The Washington Post ran a story on Saturday profiling in detail the man who threatened to harm Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the reasons he chose to do so.
Joseph Morelli was sentenced to three months in prison in late 2023 after calling Greene’s office in March 2022 multiple times and leaving a series of threats over voicemail, warning that he may come unhinged if he stopped taking his medication. These included a threat to show her “what violence truly is,” that he was “gonna have to hurt [Greene] physically,” and that he could “pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack [Greene’s] skull,” according to a Department of Justice press release from August 2023. The FBI investigated the case after being altered to the threats, and Morelli was subsequently arrested and convicted.
The Post interviewed Morelli — now out of prison — and painted a picture of a man who acted the way he did because of his disheartening life circumstances and negative perception of Greene. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: WaPo Harasses Veteran’s Wife After He Refused To Engage On Alleged Hit Piece Against GOP Candidate)
COLUMBUS, GEORGIA – JUNE 10: Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks during his remarks at the Georgia state GOP convention at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center on June 10, 2023 in Columbus, Georgia. On Friday, former President Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 felony counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents probe.
“What had made March 3, 2022 a different kind of day?” reads the Post story. “Maybe it was the [electroconvulsive therapy]. Maybe it was timing, the mania and depression coming together in his brain. Maybe Greene was ‘the worst person at the worst time to cross my path,’ he says. Maybe he needed to ‘be heard,’ he says, and the threat had been an expression of his loneliness and regrets. If he still spoke to his children, if his mom were still alive, if he still worked full time, if he hadn’t been watching so much TV news, if the news wasn’t about a country where so many people were making so many threats, maybe that night would have been different.”
Morelli said he was “manic” but “clear and focused” the day he called Greene’s office and issued threats in March 2022, the Post story reads. Morelli felt “untouchable, like he could jump from a building and land on his feet.”
Morelli had made the threats to Greene after seeing a campaign ad on TV depicting her firing a .50-caliber sniper at a Toyota Prius with the word “SOCIALISM” plastered on the side of the car, explaining she was “going to blow away the Democrats’ socialist agenda,” according to the Post. This angered Morelli, who was suffering from mania and depression.
“A few things Morelli hated about that ad: He had especially disliked Greene ever since he saw a video of her heckling a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, outside the Capitol in 2019,” the Post story reads. “He also hated guns, like the one she had pointed at the word “SOCIALISM.” Then there were times when Morelli hated himself, and his connection to that word, because he relied on disability benefits, which he considered to be a form of socialism, one he believed in, but one that had been a source of some shame, too.”
Morelli is now under parole and living by himself in New York, according to the Post. He no longer feels “angry,” and doesn’t see himself as someone who would “freak out about little shit,” the Post story asserts.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, to 99 percent of people, I’m an extremely polite, sweet guy,” Morelli told the Post. “In ordinary life, it takes a lot to get me upset.”
“He takes a sip of coffee. He gets up from the couch, opens the back door, and for now, at least, as he leaves the apartment, he feels no anger. He is a stone in a lake, gently and slowly floating,” the story ends.
The Post and Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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