How MAGA-Driven Political Polarization Affects Congressmen’s Safety

By Michael Jones

While Pete Aguilar, the number three House Democrat, was in California celebrating Thanksgiving with his family, he sent text messages across the country to members of the House Democrats Caucus, where he was just elected chairman for another two-year term.

Several House Democrats in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were targeted in their homes after similar threats were made against President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees days earlier. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) would later reveal that some members were victims of swatting — a practice in which people make fake 911 calls in hopes that the operator taking the call will deploy tactical police units to a particular address – and each threat was signed with “MAGA” at the end of the message.

“We all apply for these jobs with this kind of dual pressure that we want to help our country and we want to help our community,” Aguilar told me last week. “And so we don’t want anything to get in the way of doing that job. And this is a reality of public life at times, and that’s something we have to do — take every possible precaution.”

Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), who received a threat, told me the threats affected her family.

“It’s ridiculous,” she told me. “I mean, I have a teenage son who doesn’t even bother to check the mail now. And putting yourself out there and running for public office doesn’t mean you’re signing up for something like that, and we should have some sort of security protocol for in the district.”

I wish I could tell you that the threats were limited to Thanksgiving week. But I submitted this story to my editors days before U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told senators at an oversight hearing Wednesday investigating the department that more than 700 threats against members were made in November alone, with at least 50 cases. .

On the same day as Manger’s hearing, Nancy Mace, the congresswoman from South Carolina who has been on an anti-trans crusade for several weeks, was seen in the Capitol basement and outside the House chamber after she claimed she was assaulted by a foster youth advocate who said he did nothing but shake her hand when he asked her to protect transgender rights.

And while the facts of the case are still disputedwhat is clear is that the reason the incident is troubling is because it is within the realm of possibility given the political climate we are in.

After the Thanksgiving events, Jeffries, who along with other congressional leaders has a security detail through the Capitol Police’s dignitary protection division, urged Congress to protect all members and their families, a request he repeated this week.

“I have not been briefed on the (Mace) incident, but have made it clear that members of Congress must have maximum protection as we move forward in this environment of intensifying political violence,” he told reporters Wednesday. “No member of Congress should be accused or assaulted or attacked based on their political beliefs. This is a democratic free society and the reports, at least of the alleged assault and attack on Nancy Mace, are very troubling, but I have not had the opportunity to speak directly to her.”

Threats against members have been increasing over the past five years. In 2023, the Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment Section, the unit that investigates threats against members of Congress, investigated more than 8,000 cases, including investigations into statements and direct threats. Threats fell to 7,501 in 2022 after highs in 2021 (9,625) and 2020 (8,613). TAS investigated 6,955 cases in 2019 and 5,206 in 2018.

The threats target members of both parties and are fueled by increased violent political rhetoric and the false sense of anonymity some people feel on social media.

Many agree with the members that increased security when they are back home or at events away from the Capitol. He pushed senators to double the number of officers in the division that protects leadership, for example.

“Who knew that threats would go through the roof? Who knew that the tactics (of) people who want to disrupt the lives and disrupt the work of members of Congress would result in 50 people being beaten in the last month, people being disturbed in the middle of the night in their homes? said Manger. “The increased threat level in this country has not decreased, so we need additional resources.”

Until the Capitol Police receives those resources, Hayes worries the candidate pool could exclude people from diverse communities and working-class backgrounds.

“I ran for office to do the job, to legislate for people. And the fact that it comes with serious safety concerns for your whole family is just unreasonable,” she said. “And for the people who can’t afford to establish their own private security, it really limits the pool of people who will sign up to do this work.”

Although the threat survey data for this year is not yet available, threats typically increase during an election year. And with less than six weeks to Inauguration Day and Trump proposing on Jan. 6 that members of the committee be prosecuted to investigate a rebellion he fomented while stacking his cabinet with loyalists like Kash Patel to weaponize the FBI against Trump’s political enemies . may get worse before it gets better.

“The data kind of tells us, right?” Aguilar said. “If past is prologue, it’s something we have to be prepared for. It’s something we have to work to make sure our members know it’s coming and know it’s ahead of us.”

Michael Jones is an independent Capitol Hill correspondent and contributor to the COURIER. He is the author of Once Upon a Hilla newsletter about congressional politics.