The Jan. 6 methods. Progressives are deploying a mix of incendiary rhetoric, procedural extremism and mob assemblies to try to intimidate their targets — echoing the Trumpist tactics of last year.
In his infamous Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse, Trump menaced Congress and directed his supporters to march on the Capitol. In then-Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s March 2020 speech to a progressive crowd in front of the Supreme Court, the New York Democrat was even more explicitly threatening: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
The leak of Alito’s draft opinion resulted in an escalating left-wing pressure campaign against the conservative justices. Mobs have assembled outside some of their homes in recent weeks, in violation of a federal statute protecting judges and juries from such targeted interference. The presence of those mobs was blessed by the White House.
The toleration of unlawful assemblies attracts criminality. We saw that on Jan. 6, as violent groups operated within the pro-Trump protest to force their way into the Capitol. And we saw it on Wednesday, when, according to the Justice Department, an armed and apparently disturbed man appeared outside Kavanaugh’s house. He has been charged with attempting to murder the justice. While some members of the mob on Jan. 6 screamed about murdering Vice President Mike Pence, no one has been charged with having that intent.
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