by
Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell, who was fed up with Washington and chose not to run for a third U.S. House term last fall, says the White House threatened him after he after criticizing President Trump's election fraud fantasy.
"I stepped away from the Repubican Party when I saw leadership after the election failing to address responsibly the outcome of the election," the Saginaw-area congressional retiree said Sunday morning on WDIV's "Flashpoint." "I belive this was a path that was going to a bad place."
"I put out a tweet at one point that said '#stopthestupid.'
"I won’t get into the details, but I will share with you that I got a call from a senior person in the White House ... that I didn’t understand and threatening me."
When host Devin Scillian pressed him on the threat, the 64-year-old said the senior official indictated they would use "any and all information to blow me out of the water."
He said he responded by telling them "to go pound sand. I'm putting that politely."
He said the White House's style is that "if they don't get their way they will threaten people" and put them at political risk.
Mitchell, who is becoming an Independent, fired off a letter after the election to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, criticizing the party for going along with Trump's nonconcession.
“It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a Third World nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote,” his letter said.
“This party has to stand up for democracy first for our Constitution first, and not political considerations,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper in December, “not simply for raw political power. And that’s what I feel is going on, and I’ve had enough.”
