A reporter says he discovered the person who made the CNN-WWE video that President Trump tweeted over the weekend — and now he’s paying the price.
Jared Yates Sexton took to Twitter on Monday to detail threats that have been made against him.
Sexton, a journalist who teaches at Georgia Southern University, reported on Sunday that a Reddit user named “HanAssholeSolo” created the video that Trump tweeted. The same user also created an image identifying all of CNN’s Jewish employees.
Sexton started his 17-tweet description of what has taken place since he identified “HanAssholeSolo” by writing, “I’d like to give a little insight into what it’s like being a journalist in 2017 and why Trump’s rhetoric is incredibly dangerous.”
Sexton calls other work by “HanAssholeSolo” as being “obviously racist” and said, “I was told people wanted to shoot, strangle me, hang me, throw me out of a helicopter.”
He continued: “This environment we have right now is volatile. Some of these threats are empty, but people who are unwell consume this stuff… This shouldn’t be a country where these violent instincts are cultivated and encouraged. We’re at a real tipping point right now.”
He concluded by writing, “There’s something growing in this country, and it is very, very ugly.”
Trump continued his run of bizarre Twitter behavior on Sunday, tweeting a right-wing video meme that imagined himself body-slamming and pummeling a man with a CNN logo for a head.
The footage — a grainy mirror image of a scene from a 2007 WrestleMania stunt involving Trump and WWE CEO Vince McMahon — shows a pink-tie-wearing Trump jumping a suited figure on the side of a wrestling ring, tossing him to the ground and then punching him in the face before walking away in triumph.
Check out Sexton’s full story:
I'd like to give a little insight into what it's like being a journalist in 2017 and why Trump's rhetoric is incredibly dangerous 1/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Yesterday I broke the news that the guy who made Trump's CNN gif also created an antisemitic meme and was obviously racist. 2/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
In the wake of that, I received numerous threats. I was told people wanted to shoot, strangle me, hang me, throw me out of a helicopter 3/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Some assumed I was Jewish because I spoke out against antisemitism, others said I was a race-traitor. Got it on both sides. 4/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Now articles are showing up on Neo-Nazi websites, there are videos spliced with Goebbels telling me not to test his patience 5/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Now articles are showing up on Neo-Nazi websites, there are videos spliced with Goebbels telling me not to test his patience 5/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
That one also has footage from Natural Born Killers of a journalist being executed by shotgun. 6/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
On forums, under my tweets, there's a list of excerpts from newspaper articles about journalists being slaughter, the details gory. 7/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Meanwhile, people are claiming I'm making up the threats and then immediately threatening me. In the same message. 8/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Over on Facebook I'm getting messages from strangers about "goyim" and talking about what happened to Jews in the 40's. 9/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
This environment is the creation of the man in the White House. There are valid criticisms of the media, many on point, this isn't that 10/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
When you start calling a group of people enemies of the country, this is what happens. When you call them scum, this happens. 11/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
This is what happens when you have Alex Jones calling mainstream media pedophiles and Satan worshippers, and threatening to crush them. 12/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
This environment we have right now is volatile. Some of these threats are empty, but people who are unwell consume this stuff. 13/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
Even as I'm typing this I'm getting antisemitic memes and messages. It's happening in realtime. 14/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
And everyone keeps bringing up the shooting in Virginia. In a way, they're right. That's what happens in this environment. 15/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
This shouldn't be a country where these violent instincts are cultivated and encouraged. We're at a real tipping point right now. 16/
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017
But make no mistake, there's something growing in this country, and it is very, very ugly. 17/17
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 3, 2017