Several Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut have been targeted with bomb threats to their homes, lawmakers and their offices announced Thursday.
Jim Himes, Joe Courtney, and Jon Larson all reported that their homes were the subject of bomb threats. Responding police said they found no evidence of a bomb on the lawmakers’ property.
The incident involved many of the Donald Trump administration’s top cabinet nominees and appointees making bomb threats and other “swatting” attacks in which perpetrators make false pretenses to initiate emergency law enforcement actions against victims. It happened the day after I reported that I had received the same.
Courtney’s office said Vernon received a bomb threat while his wife and children were at his home.
Himes said he was celebrating Thanksgiving with his family Thursday morning when he was notified of the threat to his home. U.S. Capitol Police, Greenwich Police Department, and Stamford Police Department responded.
Himes told his family he would like to “express our utmost gratitude to the local law enforcement officers who took immediate action to ensure our safety.” He added: “There is no place for political violence in this country. I hope we can all get through the holiday season in peace and civility.”
Larson also said Thursday that East Hartford police responded to a bomb threat to his home.
The threat came after an election season marked by violence. In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump’s ear and killing one supporter. The Secret Service later thwarted an assassination attempt on President Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course in Florida, but agents discovered the barrel of a gun had penetrated the perimeter fence while Trump was golfing.
Among those threatened Wednesday was New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, whom President Trump has nominated to be the next ambassador to the United Nations. Matt Gaetz was President Trump’s first nominee for attorney general. They are Lori Chavez Delemer, a congresswoman from Oregon who was chosen by President Trump to be secretary of the Department of Labor, and former congressman Lee Zeldin from New York, who was selected to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
