Someone is having an extremely normal one.
Ocean City Sentinel guest contributor John McCall left a death threat this year for Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, according to voicemail audio released this week by the GOP lawmaker.
McCall also authored at least two articles this year fantasizing about Van Drew being physically attacked, his home sacked, and his wife sexually assaulted.
“I would swear to your demise as a politician, and I believe that you personally are a degenerate,” McCall said in the Feb. 28 voicemail.
He adds, “As a member of the New Jersey Press Association, I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are deposed if not dead. Anything I can do to basically get you out of office, I will do. You are a traitor Jeff Van Drew, and you deserve the fate of all traitors.”
However, one slight wrinkle in this story is that the New Jersey Press Association told a local news station this week, “John McCall is not and has never been a member of NJPA, as the Association does not have individual journalist members.”
Then again, the columnist lying about his associations would be the least weird thing about this story.
In January, McCall authored an article wherein he accused Van Drew of treason, adding that the appropriate punishment for such persons is execution.
“Like all Trump loyalists,” the columnist wrote, “Van Drew [is] guilty of subverting the peaceful and equitable functioning of our government. This is not just a moral failing. This is treason. And the penalty for treason is execution.”
He adds, “Should conscientious critics take a cue from the armed Republican rioters, storm [Van Drew’s] house, smash everything, violate his family, and walk away laughing? … As democratic defenders of the Republic, facing enemies with no respect for our electoral process or the truth, we are forced to ponder Thomas Jefferson’s grim directive that, for the good of our nation, the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and traitors.”
Later, in March, after Van Drew had notified law enforcement officials of the threatening Feb. 28 voicemail, McCall defended himself, claiming the message was retaliation for the lawmaker’s “own countless intrusions into our home by email and phone touting the anti-American agenda of his fellow Republican extremists and the disgraced, deposed traitor Donald Trump.”
In reference to the infamous “Access Hollywood” video, the columnist then suggested Van Drew’s wife should be sexually assaulted.
“Van Drew’s mentor has said it’s cool to greet women by grabbing them between the legs,” McCall writes. “Should we test the acceptability of this remark and get the direct response of a prominent GOP female by greeting Van Drew’s wife with the Republican high-five, lifting her over the hood of her car and objectively recording her physical reaction to the tickle when she lands?”
He adds, “As a traitor, he has forfeit his right to protection under the law. Know this V.D.: It doesn’t stop here. … God save you.”
Van Drew held a press conference this week denouncing McCall. The Republican legislator also called on the Ocean City Sentinel to get its house in order.
“For far too long, calls for violence have gone unchallenged,” said Van Drew, “but today, right here in Cape May County, we are drawing a line in the sand. You can come after me with loud words and threats, but if anyone, let alone a member of the press, thinks they can threaten my wife and my family, they’ve got another thing coming.”
Cape May County Sheriff Bob Nolan, who joined Van Drew for the press conference, said his department is taking the matter seriously.
“As sheriff, it is my sworn duty to ensure the safety of everyone who lives in, works in, or visits Cape May County,” said Nolan. “Congressman Van Drew didn’t offer himself or his family up for public service to be a target of threats or violence by anyone, let alone a newspaper columnist.”
Following the presser, Ocean City Sentinel editor and publisher David Nahan issued a public apology, conceding McCall’s March column may have crossed the line. However, Nahan has declined to retract the article, providing the added context that McCall is an unpaid guest columnist.
“Because you felt threatened and felt your wife was threatened, I am sorry,” Nahan said in a statement. “There are no two ways about that. I blame that on my judgment. I knew in advance that the guest column was vitriolic and highly critical of you and your support for the former president.”
He adds, “The way it was written, I do not believe it contains any threats of harm because if I did, I would not have allowed it to appear in my newspaper.”
One truism of the Trump-era is this: The fiercest critics of Trumpism tend to be every bit as bad, if not worse, as the very thing they oppose.
