Extremists leave lawmakers feeling even more vulnerable
Attack on Pelosi’s husband another wake-up call
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have watched warily in recent years as threats and harassment against them have crescendoed, privately worrying that the brutal language and deranged misinformation creeping into political discourse would lead to actual violence.
The assault of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, inside their San Francisco home early Friday by an intruder who shouted “Where is Nancy?” and bludgeoned him with a hammer before being taken into custody by police seemed to confirm their worst fears, vividly bringing to life the acute danger facing elected officials amid a rise in violent political speech.
And it revealed the vulnerabilities in security around members of Congress and their families — even a lawmaker as powerful and wealthy as Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency and has her own security detail — as midterm congressional campaigns reach their frenzied final push.
Nearly two years after supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, inspired by his lies of a stolen election, sending members of Congress and the vice president fleeing for their lives, the toxic stew of violent language, conspiracy theory, and misinformation that thrives in digital spaces continues to pose a grave threat.
“When we see things like what happened last night at the speaker’s home; when we see things like plots to kidnap governors; when we see overt acts ramping up; we see, frankly, a whole host of indicators suggesting that we’re really at a crisis point,” said Peter Simi, an associate professor at Chapman University who has studied extremist groups and violence for more than 20 years.
Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who is among the most threatened members of the House, said the attack Friday was a “realization” for her and her husband.
“We used to theoretically talk about what would happen if they found our children when they came to look for us; what would happen if they found our loved ones when they came to look for us,” Omar said on MSNBC. “Now we know.”
While threats have proliferated from every corner of the political spectrum, the Department of Homeland Security has warned that the United States faces growing danger from “violent domestic extremists” emboldened by the Jan. 6 attack, and motivated by anger over “the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives” — a reference to Trump’s claims that have been echoed by Republicans and right-wing activists.
Political violence is hardly a new phenomenon. Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, then the third-ranking Republican, was shot and gravely wounded in 2017 at a congressional baseball practice in a suburb of Washington, D.C., by a man with a grudge against Republicans. Scalise has said the presence of his security detail saved his life.
But since the attack on the Capitol, members of Congress have reported feeling increasingly vulnerable in Washington and at home in their districts. The number of recorded threats against members of Congress increased more than tenfold in the five years after Trump was elected in 2016, according to figures from the Capitol Police, the federal law enforcement department that protects Congress, with more than 9,625 threats reported in 2021.
Many of those threats have come from people with mental illness who are not believed to pose an immediate danger, a spokesperson from the Capitol Police said, and even fewer of those threats result in an arrest or indictment.
But lawmakers have reported an increase in jarring confrontations that have sent them dipping into their campaign accounts to bulk up their security and minimizing their public footprint.
A man who had sent an angry e-mail to Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, for example, repeatedly showed up outside her house, armed with a semiautomatic handgun and shouting threats and profanities. An unknown visitor came to the house of Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and smashed a storm window.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if a senator or House member were killed,” Collins said in an interview earlier this year. “What started with abusive phone calls is now translating into active threats of violence and real violence.”
Authorities investigating the attack on Paul Pelosi were looking into whether the suspect was responsible for blog posts by someone using the same name who had expressed antisemitic and other hateful views, including concerns about pedophilia, anti-white racism, and “elite” control of the internet, said Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney.
The attack will likely prompt new discussions among lawmakers about how to protect themselves and their families, especially those facing competitive reelection races who will be expected to heavily campaign in the last two weeks before the midterms.