A former Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health repeatedly tweeted that Senator Josh Hawley deserved to be “skinned alive and rolled in salt” for challenging the integrity of the 202 election.
The violent threats come in response to Hawley leading efforts to object to the certification of the Electoral College and mainstream media smearing him as inciting the small amount of violence that occurred at the Capitol.
On January 7th, one day after the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” march, Gitlin tweeted “once again” that “Hawley deserves to be skinned alive and rolled in salt.”
Once again for the morning crowd: Hawley deserves to be skinned alive and rolled in salt. https://t.co/zrQG8oNCaA
— Jonathan Gitlin (@drgitlin) January 7, 2021
The tweet – in direct response to a tweet chastising Hawley for challenging election fraud – followed a January 6th tweet professing a similar, violent sentiment:
Nah, I stand by that earlier deleted tweet. Hawley does deserve to be skinned alive and dropped in a bucket of salt.
— Jonathan Gitlin (@drgitlin) January 7, 2021
Gitlin, a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Kentucky and current Automotive Editor for Ars Technica, worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over six years.
From 2009 to 2015, he served as a Senior Policy Analyst at NIH – the parent organization for high profile doctors like Anthony Fauci.
NIH, which employs 6,000 research scientists and has a multi-billion dollar budget, is taxpayer-funded as it operates under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Fauci, a mainstream media favorite who helped shape President Trump’s COVID-19 response, has led the NIH’s Institue of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIIAD) since 1984.
Therefore, Fauci was at the helm of one NIH’s leading bodies at the time of Gitlin’s hiring and, perhaps, a recipient of his advice, given Gitin’s senior role at the institute.
