lemke allegedly threatened to harm those individuals’ families, demanding they retract their statements,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in the release viewed by the news site. “The electoral process is the essential mechanism through which our democracy functions. While in any election it is inevitable that some will be disappointed in the result, threats of violence cannot and will not be tolerated.”
Lemke claimed on social media to be a former law enforcement officer but that could all be a lie as a study by me—which consists of reading internet stories about people who believe the election was stolen–shows that these kinds of people believe themselves to have some affiliation with cops. Also, these were the people in high school voted most likely to dress up to reenact the Civil War.
“There is very false information on social media that a Robert Lemke worked for the Alameda County Sheriff,” the department said, Politico notes. “This information has proven to be untrue by the FBI and our agency.”
And there you have it, I’m right again.