Bomb threats hit several schools in Springfield, Ohio, today amid the racist misinformation campaign targeting the community and its immigrants. This comes one day after Springfield's City Hall was forced to evacuate over a bomb threat explicitly tied to the viral lie, a hateful falsehood Donald Trump and prominent Republicans have heavily promoted.
At this point, I don't care to explain, and therefore repeat, the lie at the center of all this hideousness; it is vicious, false, and racist. But these threats, and particularly the GOP's gleeful embrace of a blatant lie, are tormenting real families and leaving an entire community terrified. That it all started with obscure, random Facebook posts and spread wildly throughout the Republican Party and eventually the presidential debate stage is utterly shocking and depressing.
Wish I had a more cheerful note to end the week on. But at the moment, I'm also listening to Trump's press conference, where he is feigning ignorance over Laura Loomer—one of the vilest characters on the far right, who has been accompanying Trump in his travel this week—and the cheer is just not in me.
—Inae Oh