Philly-Area Republican Official “Swatted” After Endorsing Kamala Harris on CNN
A tip claimed that he had locked a girl in a closet and was pointing a gun at his girlfriend's head.
Montgomery County Republican official Matt McCaffery with members of the Upper Merion Police Department. This was shortly after he endorsed Kamala Harris on CNN (Image courtesy of Matt McCaffery)
Check phillymag.com each morning Monday through Thursday for the latest edition of Philly Today. And if you have a news tip for our hardworking Philly Mag reporters, please direct it here. You can also use that form to send us reader mail. We love reader mail!
Philly-Area Republican Official Matt McCaffery “Swatted” After Endorsing Kamala Harris on CNN
At 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Montgomery County Republican leader Matt McCaffery appeared on CNN. He explained why he’ll be voting for Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump in November. He provided some of the same reasons he couldn’t vote for Trump that he wrote about in an Inquirer op-ed in July. Less than eight hours after the CNN interview aired, officers from the Upper Merion Police Department were pounding on McCaffery’s door. They had their guns drawn.
According to the Upper Merion Police Department, McCaffery was the victim of the trend of “swatting.” That’s when someone files a false report with police in order to get cops — sometimes the SWAT team — to show up. Swatting incidents can turn deadly.
Just before 10:30 p.m. on Friday, somebody sent a message from the Proton email service, which specializes in assuring anonymity, to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and other Montgomery County officials including, according to McCaffery, his supervisors on the Montgomery County Republican Committee where he leads the Upper Merion section. The email, which I’ve reviewed, read as follows:
My boyfriend has locked my daughter in the closet and he’s now got a gun to my head, forcing me to withdraw all my money to him. Please send help.
The sender finished the email by including the address of the home in Upper Merion Township that McCaffery shares with his wife and teenage daughter. Someone on the receiving end of that message called the Upper Merion Township Police Department, confirms police captain Jeremy Johnson, who adds that the cops reviewed the email itself before arriving at McCaffery’s home.
When he heard somebody pounding on the door just as Friday was about to turn into Saturday, McCaffery immediately thought to check his Ring cameras and saw it was the police. “My wife was terrified,” McCaffery told me on Monday morning. “But I knew right away what was happening. This was swatting.”
Here’s a video from one of his Ring cameras:
McCaffery says he told the responding officers from the start about his suspicion of being swatted. Some officers waited with him while others searched the home.
Swatted Republican Matt McCaffery
“I had a couple of M-4s pointed at me,” says McCaffery, who served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, referring to the military-style assault rifle frequently used by SWAT teams. “So it was an interesting night.”
Police completed their search. Naturally, nobody had a gun to anyone’s head. There was no one in a closet.
Captain Johnson says police are investigating who might have sent the email and suggests the sender could face, at the very least, a charge of filing a false report with a law enforcement agency. He admits that the sender could be pretty much anywhere in the world. Then again, would somebody in the middle of nowhere in, say, Alabama think to email the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office specifically — in addition to McCaffery’s supervisors?
As for McCaffery, he expects he’ll no longer be a Republican leader by Tuesday. He’s been accused of violating party by-laws with his Inquirer op-ed. There’s a 6 p.m. hearing on Monday night to decide his fate. “I’ll be removed from office,” he predicts. “It’s a kangaroo court.”
From the Department of Good Questions
What happens if Pennsylvania’s governor steps down? That’s the question being asked and answered by Spotlight PA in this helpful explainer that comes on the heels of speculation that Shapiro could wind up with a cushy cabinet position in a Kamala Harris White House.
By the Numbers
100 percent: Amount of public buildings in Montgomery County that now have free menstruation products available in all bathrooms. Somebody cue the protesters.
$4.85 million: The selling price of the most expensive home sold in Philadelphia so far this year. But the most expensive home in the greater Philadelphia region, which, for real estate purposes, includes the Wilmington, Delaware, area, sold for $18 million. That’s more than triple the price of the second most expensive home to sell this year. That one was in Coatesville. Sure, you saved some money with the Coatesville move. But keep in mind that Delaware has no sales tax.
17: The number of water rescues lifeguards in Ventnor City made on Sunday. Maybe just fly a kite instead until things calm down.
Local Talent
If you need to get in touch with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker or Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro this week, may I suggest you get yourself to Chicago? Both leaders have headed to the Democratic National Convention.
