So this is what happens when you attach a possible terrorist threat against a school to a radio personality with no issues stirring the pot.
Joyce Kaufman, whose statements at a rally are suspected of being the cause of a threat Wednesday that forced Broward County Schools to lockdown every campus, fired back at critics Thursday with an on-air tirade worthy of her title of shock jock.
While addressing the issue on her morning radio show on 850 WFTL, Kaufman called Wednesday's terrorist-like threat an "electronic lynching" of newly-elected Congressman Allen West, a black Republican who pulled off an upset victory over Democrat Ron Klein for a U.S. Congress seat.
"He is going to be under perpetual attack. This is today's attack or yesterday's attack, and there will be more attacks in his future and you know, he and I knew that," she said. "I will not be used in an electronic lynching by proxy. The insanity of using a Hispanic woman to lynch a black American Army hero elected to Congress. Lynching by proxy."
The strong words will likely fan the flames even further as West heads to Washington D.C. West had asked Kaufman to become his chief of staff, a move that immediately drew national attention. Kaufman turned down the invitation, she announced Thursday.
But politics turned into harsh reality when someone called into Kaufman's radio station and said there was a plot to shoot up a school. An e-mail sent to the station also mentioned an attack on a school, which quickly escalated the situation into an emergency terrorist threat.
Authorities believe the threat was born, in part, from Kaufman's words at a July 4 rally that "if ballots don't work, bullets will."
Police said they have questioned a person of interest, but that person has not been cooperative.
West called into Kaufman's radio show Thursday afternoon and threw his support behind his friend, the Miami Herald reported.
"I'm even more commited, even more focused on making sure that this liberal, progressive, socialist agenda, this leftwing vile, vicious, despicable machine that is out there is soundly brought to its knees," he said.
