A surge in bomb threats and swatting incidents against lawmakers since the election underscores the deep political divide in the U.S. and has lawmakers from both parties calling for more protection.
Members of Congress and President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration have been on the receiving end of a rash of false alarms about pipe bombs or dangerous swatting stunts, in which a fake emergency call sends heavily armed police to a target’s residence.
A swatting incident against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, led to a woman dying in a car crash with an officer responding to the incident.
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the victim of a bomb threat at his home on Thanksgiving Day, one of several East Coast Democrats targetted with threats during the holiday.
Like the others, the threat against Mr. Golden was sent with a message signed “MAGA.” But he told The Washington Times that authorities don’t know who made the threat via email and that it could have come from a foreign IP address.
Both parties need to do a better job at toning down the rhetoric, he said, such as Democratic leaders saying Mr. Trump’s election “would potentially lead to the end of democracy as we know it” or Republicans calling Democrats “dangerous socialists.”
“For starters, both sides could stop,” Mr. Golden said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, condemned the reckless attacks.
Mr. Jeffries called for “maximum protection” for lawmakers.
More than 50 members of Congress have been victims of swatting attacks since the election, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger recently told a Senate panel.
Chief Manger said that the threats spurred 700 investigations and put an intense strain on the Capitol Hill police force, which he said has limited manpower.
“Just in the last month, we’ve had over 50 members of Congress swatted, so we’ve got to look at what we can do to enhance people’s security not only when they’re here on campus but when they’re off-campus and in their home districts,” Chief Manger said.
Capitol Police told the Times that since 2021, the agency has hired hundreds of new officers and has made changes to “improve intelligence, operational planning, communication, training, equipment, and staffing.”
“Our teams are working around the clock to investigate threats and coordinate with law enforcement agencies to prevent potential attacks against lawmakers,” a police spokesperson said.
Oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police falls under the House Administration Committee. Rep. Bryan Steil, who chairs the panel, told The Times that he is working on increasing the size of the police department’s threat assessment team. However, there is still more to do to bolster security for lawmakers and visitors to the Capitol.
“There’s no place for political violence or political threats in our society, kind of period full stop,” Mr. Steil, Wisconsin Republican, said.
Threats against lawmakers aren’t a new phenomenon, though the uptick after the election was unusual.
Rep. Ryan Zinke, Montana Republican, received death threats against his entire family when he was tapped to be interior secretary in Mr. Trump’s first term in the White House.
“I received legitimate death threats for me, my family, my kids, my dog,” Mr. Zinke told The Times. “At the end of the day, I couldn’t take my little dog for a walk.”
Mr. Zinke said the “root of the problem” was the partisan anger throughout the country, and it should be dealt with.
He said there was still time to find a balance. All it would take, he said, was for lawmakers across the political spectrum to “realize … we can disagree.”
“We can vehemently disagree, but let’s not be disagreeable where it spilled out to assaults and violence and a rhetoric that promotes such actions,” he said.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.