On Saturday, a lone gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, shooting him in the ear at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.
In the wake of the assassination attempt, Chaya Raichik, whose account @LibsOfTikTok has over 3 million followers on X, has been on a furious posting bender, sharing screenshots of people on social media making comments about how they wished Trump had been killed.
Raichik herself is no stranger to violent online threats, as posts of hers have been accused of inspiring more than 20 bomb threats across the country.
One of Raichik’s posts focused on Allison Scott, an Ardmore, Oklahoma high school teacher who left a comment saying that she would pay the shooter for attempting to assassinate Trump and that she wished he “had a better scope.”
“Meet Alison Scott, a teacher at @Ardmore_Tigers. She appears sad the sh**ter missed and ‘wishes’ he had a better scope,” Raichik tweeted yesterday. “These are the people educating your kids.”
Raichik’s tweet caught the attention of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, who appointed Raichik to Oklahoma’s Library Media Review Committee in January.
Walters is a rising star in the Republican party who recently mandated that the state’s public schools teach the Bible and appointed Heritage Foundation and PragerU higher-ups to Oklahoma’s social studies standards Executive Review committee.
Walters called Scott’s comment “unacceptable” and said the State’s Department of Education was “investigating” her.
“We will not allow teachers to cheer on violence against @realDonaldTrump,” Walters tweeted yesterday.
Scott’s employer, Ardmore High School, also released a statement yesterday saying the school was aware of Scott’s comment and had begun a “thorough and swift investigation into the matter.”
“Ardmore City Schools strongly condemns acts of physical violence and any words that seek to encourage it,” the statement said. “No matter their target.”
The investigation appeared to be swift. Walters announced in a tweet that he plans to take Scott’s teaching certificate.
“I have investigated it enough,” Walters tweeted. “She will no longer be teaching in Oklahoma.”
“Twitter is great because state officials will just breezily admit to retaliating against public employees for exercising their First Amendment rights,” joked one poster in response.
Since Trump was shot on Saturday, Raichik has shared personal information about more than 50 people who posted online wishing that Trump had been fatally wounded. Subjects of her tweets include teachers, professors, nurses, doctors, and retail and service industry workers. She’s posted comments from Facebook, LinkedIn, and even NextDoor.
“I’ve officially dedicated ALL OF LIBS OF TIKTOK’S RESOURCES towards exposing these people to the world,” Raichik wrote in a blog post yesterday. “BELIEVE ME: THEY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY SOCIETY.”
As a result of her tweets, the subjects have been fired, suspended, and investigated at their jobs.
But not all Raichik’s followers are on board with her crusade: She received some backlash for posting about private citizens’ commenting on Trump.
“This cancelation campaign is getting really old really fast,” a right-wing, self-described “free speech absolutist” tweeted concerning Raichik’s post about an anti-Trump Facebook comment left by a local government employee in Washington. “People don’t need to be fired for every stupid thing they say on the internet.”
One particular post sparked strong outrage after Raichik shared a video from a person who went to Home Depot to confront an employee they say posted about Trump. Home Depot replied to Raichik’s post, announcing the employee had been let go.
“It is not a good thing to celebrate getting minimum wage customer service workers fired for saying mean things online. I hope you stop this,” wrote one conservative influencer.
“I get going after professors who have an influence on molding America’s youth, but some lady at Home Depot? Come on…,” said another.
One person even worried that Raichik’s recent posts could undermine her track record of exposing queer educators.
“You’re at risk of completely negating all the positive work you’ve done with this deeply misguided cancelation campaign,” they tweeted in response to her.
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