Trump shares wrong number for Michigan lawmaker
A 28-year-old Michigan native was napping on Sunday when they were suddenly awakened by a barrage of rings, pings and buzzes coming from their cellphone.
“I was scared,” said O Rose, who uses they/them pronouns and asked to withhold their full first name for safety reasons. “I thought I got doxed.”
In a way, Rose was doxed — but not purposefully. The source was the Trump campaign, which shared her number with 4.6million followers on Twitter and Facebook.
On Sunday, the campaign asked supporters to call two Michigan state lawmakers and demand a vote to decertify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in a state he won by more than 150,000 votes. The campaign posted numbers and emails for Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R, and former Michigan House speaker Lee Chatfield, R.
Not only did the post, which President Donald Trump also reshared to more than 35 million followers on his own Facebook page, falsely identify Chatfield as the current speaker, it also gave the wrong number for the former lawmaker.
Instead, that number belongs to Rose.
Since midday on Sunday, Rose, a Petoskey, native whose story was first reported by the Petoskey News-Review, said they have received thousands of angry and threatening calls and text messages from people all over the country.
“My phone can’t even take it anymore — it’s breaking,” Rose, who now lives in California, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I was getting so many calls it was impossible to do anything with my phone.”