As Threats Increase, So May Protection For Congress

By Benjamin J. Hulac, Washington Correspondent | NJ Spotlight News

WASHINGTON — Threats and violence against members of Congress, their staff and their families have sharply increased in recent years, a trend that places an almost ubiquitous cloud of risk over lawmakers of both political parties.

Threats come in over the phone, via social media or in person. Often they include detailed information about a lawmaker’s family. Racial epithets are common. Slurs too.

“I try to be alert and aware of my surroundings,” Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st) said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “I have people with me when I’m at public events.”

Rep. Herb Conaway (D-3rd), a first-term member, said he had been “lax” in upgrading security at his house. But when he got to Congress, stories of violence other members told him prompted him to shift, he said. “It has spurred me to make sure that I deal with the security threats around my home.”

In interviews, New Jersey lawmakers said the blend of Internet, social media and partisan vitriol has fueled an uptick in political violence — the latest example being the assassination last week of hard-right commentator Charlie Kirk, an event that rattled lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Yet the shooting, the latest in a string of politically motivated acts of violence, is extremely unlikely to spur Congress to pass gun safety legislation, in particular when Republicans hold majorities in both the House and the Senate.

But on Capitol Hill — where Republicans held a Monday night vigil for Kirk in the Capitol — the killing has prompted congressional leaders to propose $30 million in new funding to the U.S. Capitol Police for member safety. That money would be added to a broader spending bill to keep the government open through September.

In 2017, the U.S. Capitol Police investigated 3,939 “concerning statements and direct threats” against members of Congress, their families and staff, the department said in February. Last year, that number was 8,008, according to the department.

Threats have increased rapidly, said Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat who works on member safety.

“It’s a nearly 1,000% increase in the latest decade,” Morelle said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News after the June fatal shootings of Minnesota state legislators.

Federal programs currently exist to help members coordinate with police in their home states and districts and to help local police financially, Morelle said. For members, there are also programs for home security, to harden computer networks and improve cybersecurity, he said. “More can and should be done.”

Under a program former Speaker Nancy Pelosi oversaw, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) said he installed cameras at home.

“Within one hour of Charlie Kirk, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, I got a phone call that basically said ‘We’re glad what happened to Charlie Kirk, you’re next,’” Van Drew said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

Members and their staff report those sorts of threats to police, as Van Drew said he did. Other people have threatened him and gone to prison, he said. “My wife was threatened to be raped. My children killed. My house put on fire.”

Charlie Kirk’s assassination continues to resonate in NJRep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th) said the threats have gotten worse since she came to Washington in 2015. “What I do sense is that it’s more toxic down here. That there’s no desire to meet anywhere in the middle and be helpful to people.”

Asked if threats have ever prompted her to stay quiet, Watson Coleman chuckled. “No. Did you see us at Delaney hall?”
“If I can’t do the job that I think I’m being called to do, then I should not be here,” she said.

When he was a state senator, Norcross received death threats, he said. “Back when I was in the state Senate,” he said, “I had a death threat, and I had a Camden police officer sit outside of the front door of my apartment for a week.”

He said he went to the Camden police chief asked if that was a good use of resources. “And he looked at me and goes, ‘It’s not about you. It’s about who you represent, and we can’t let them do it,’” Norcross said. “That changed my perception.”

Josh Gottheimer was a freshman representative when Steve Scalise, a senior Republican House member, was shot at congressional baseball practice in 2017.

“That was my first year on the job I think,” Gottheimer, a Democrat, said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “And then January 6th, and then all these others.”

Asked if the problem of violence against members has gotten worse, he had a quick answer: “Definitely.”

“I try to focus on doing my job,” he said.

In 2023, a man walked into the congressional office in northern Virginia of Jerry Connolly. Metal bat in hand, he swung at a struck two of Connolly’s staffers, including an intern on their first day of work.

“It’s not just the members, it’s our teams,” Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th) told NJ Spotlight News. “I don’t want to put anyone on our team in a vulnerable situation. But we also serve the public.”

Measuring safety against public access is difficult, he said. “We have to balance it but we also have to be accessible. That can’t go away.”

The Kirk killing shook the congressional community. Just as the Minnesota killings this summer did. And the Scalise shooting in 2017 and the attempted killing of former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords did before that.

“Last week was really hard to be here,” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-10th) said in an interview Monday. “I think it’s very sad to see what happened to this young man. He had a family, he has little children. This should never be the answer.”

McIver talked with police leaders in her home district, which centers around Newark.

“All weekend I worried. I was scared to go to outside events. We had increased our security,” she said. “I worry about my husband and my 9-year-old daughter,” she said. “I’m always sketchy about people knowing what she looks like.”

Peaceful protest, embedded in the U.S. Constitution, is one thing, Van Drew said.

“Once in a while there’s something funny,” he said, recalling a recent picket sign that called him a Dallas Cowboys fan. “I can live with that.”

But often protest veers into something dangerous and deadly, members said.

“Partisanship has become something very ugly,” Menendez said. “Anyone who doesn’t recognize that this has gone too far is missing what’s happening.”