Being a queynte is no excuse to threaten to kill someone. And if someone threatened my life, I would certainly not feel any shame in "cowardly" backing out. This is totally aside from agreeing or disagreeing with what he did. I too think it is not the right thing to do, and I certainly wouldn't stop to help this dude change a flat tire, but death threats?
This is where it gets complicated.
I don't condone death threats. The thing is, at some point, people are going to have to pay for their sins. Peaceful resistance only lasts so long before it becomes a violent revolution. What someone like Trump and the GOP did with the new tax law pisses people off, but they can hide behind their "ideology" as an excuse.
It's a lot harder for Pai to hide behind anything. There isn't anyone who isn't an internet service provider who is happy with what he did, so it's really not shocking that he's going to have made enemies. Once you have enemies, you risk them being irrational.
It is cowardly for him not to appear. It's not like security won't be high and every person/bag checked. I'm certain that this is a bullshit excuse because of the backlash he received when the announcement came. The original announcement was from another member of his administration, and she was very specific that it was due to "scheduling conflicts." He doesn't want to have to answer questions.
We're talking about a guy who had his administration literally use the identities of
dead people to submit comments in favor of his plan. freak him.