After the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, Second Congressional District Rep. Angie Craig and many of her Democratic colleagues knew that they would likely need to step up their personal security over fears of another attack. Soon after the attack, she started receiving increasingly personal threats to her and her family, including several death threats.
“A man left a voicemail saying that he was gonna sneak into my house and get me after January 6th,” Craig said. “I was told I was going to die if I voted to impeach President Trump. And really, one of the most recent ones was very specific: ‘I’m going to light your ass up. I will demonstrate in front of your house. I will be at your kid’s school, reminding them that you are a puke.’”
[image_caption]Rep. Angie Craig[/image_caption]
Craig isn’t the only member of Minnesota’s delegation that has been receiving threats, though. Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar has been at the receiving end of hate from elected officials in addition to random strangers.
Overall, threats to some members of Congress and the Capitol itself have increased substantially since January 6, and in some cases they seem to be getting more violent.
Capitol Police respond to increasing number of threats
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told the Associated Press in an interview that he expects authorities will have to respond to close to 9,000 threats against members of Congress on the Capitol grounds this year.
“We have never had the level of threats against members of Congress that we’re seeing today,” Manger told the AP. “Clearly, we’ve got a bigger job in terms of the protection aspect of our responsibilities, we’ve got a bigger job than we used to.”
In 2016, there were 902 investigated threats against members of Congress. By 2018, the Capitol Police Chief at the time, Steven Sund, testified that there were 4,894 threats against members. In May of this year, the Capitol Police said in a statement that “there has been a 107% increase in threats against Members compared to 2020” and that the force handled “approximately 9,000 cases” in 2020. Over 4,100 cases had been reported during the first three months of 2021.
Over the last year, the Capitol building has had to be evacuated several times, and Capitol Police officers have dealt with imminent physical threats, including one from a 49-year-old man from North Carolina who parked his truck on Capitol grounds in an active bomb threat. The man had frequently made pro-Trump posts and uploaded videos from Trump’s “Million MAGA March” on his Facebook page.
The Capitol Police have an annual budget of about $460 million. The force consists of about 2,300 officers and civilian employees to patrol the Capitol grounds and the people inside the building, including all the lawmakers and staff.
Historically, only a few members of Congress in leadership positions have received full-time protective details from the Capitol Police, including the House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, the House Speaker and the House and Senate whips. Members without such titles have sometimes received added protection, but only in response to specific concerns.
A few weeks after the January 6 attack, though, more than 30 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to House leaders Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy asking to use their congressional allowances to increase their personal safety in their home districts. The members asked to use the funds to hire local law enforcement or other security personnel in their home districts.
[image_credit]REUTERS/Leah Millis[/image_credit][image_caption]An explosion caused by a police munition is seen during the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6.[/image_caption]
‘Dangerous rhetoric’
For Craig and Omar, the blame for the increase in threats against Congress rests squarely with their Republican colleagues, both for their violent rhetoric and for Republican leaders’ failure to condemn violent statements from members of the party.
“We must not mince words about what happened on January 6th: It was a violent attempt to overturn our elections and overthrow our democracy,” Omar said. “We also have seen a direct correlation in dangerous rhetoric from the previous president and his sympathizers to credible threats made against local, state, and federal public officials. I myself receive near-constant death threats, hundreds of which have been reported to the authorities.”
The “dangerous rhetoric” Omar referred to extends beyond the days before January 6. This September, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert made public remarks in which she implied Omar, who is Muslim, is a terrorist. Amid a series of exchanges between the lawmakers about the remarks, Omar held a press conference during which she played a voicemail she had recently received that contained threats against her life following her fight with Boebert. The caller said, “You’re a fucking traitor. You will not live much longer, bitch.” Omar said her team receives many calls like this — “too many to count.”
When Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to condemn Boebert’s remarks, Omar called him a “liar and a coward.” When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about McCarthy’s refusal to acknowledge Boebert’s attack, Omar said that “he doesn’t have the ability to condemn the kind of bigoted Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric that are being trafficked by a member of his conference.”
[image_credit]REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz[/image_credit][image_caption]This September, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert made public remarks in which she implied Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim, is a terrorist.[/image_caption]
“We cannot normalize death threats against elected officials as just part of the political process,” Craig said. “I mean, this increase in threats and security threats against members of Congress, all elected officials, and it even extends to our families, from time to time. We have to have people in both political parties who speak out vehemently against this type of behavior.”
When Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar posted an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in November, House Democrats called the video a “clear threat to a lawmaker’s life,” something that wouldn’t be tolerated in any other workplace. The House voted soon after to censure Gosar in a vote almost entirely along party lines. All four of Minnesota’s Republican representatives voted against censuring Gosar. (None of the Republican members of the Minnesota delegation responded to requests for comment about this vote or about the concerns raised by Omar and Craig about violent rhetoric from Republican officials.)
