Radio Host Quits DC Job Over 'Electronic Lynching'

Conservative talk radio host Joyce Kaufman has resigned as newly-elected Florida Rep. Allen West’s chief of staff, after her controversial statements made her the center of a media firestorm—and a school scare. Rachel Maddow ran a piece this week criticizing West for hiring Kaufman, airing a clip of a speech she’d given this summer, in which she declared, “If ballots don’t work, then bullets will.” She has also been accused of advocating the hanging of illegal immigrants.

The media scrutiny allegedly inspired someone to send Kaufman an email threatening to carry out a mass shooting in Broward County schools, the Miami Herald reports. The schools were shut down, affecting 230,00 students. The incident brought even more attention to Kaufman, who resigned on her radio show, accusing the media of using her to get to West. “I will not be used in an electronic lynching by proxy,” she told her listeners. (More Joyce Kaufman stories.)