Lawmakers see a rise in threats and more
WASHINGTON — In Bangor, Maine, an unknown visitor smashed a storm window at Sen. Susan Collins’ home.
In Seattle, a man who had sent an angry email to Rep. Pramila Jayapal repeatedly showed up outside the lawmaker’s house, armed with a semiautomatic handgun and shouting threats and profanities.
In the New York City borough of Queens, a man who had traveled across the country waited in a cafe across the street from Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez’s office to confront her, part of a near-constant stream of threats and harassment that has prompted the congresswoman to switch her sleeping location at times and seek protection from a 24-hour security detail.
Members of Congress in both parties are experiencing a surge in threats and confrontations as a rise in violent political speech has increasingly crossed over into the realm of in-person intimidation and physical altercation. In the months since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which brought lawmakers and the vice president within feet of rioters threatening their lives, Republicans and Democrats have faced stalking, armed visits to their homes, vandalism and assaults.
It is part of a chilling trend that many fear is only intensifying as lawmakers scatter to campaign and meet with voters around the country before next month’s midterm congressional elections.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if a senator or House member were killed,” Collins, a Republican serving her fifth term, said in an interview. “What started with abusive phone calls is now translating into active threats of violence and real violence.”
Few arrests made
In the five years after President Donald Trump was elected in 2016 following a campaign featuring a remarkable level of violent language, the number of recorded threats against members of Congress increased more than tenfold, to 9,625 in 2021, according to figures from the Capitol Police, the federal law enforcement department that protects Congress. In the first quarter of this year, the latest period for which figures were available, the force opened 1,820 cases. If recent history is any guide, the pace is likely to surge in the coming weeks as the election approaches.
Despite the torrent of threats, few cases result in arrest. Tim Barber, a spokesperson for the Capitol Police, said officers have made “several dozen” arrests — but fewer than 100 — in response to threats against members of Congress over the past three years, adding that the majority come from people with mental illness who are not believed to pose an immediate danger.
“The goal is to de-escalate this behavior,” said Barber. “Most of the time, getting mental health treatment may be more successful than jail in order to keep everyone safe. When we don’t believe that is plausible, or the threat is serious and imminent, we make an arrest.”
In a review by the New York Times this year of threats that resulted in indictments, more than onethird were made by Republican or pro-Trump individuals against Democrats or Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to the former president, and nearly one-fourth were by Democrats targeting Republicans. In other cases, the party affiliation could not be determined.
Security concerns have grown so pressing that many members of Congress are dipping into their own official or campaign accounts to protect themselves. They have spent a total of more than $6 million on security since the start of last year, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance and congressional data.
The data suggest that the threats are particularly acute against lawmakers of color — Hispanic, Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander and Native American — who outspent their white colleagues on security by an average of more than $17,500. Democrats spent about $9,000 more than Republicans did. And members of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault spent over $5,000 more than the average amount spent by members of Congress as a whole.
Many members of Congress say the process of getting extra support from the Capitol Police has been opaque and inconsistent.
It took 2 ½ years for Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who is among the most threatened members of the House, to receive additional security from the Capitol Police, she said in an interview. The decision was made after the department flagged a tweet that it found to be threatening toward her.
“When I saw what it was, I was like, ‘I’ve gotten so much worse,’ ” OcasioCortez said. “Why now?”
The Capitol Police has struggled to adjust to the rise in threats, rushing in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault to ramp up its response amid severe strains on the department. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger testified in January that his force needed to double the number of agents who work threat cases against lawmakers.
A police spokesperson said the department had met that goal.
Potential mounts
The department has since opened two field offices in Florida and California, which have the most threats against members of Congress. It also has hired a new intelligence director tasked with improving data collection and sharing. And it now provides security assessments on members’ homes and district offices.
Still, the potential for violence has continued to mount.
“We sign up for a lot of things when we sign up for this job,” Jayapal, DWash., said in an interview. “But having someone show up to your door with a gun, scaring your neighbors, scaring your staff and clearly trying to intimidate me — it’s hard to describe.”
In the case of Collins, the incident at her home was a notable escalation after years of verbal threats. In 2018, after she announced she would support the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, she received a message that included footage of a sincedeleted video of a beheading.
“We will c-t off your lmbs and sl-ce off yo-r faces. We will t-ar out your tongues and dismmber your org-as and sl-t your thro-ts while you watch,” the letter read.
It contained her personal phone numbers and addresses, as well as those of her staff and their relatives.
Three people are currently in jail and another few are awaiting some kind of action as a result of threats against her, Collins said.
The window-smashing incident was of particular concern, she said, because it occurred on a secluded side of her house, suggesting that the area had been “studied and chosen.”
“There’s been a sea change in that we now see this constant escalation and erosion of any boundaries of what is acceptable behavior, and it has crossed over into actual violence,” Collins said.