“I’ve stayed relatively silent about it, but you know, that direct threat by issuing a video of one member of Congress killing another, that kind of rhetoric only leads to the public believing that that kind of behavior is okay,” Craig said. “And just as a country, we can’t normalize this type of behavior. We need people on both sides of the aisle to speak up and let their leadership know that, you know, this is not okay. And this can’t continue as a nation.”
Craig said that she and her Democratic colleagues speak often about the threats they receive and the uptick in dangerous messages they’ve fielded since January 6. But, she said, conversations like this with Republicans are few and far between.
“I’ve got Republican people who support me, and honestly, I need them,” Craig said. “I need the base of the Republican Party who would disagree with me vehemently over policy issues to stand up and call out their own leadership and their own party. And I need the Minnesota delegation in our state to say this is not okay. We can’t normalize it. Don’t let anyone in your party or normalize this because, you know, where does it end?”
The Minnesota delegation of Republicans is letting this disease grow. When the threats that members are now receiving become actual violence, the blood will be on the hands of the Republicans who remained silent.
Yes Tom the blood will be on their hands just as it has been in the past with January 6 and the other Republican-inspired neo-fascist uprisings. But Republicans will, as their history has shown, again lie, thwart, blame, and attempt to cast blame on the victims.
The moral and intellectual rot in conservatism is already fairly deep.
I had my first taste of this as a regular visitor to breitbart a few years ago. In the comments section calls for violence against Muslims, LGBT and others was not at all uncommon there.
More recently there was this public opinion poll result:
“Almost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to “save” the US, according to a new poll.
Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/01/republicans-violence-save-us-poll
Why is no one commenting on what appears to be a striking gender issue in all these threats?
The threatened public figures seem to be mostly, if not completely, female members of Congress (and other levels of government). There’s gender at issue even if male Congresspeople are threatened: those men at least are not willing to admit that they get threats. Why not? Is it considered cowardice in a male to admit that your office phones and social media accounts are full of threatening garbage from the right? Or does it just not happen very much to men?
We’re so used to seeing and analyzing things only along red-blue ideological divides, that the fact that it is women whose lives and families are routinely threatened is lost. There may also be a combination of gender and political ideology at work in the threats: Democratic women are threatened with death and other horrible maiming, but their Republican sisters, and most male politicians, are not threatened.
What would happen to the news coverage if this article, just to name one example, actually pointed out that it is right-wing or GOP-leaning men who are threatening Democratic women, but not GOP women? What would happen to the comments here, if we had to admit publicly that there is no “on the one hand, and on the other hand” blather. It’s the libertarian and conservative Trumpites and odd-ball conspiracy theorists, not the political left, that have turned to the ugliest of violence as their solution to everything. And it’s violence against females who dare to lead.
We need to hear from the men in Congress, and let them know that a “No Response” means they get no threats. And that they approve of vicious attacks on women.
You are absolutely right to see these violent threats as almost exclusively against women. It is the ages old power wielded by males against females and clear evidence of some men’s unwillingness to grow up. These current threats are merely the latest incarnation of that abusive legacy.
No response could mean no response. By not acknowledging threats, or ignoring them, there is no support given to those who seek to intimidate or influence elected officials. Never let the losers get the attention that they desire so desperately.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
There have been a few variations of the quote and attributed (or mis-attributed) to a few different people. But the validity cannot be ignored. Those who support this behavior are evil. And those who don’t support but stay silent are cowards.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
The definition of “good men” (and women) is the issue here.
One would hope the duly elected minority leader of the US Congress, Kevin McCarthy, would fall into that category. And his #2 man, Steve Scalise, the victim of a shooting inspired by political hate and the author of a subsequent book about it that prattled on endlessly about the need for pulling together in the face of hate would fit the category. And the #3, Elise Stefanik, maybe has empathy for her women colleagues in the face of these threats would also make it.
No chance. These are not good people and they lead a long parade of hate mongering cowards who refuse to say anything: right down to our MINNPOST right side commenters here who could make their voices heard if they chose to.
The Star Tribune for Sunday, December 12, has a long article about this gender divide in who gets threatened. It’s women who dare to lead by getting elected.
The only thing left to discern is whether Republican elected women are as subject to violent threats as Democratic women are. I don’t think so.
Cites please.
Have you not seen what has been happening in our society, this is just another manifestation of the breakdown of moral order. Look at Twitter, my goodness, nobody can even say anything decent anymore. Why would their actions be any different?
I am stunned that a member of congress, McCarthy and others, would not support the censure. I don’t recognize this country as something to be proud of any more. I lost a brother in the military and I’ll tell you he was a decent guy. Maybe all the decent guys are gone. And to my amazement some women have equally horrible behavior and a weird moral code. I swore that after Trump was out of office I would try and mend fences with those who were Trump supporters, but gee, it looks impossible. What the heck is wrong with these people? They are more than angry, something much worse.