David French told MSNBC’s Morning Joe panel Tuesday that Donald Trump's campaign tried to intimidate his family following the speculation of his possible third-party run.
In an attempt to stop French from possibly running as a third-party candidate, one of the presumptive Republican Nominee's campaign operative's called offering veiled threats, French said.
French, a columnist for the National Review, called Trump’s attempt to intimidate him and his family "ham-handed."
"Did Trump operatives reach out to your family or you?" co-host Mika Brzezinski asked.
"My wife's family, yes," French said. "Well, you know, it was probably one of the more ham-handed attempts at intimidation, which out of the Trump operation you can expect things to be done in the incompetent way possible," French said.
Brzezinski asked what happened.
"An individual called and said, I'm sorry, but I've been asked by the Trump campaign to make sure that David knows this will be really, really, bad for him, which, you know, I actually learned about it after I made the decision [not to run]. I assumed if I did this, look, I have been up against Trump for some time and the assaults on my family have been overwhelming just as a writer," French said.
Trump, who has retweeted white supremacists more than once, has an online following that tends to be aggressive towards his opposition.
"As everyone knows, Trump has an online racist mob that he often stokes by retweeting some of these horrible white supremacists. That online racist mob is very fond of pointing out I have a multiracial family and they have gone after my youngest daughter in the worst way imaginable," he said.
Joe Scarborough reiterated with the question, "They've attacked you for having a multiracial family?"
"You have no idea. Threats. I've had neighbors who—this is months ago before I considered this, neighbors who were nervous there were going to be attacks in our neighborhood," French said. "He unlocked something terrible in this country."
Willie Geist then turned the conversation back to Trump's operative attempting to intimidate his family. He asked if someone from the campaign called his wife's family.
"They identified themselves as someone affiliated with the Trump campaign who had been told to call, you know, a member—they tracked down a member of my wife's family in Tennessee," French said.
Scarborough asked if French considered his a threat.
"I considered it a ham-handed effort to intimidate me," he said.