Fox viewers and readers have left more than 100 hateful and threatening voicemail messages for Washington Community Action Network staffers after the election.
Fox viewers and readers have left more than 100 hateful and threatening voicemail messages for Washington Community Action Network staffers after the election. 360b/Shutterstock

A local social justice nonprofit has received dozens of hateful voicemail messages—some of them threatening—from Trump supporters after posting a Craigslist job ad for organizers.

The Washington Community Action Network (Washington CAN!), based in Seattle and Spokane, has tackled issues affecting low-income communities since the 1970s. Today, the organization's work largely focuses on expanding poor folks' access to healthcare, lobbying for immigrant rights at the state level, and fighting against corporate loopholes in the state budget.

But when Washington CAN! posted a Craigslist ad for organizers two days after the election, Fox News took notice.

According to Washington CAN organizer Xochitl Maykovich, the phone calls first started rolling in when the Sean Hannity Show drew viewers' attention to the ad with the headline, "Leftists Already Putting Out Ads For 'Full-Time Activists' To Fight Trump." Staffers weren't prepared for what happened next. A day later, Fox News ran a poorly sourced and wildly presumptive story about astroturfing at anti-Trump protests, and used Washington CAN!'s unrelated ad as evidence to back up their claims.

Here's a sample:

Others claimed to have found ads posted on CraigsList in which a Seattle-based non-profit was soliciting “Full-Time Activists.”

“We are looking for motivated individuals who are seeking Full-Time, Part-Time, and Permanent positions,” reads a line from the ad from Washington CAN! posted on Wednesday.

Rumors have also been circulating that the new batch of anti-Trump protesters has been bankrolled by individuals like billionaire liberal activist George Soros and groups like Moveon.org.

"You get a lot of people calling thinking that we're paying protesters, and we're actually hiring for organizers," Maykovich said. "We do Get Out the Vote work with our field, we door knock for low-propensity voters in heavily people of color precincts to talk to them about voting and to answer questions about the ballot process. Community organizers go into the community to find folks and develop them into leaders."

Several callers responding to the Fox News stories have left voicemail messages threatening the lives of Washington CAN! staffers. "I hope you all die in the fucking protests," one caller said. "I'll kill for Donald Trump in America," another said. "I'll kill for our president."

Another: "You want to ride, motherfucker, is that what you want? We got our second amendment here, bitch."

Others have left messages full of racial and sexist slurs. "I'm inquiring about the full-time position in the Craigslist ad," one caller said. "I'm looking for a full-time position of pussy grabbing. Haha, you motherfuckers. Trump won, bitch."

As of today, Washington CAN! has received more than a hundred similar voicemail messages.

"The good thing is that, a couple of times, whenever we have conversations with these Trump supporters, we're like, 'Hey, we want universal healthcare, they're like, 'Hey, we kind of want that, too," Maykovich said. "I think the thing that this is kind of showing me is that people are coming with a lot of assumptions, and we need to make sure we're not doing the same thing. We're trying to have actual conversations with people, so we're clearing out our voicemail boxes and talking to people if they'll talk to us."

You can donate to Washington CAN! here.