Texas Democratic legislators who vanished to Illinois to block a redistribution effort of districts in their state faced arrest threats and criminal charges if they did not return home.
But as his time was coming from the State, the threats worried.
A group of state legislators who stayed in a hotel in St. Charles, a suburb outside of Chicago, suffered two threats of bombs in different days. He reached the point that Texas legislators silently changed the hotels and made an internal pact to maintain those private details.
Even more worrying for them was what their families were dealing at home.
Some of the legislators said their homes in Texas received repeated pizza installments when they had not made orders. It is now considered by the police as an intimidation tactic after the son of a judge was killed by an assailant who passed a delivery driver.
In another case, state representative Diego Bernal said that a man who wore a backpack appeared in the residence of his family in San Antonio. Bernal told NBC News in an interview that the individual represented himself as a water company worker and began asking for Bernal’s whereabouts, even when he was at home and how long it had been.
The episode was caught in the Homemade Family Surveillance Chamber, and Bernal said that although he does not know if the person intended to harm, he was sure that the man misrepresented himself, since he did not carry the usual identifiers of an employee of the Water Department.
“Almost everyone has a story like that. “The online atmosphere has been really toxic, and one of the true disappointments about this is that when we are in session, even when we really do not agree, when we have great debates and fights on the floor, there is still a level of respect, decorum and even personal compassion among the members throughout the corridor. There have not been literally any of that while we face a threat of a threat of bombs, or while they are told to hunt people. or someone could be filtered online. “
Threats have been weighing legislators, who have now been out of home for almost two weeks while drawing their plans to return to Texas.
When asked what he feared, state representative Gene Wu, president of the Democratic Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives, said a word: “Minnesota.” He referred to a legislator of the State of Minnesota who was shot dead along with her husband earlier this year when the suspect appeared at home.
“I have left my family instructions: I do not open the door to anyone. We are afraid that there is another minnesota incident,” Wu said in an interview. “We receive threats all the time. When Republicans have people who call us communists and traitors and all these other things, it causes a certain reaction. And that threat is real. We do not lead it lightly.”
The state representative of Texas Ramon Romero Jr., who directs the Democratic Hispanic Caucus, lamented continuous threats and what he described as tactics for the intimidation of Republicans as a “sign of the times” worrying.
He pointed to Roger Stone, an ally of President Donald Trump, publishing a map with the place where legislators stayed and the state representative of the Republican Party Mitch Little appointed the hotel where they were staying in a television interview where he said: “Whoever wants to go and get them, fully support that effort.”
“You have people who want to be famous, and because Roger Stone said: ‘This is where they are’, the next day there is a bomb threat in that place,” Romero said. “It’s just a sign of times. This is what happens when people use incendiary comments, when they say: ‘Go looking for them.'”
In response, Little said in a message to NBC News: “That is ridiculous. I saw its location on social networks like everyone else. [The Department of Public Safety] He was accused of bringing them back, and that was talking about. “
And in a text message, Stone said it was a news organization that first revealed the hotel where legislators were housed.
In addition to security threats, legislators’ family members had other types of interruptions. The president of the House of Representatives of Texas, Dustin Burrows, said earlier this week that the Department of Public Security had special agents deployed in all regions of the State, making it clear that they were prepared to stop legislators at any time.
“They are established outside the houses of the members, performing surveillance, playing doors, calling their phones several times a day. Until now, no one is at home. But the search continues and will not stop,” Burrows said.
In a statement, Burrows denounced the threats that legislators have faced. He also received a voice email threatening his family, according to a copy of the voicemail reviewed by NBC News.
“The threats of violence and intimidation against elected officials do not take place in our policy, and it is unfortunate that the members of both sides of the hall have been subjected to harassment,” said Burrows. “These threats will never be tolerated, and working with the application of the law, we will ensure that any person addressed to a chosen official of Texas or his family in front of the entire force of the law.”
The governor Greg Abbott’s office also denounced the threats against legislators and rejected Democrats’ claims that Republicans fanned the flames.
“First, violence, or even her threat, is unacceptable and the governor condemns him without reservations,” said Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris, in a statement. “But suggest that calling the Democrats to return to Texas and do their job somehow inflames threats is absurd.”
On Friday, Burrows stuns the first special legislative session to its end and Abbott requested that another start hours later so that legislators can consider, among other things, a new map of Congress that could generate Republicans up to five more seats.
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, responded on Thursday by calling legislators in his state to establish a special election that would allow them to follow their own redistribution effort of districts of the decade.
A person close to the situation that has knowledge of the plans said that Texas Democrats plan to return to their state “as soon as Monday.” They have established two conditions for their return: first, that the special session in Texas comes to an end, and second that the Democrats of California launch their own proposal for redistribution of districts.
Wu said Friday: “One of the two conditions has been met when the governor collapsed. We hope that the other condition will be met next week.”
