Is it any wonder why Americans no longer trust the media?
A writer at the left-wing news website The Intercept has repeatedly tweeted in favor of “destroying Trump ballots,” highlighting the bias of the outlet and the mainstream media, despite their constant claims of neutrality and objectivity.
The tweets were made by Jon Schwarz, who has been published at other mainstream outlets such as the New York Times and The Atlantic. He says he previously worked at Michael Moore’s Dog Eat Dog Films, including in the role of “a research producer for Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story.”
“He’s contributed to many publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and Slate, as well as NPR and ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Schwarz’s bio also claims.
His Twitter feed is filled with calls for the destruction of Trump ballots going all the way back to the 2016 race.
In one 2016 tweet, for example, Schwarz responded to a user who insisted he visited a voting site “to fake IDs & assist in ferrying illegals from polling station to polling station,” by writing “let’s not rest on our laurels though, everyone’s needed in Wisconsin to destroy Trump ballots during the recount” in December of that year.
Schwarz also reacted to a Huffington Post editor tweeting: “i love my job working at a voting site in washington dc destroying trump ballots,” which prompted a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe, by insisting he “want[ed] to emphasize to the FBI that, while @nickbaumann was joking, I was completely serious. I am not kidding.”
In another post also in reference to the Huffington Post editor’s predicament, Schwarz claimed he has “destroyed 1000s of ballots.”
Furthermore, he stated that he felt “at least 75% of the MSM, including me, has a side job destroying Trump ballots” just days ahead of the 2016 election.
“When you love something as much as we love destroying Trump ballots, you make the time,” he added as a follow-up tweet on November 1.
In another tweet, The Intercept writer said that “lots more people want him to be president but that’s why we destroy the ballots, otherwise wouldn’t bother.”
Schwarz later said that “the constitution says you can destroy trump ballots.”
More recently, Schwarz shared an article entitled “The Election Isn’t Over Until Trump’s Gone,” which furthers the suggestions made by groups such as the Transition Integrity Project, which calls for “street fights” if President Trump wins.
The tensions surrounding this heated election have been compounded by mail -in voting due to COVID-19. The widespread use of mail-in ballots has fueled fears of election fraud and will likely result in a contested election that may take weeks to resolve.
Over the weekend in Miami-Dade, Florida, four dozen mail-in ballots were found undelivered. Six were completed ballots and 42 were blank ballots.
“The investigation is ongoing and is being closely coordinated with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure all delayed mail has been properly handled and delivered,” said Scott Pierce, special agent in charge of the Postal Service’s inspector general’s office in South Florida.
“I have requested that all postal distribution centers be audited and any and all ballots that may remain in these centers be immediately transported to the Department of Elections,” Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade’s state attorney, said in a statement. County election officials received the six completed ballots and are contacting the remaining 24 voters to help them get their ballots returned by the 7 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
Interfering with citizens’ votes is no laughing matter. It’s illegal and a subversion of our republican system. And if someone jokes repeatedly about the same thing, they’re probably being serious about it.
