🧩 BND Motif Index · M255
Intimidation
Threats, harassment, or pressure are used to frighten people or institutions into compliance or silence.
📜 Plots🗂️ Who rules🗂️ Coercion and Intimidation🗂️ Political violence🗂️ Abuse of power
- 26claims filed under it
- 6left shows it came up on
- 1center show it came up on
- 7right shows it came up on
- 15claims retold online
- 1fact-checker
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
⤵️ under it: 🧩 Political coercion 🧩 Lawfare 🧩 Ballot security 🧩 White powder 🧩 Shame if something happened to it 🧩 Chilling effect
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Crush dissent
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 6
🎙️ Pod Save America 🎙️ Strict Scrutiny 🎙️ The Bulwark Podcast 🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ The MeidasTouch Podcast 🎙️ Today, Explained
⚖️ center 1
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
📰 In the news
the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)
- 📰 DOJ warns California election officials of legal risks for counting suspected noncitizen ballots 2026-10-18
- 📰 Obama criticizes Trump administration's investigation of Ilhan Omar 2026-10-19 to 2026-10-21
- 📰 Suspicious substances sent to congressional and election offices nationwide 2026-10-15 to 2026-10-18
- 📰 Federal investigators question Ilhan Omar's sister 2026-10-12 to 2026-10-22
- 📰 El-Sayed confronts fox host over Muslim Brotherhood questions during interview 2026-10-22 to 2026-10-25
- 📰 Rep. Ilhan Omar faces expulsion calls over name and marriage allegations 2026-10-21 to 2026-10-26
- 📰 Democrats sue Trump administration over voter roll efforts 2026-10-22
- 📰 ICE agents shoot man in New York City 2026-10-08 to 2026-10-12
- 📰 DOJ charges 28 noncitizens in California voter fraud case 2026-10-19 to 2026-10-22
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-27 “Election volunteer training has shifted from addressing private citizens to preparing for intimidation by the DHS, DOJ, ICE, or the military.” 🔎 Snopes
- 2026-10-26 “Mike Rogers intends to use off-duty police officers as poll walkers to intimidate voters.”
🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ Strict Scrutiny - 2026-10-25 “Donald Trump and his administration are attempting to subvert midterm elections through thuggish intimidation of election officials and voters.”
🎙️ Bannon's War Room 🎙️ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton 🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ Forum (KQED) 🎙️ Today, Explained 🎙️ Pod Save America 🎙️ The MeidasTouch Podcast - 2026-10-24 “Immigrant communities feel a paralyzing fear of government officials hunting them down.”
🎙️ Bannon's War Room - 2026-10-24 “Paige Adamson died because fears of being detained by ICE prevented her from seeking medical care.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-23 “Rep. Ilhan Omar will move out of her D.C. home because a federal raid was designed to intimidate her and make her feel unsafe.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-23 “DHS field operations use flawed data to target legal voters and intimidate them.”
🎙️ Bannon's War Room 🎙️ Forum (KQED) 🎙️ Pod Save America - 2026-10-23 “Elon Musk has been threatening people with jail.”
🎙️ The Bulwark Podcast - 2026-10-22 “Mike Rogers wants to use retired or off-duty police officers as poll watchers to intimidate voters in Detroit.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-22 “Senator Elissa Slotkin wants to deter young people from working for the Trump administration through the threat of prosecution.”
🎙️ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton 🎙️ Verdict with Ted Cruz 🎙️ The Megyn Kelly Show 🎙️ Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words - 2026-10-22 “Democrats are suing the Trump administration for allegedly using intimidation and unlawful pressure to interfere with the midterm elections.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-21 “The Trump administration is using immigration investigations to intimidate Rep. Ilhan Omar and strip her of her citizenship.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-21 “Donald Trump is attempting to intimidate Ilhan Omar before the midterm elections.”
🎙️ The Megyn Kelly Show - 2026-10-21 “Alyssa Slotkin intends to use the law to intimidate people from working in a Trump administration.”
🎙️ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton - 2026-10-21 “Elissa Slotkin's actions violate the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments.”
🎙️ The Michael Berry Show - 2026-10-20 “The Trump administration's arrests of noncitizen voters in California are a scare tactic to intimidate voters before the midterms, not about election fraud.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-19 “Barack Obama condemned the Trump administration's investigation into Ilhan Omar as an attempt to intimidate and deport her.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-18 “The Trump administration is threatening to jail California election officials over unproven claims about noncitizen voters.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-16 “Authorities are investigating letters containing suspicious substances mailed to congressional and election offices.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-15 “A Republican legislator is attempting to bully a reporter and deflect from political issues by claiming he knows the law because he is a legislator.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-12 “Violent threats against elected officials have become a new normal, impacting their private lives and ability to serve.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-09 “ICE's 45-day blitz in California, timed with mail ballots, is meant to scare voters away from the polls.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-06 “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating pediatricians for allegedly conspiring to push parents into vaccinating their children, with critics calling it a politically motivated crackdown on medical professionals.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-06 “The White House used the FBI to target parents who were protesting at school board meetings.”
🎙️ The Jesse Kelly Show - 2026-10-05 “Justice Alito claims there is a 'concerted effort' to intimidate the Supreme Court.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-05 “The woman at the center of the Cornell rape allegations has received multiple threats, according to her lawyer.” 🧶 people online
M255 · first seen 2026-10-05 · last 2026-10-27 · what this is · how the index works