Washington – The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is sending shock waves through Capitol Hill, with legislators on both sides of the corridor expressing fears for their own safety and taking greater security precautions after a summer of political violence.
Members are reinforcing their safety, moving indoor public events or canceling them completely. One even promises to transport firearms.
The representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., the progressive star that has faced numerous death threats over the years, said Thursday that he had postponed two public events planned for this weekend in North Carolina, including a demonstration in Raleigh for Sunday.
“From the moment I was chosen, I have felt that I accept a certain level of risk when doing this work,” said Ocasio-Cortez to journalists. But he added that the security protocols for the members of Congress are “for a past time … They are not designed for an era of the environment of digital threats.”
Other legislators say they will not celebrate large municipalities or public events, only small private events.
Republican representative Nancy Mace, who runs for governor in South Carolina, said she is canceling all outdoor and public events in the predictable future, including an upcoming concert in a university campus.
An open criticism of transgender people and accommodation for them, Mace said he has been experiencing an increase in violent threats from a recent floor dispute he had with a Democrat from the House of Representatives and has requested additional protection of the Capitol Police and the sergeant of the House of Representatives. From Kirk’s murder, Mace said, he also got the local police patrolling his district office and plans to start taking a firearm where he can.
“I will have a firearm in my person all the time, and I will have security,” Mace told journalists outside the Capitol.
The representative Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Who has faced death threats in the past, said that earlier this year his safety increased and stopped celebrating outdoor events.
“People are afraid until death in this building. I mean, not many of them will say it publicly, but they run to the speaker talking about security, and that is many Republicans there. People are scared, really scared,” he said.
The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, Republican of LA-LA., Said he has been receiving calls from interested members from the shooting, and has assured the legislators who are making “a very exhaustive review of the existing options and how we could need to improve that to guarantee the safety of the members.”
The threats to the members of Congress were already increasing before Kirk’s death. At the end of this calendar year, the United States Capitol Police said it is on the way to work through 14,000 cases of threat evaluation involving members, compared to 9,000 last year.
But Johnson also acknowledged that there are limitations to protect the 535 members of the Congress, noting that it would cost billions of dollars and thousands of additional police officers to provide a security detail for each member, which is unrealistic.
“There are many security measures for the members of Congress, in their homes, in their offices and when they go. But we live in a dangerous society, and it is difficult to cover even the president of the United States from all angles,” said Johnson. “The problem, ultimately, at the end of the day, is the human heart, that is what we have to address.”
Kirk, 31, co -founder of Turning Point USA, who is attributed the youth vote for the successful return of Donald Trump in 2024, was fatally murdered by a murderer when he went to a large crowd in the campus of the University of the Valley of Utah on Wednesday.
The gunman is still released, although the FBI has published photos of an interest and said he had recovered the firearm used in the shooting.
“Unfortunately, the violent rhetoric plus the wide availability of weapons and high -power weapons of all kinds is equal to vicious political violence, and we can control both, but we have not done it,” said a democrat of the House of Representatives who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “And on the issue of the weapon, it will require serious damage to someone in a leadership position or, to God, to a loved one, to change.”
Kirk’s death occurs two months after a murderer pointed to Democratic legislators in Minnesota, killing the former president of the House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman, and her husband and wounding another legislator and his wife. That attack had already baffled Capitol Hill, which led to a bipartisan impulse for greater security.
After the shooting in Minnesota, “we had the first information about the security of all the senators that I can remember in 13 years here,” said Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA., Who added that he will continue to make events with his voters, but that the “dwarfs” to do it “seem to be growing.”
At that time, the sergeant of the ARMS House of Representatives announced that the members would be eligible to receive additional funds for residential security and personal security services.
But that increase in money expires at the end of the fiscal year at the end of this month, and some members said the leadership must do more to protect the grassroots members.
“We have to reassess what we are doing. I think we better start taking it seriously,” said representative Tim Burchett, R-Ten. “And our leadership is unfortunately badly prepared … They are surrounded by their little protective bubble, and look at us, and have spent weeks after the last incident before we have something.”
Some voices on social networks are asking for remuneration against the left, despite the fact that the identity or motive of the shooter is not yet known. And many Democrats are taking measures to protect themselves better. The representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a former Democratic leader, said Thursday in MSNBC that his staff has canceled the events in Columbia and Charleston this weekend, although he did not cancel an upcoming event in a church.
A Democrat from the Northeast Representatives Chamber told NBC News that he will not celebrate any City Council or great public events due to security concerns. Instead, it has private events and only by invitation with voters and interested parties. The legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid being attacked, said his family is simply too important.
The United States Capitol Police, who fought against a politically motivated and violent mafia on January 6, 2021, said in a statement that “he has been operating in a high threat atmosphere for a long time.”
“Our officers, agents and professional personnel remain focused while working throughout the day,” continued the agency’s statement. “Although, for security reasons, we cannot provide specific details about our greatest security position, we continue working with our federal, state and local partners to carry out our critical mission.”
On Thursday morning, during the series of votes of the camera, when members often walk outdoors from their offices to the Capitol, there was a remarkably intensified police presence outside the building. Security was already adjusted due to the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But it has also become more common in recent years for the police to close the square outside the Capitol during the votes due to the growing threats against the members, as they did on Thursday.
Some Republicans argued that Congress members should not go back to celebrate events.
“You can’t give in violence,” said Senator Josh Hawley, Mo-Mo Republican. “If we all retire to our private spaces and close our doors and stay behind our closed doors, windows and doors, we need otherwise. We need to unite even when we agree.”
The representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Who has received death threats due to his many public confrontations with Trump, more recently because of his impulse to release Epstein’s archives, said that legislators should take adequate precautions but that they should not go back to people, or even the presidents, who are trying to intimidate the elected officials.
“I, already this summer, intensified security due to death threats. Every time you are in the news, you become a bigger goal,” Massie told journalists.
“I think he is destined to instill fear in people. I mean, if someone just wanted Charlie Kirk to leave, it would have been easier to meet him in the movie theater or in a restaurant,” he said. “This, I think, was a statement of some person upset, most likely, and we cannot let that person win.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., got excited while talking to journalists on Thursday and echoed that feeling.
“That is what these people try to do, they try to scare you in inaction,” he said. “And I think that is the last thing Charlie would like is for people to be quiet, whether you agree with him or not.”
