Former Democratic Primary Candidate Leaves Colorado After Receiving Death Threats

Saira Rao, who challenged Diana DeGette in the recent Democratic primary election in the 1^st Congressional District, has left Colorado temporarily after receiving death threats. Rao, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, retweeted a New York Times op-ed from April titled “Should I Give Up On White People?” She commented, “Short and long answer: YES.”

Rao says she has received threats through social media after the tweet was picked up by various news outlets.

“Michael Harriet from the Root picked up the story and then next thing you know Breitbart and the Daily Caller pick up the story and then the death threats ensue, and so that’s where we are right now. Just because I tweeted a New York Times article. So that should give you a sense of how deep and wide white supremacy runs, is that a brown woman tweets an article about white supremacy and I get chased out of Colorado.”

Rao says she has been attacked on line by people in the Republican and Democratic party, which she says proves her point that racism exists across all party lines.

“White supremacy runs deep in both parties, look at what’s happening to Maxine Waters right now. Maxine Waters is calling for good Americans to stop serving people in the Trump administration at restaurants and in buses, and instead of having her back, what do Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer do? They call her unacceptable, they call her un-american, they put a big target on her back. She got tons of death threats for saying that and instead of protecting her and supporting her, they threw her under the bus. That by the way is white supremacy, what they are engaging in is white supremacy, so I see no difference between the parties.”

Rao says she will return to Colorado in several weeks but will continue to speak out against white supremacy and racism.

Listen to the interview with Saira Rao:

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