The Republican National Committee has poured money into swamping House Democrats’ offices with anti-impeachment phone calls in recent weeks. This isn’t your standard campaign of sending an email urging supporters to call. It’s not just about pressuring lawmakers, either.
“The fact that the calls to congressional offices, estimated to number 11,000, were partly intended to jam the phone lines of House Democrats—potentially thwarting access to government offices—was described at a recent dinner of more than a dozen Republican aides, advisers and elected officials, known as the ‘Off the Record’ dinner,”The New York Times reports. “Officials with the Republican National Committee told others at the dinner about the calls, suggesting they were automated and indicating that the aim was to tie up the phones in Democratic offices, according to two people briefed on what was said.”
The RNC used a vendor to “survey” voters, then offered the strongly anti-impeachment voters the opportunity to be patched through to their House member’s office. That’s part of a broader effort including scripts handed out at Trump rallies, texts, and more.
Getting people to call their representatives to express their opinions is a good thing. Doing so with the express intention of jamming phone lines is … a very Republican thing, anyway.