On Wednesday’s evening news broadcasts, ABC was the only network to report on new threats delegates were allegedly facing from Trump supporters. Delegates from Colorado and Indiana complained to the media that they had been receiving death threats aimed at themselves and their families. While NBC did a full report on the GOP race and Trump’s complaints about the system, CBS did a short brief on the race and both networks failed to mention the death threats like ABC did.
ABC's GOP race coverage began with anchor David Muir reporting, “ [T]onight, new allegations that delegates for the convention are now getting death threats from Trump supporters. Those delegates, of course, could make or break Trump in the end.”
Correspondent Tom Llamas continued the report, highlighting that the race had took “a dark turn” as delegates allegedly received threats from Trump supporters. Llamas talked with Steve House, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and Tom John, the Indiana GOP’s 7th District Committee Chairman who reiterated the kind of threats they received.
TOM LLAMAS: Tonight, the chairman of the Colorado Republican party tells ABC news he's been flooded with 3,000 angry phone calls, including, he says, death threats.
STEVE HOUSE: And he said, I need you to do me a favor. Get your gun, put it in your mouth, pull the trigger, I'll call you back in two minutes. If you can't do that, I'm going to send someone over to the house and help you.
LLAMAS: It's not just Colorado. A number of Indiana delegates tell us they, too, are getting threats from Trump supporters.
TOM JOHN: Very spooky, very personal, referencing things about my family.
LLAMAS: One e-mail saying, quote, "Think before you take a step down the wrong path," warning of, quote, "A future in hiding."
John was one of several delegates who allegedly received these threats after making unfavorable comments about Trump to Politico. The Trump campaign in Indiana denounced the threats.
"They're deplorable and we condemn any kind of act of intimidation or any kind of threat. There's no place for that in politics," Trump Indiana co-chairman Tony Samuel told CNN.
Llamas also brought up Trump confidante Roger Stone’s previously reported threat to track down delegates in their hotel rooms and urge them to vote for Trump, a story also ignored by the other two networks.
NBC spent about two minutes devoted to the GOP race without mentioning the death threat allegations, CBS only gave a short general brief to the presidential race as a whole and also did not mention this story.
Instead, NBC focused on Trump’s “open war” with “the GOP itself” after calling the election system “rigged.” Correspondent Katy Tur reiterated the days old report of Trump blasting the RNC and Reince Priebus’ response to Trump on Twitter, denying that any changes to the rules have been made. While Tur’s report ended by noting that 71 delegates were “up for grabs” in Pennsylvania, she did not mention that delegates, and their families, across the country, who have been allegedly receiving death threats from Trump supporters.
