Four freshman Congresswomen met with Capitol police and expressed concerns about their safety after a political spat with President Donald Trump, according to a new report.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar, (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley, (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib, (D-Mich.), met with security officials working on Capitol Hill, reported Fox News.
“Security officials want to make sure each office is aware of the security options available to them on Capitol Hill. Security officials also work with local law enforcement to help secure events in their districts or elsewhere. Offices are asked to provide security officials itineraries and information about public appearances when there may be concerns about safety,” the outlet reported.
“Capitol security officials are also now looking at ways to enhance security in the field for lawmakers who feel they are at risk.”
Some lawmakers have hired private security because of safety concerns.
Although Omar and her allies—the so-called “Squad”—have expressed safety concerns, a source told Fox that they’re low-profile compared to some other lawmakers.
Ocasio-Cortez said that Trump’s attacks have created a threat to the safety of her and her colleagues.
“The whole point is to target us,” she told Bloomberg. “The president is evolving as predicted, deeper into the rhetoric of racism which evolves into violence.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she’s spoken to Capitol security officers about protection for lawmakers, saying they needed to have “adequate protection.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson requested additional security for some lawmakers in a letter sent to House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, who also serves on the Capitol Police Board, on July 15.
The board should “analyze the current threat environment and set thresholds for enhanced safety of Members” and send a classified readout of what happened at the meeting to him, Thompson wrote.
Security officials should set “thresholds for enhanced security for certain targeted Members, and evaluate threat streams with law enforcement partners in Member districts,” Thompson continued. “Being proactive in this instance is vital to the safety of not only these targeted Members, but all Members of Congress.”
Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund told a congressional committee recently that threats against members of Congress seem to have risen.
“We continue to see the threat assessment cases that we’re opening continue to grow,” Sund said. “For fiscal year 2018, we had approximately 4,894 cases. So far, for this year, we have 2,502 cases. So we’re on par to probably break last year’s.”
Trump has called the squad “communists” and part of “the radical left,” suggesting they should leave the United States since they’re regularly complaining about the country.
The president at a July 17 rally targeted Omar, a Somalian national, listing the times she’s made anti-Semitic remarks, expressed support for terrorist groups like ISIS, and said terror attacks against the United States were America’s fault.
WATCH: A Crowd in North Carolina chants “Send her back!” as Trump spends 3 minutes criticizing Rep. @IlhanMN pic.twitter.com/BT9lM0HZmE
— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) July 17, 2019
The crowd at the rally erupted into a chant of “send her back,” which Trump said the next day he didn’t agree with.
“I was not happy with it, I disagree with it, but again I didn’t say that, they did,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It was quite a chant,’” he said.
Trump added that he felt “a little bit badly” when it began, adding that to quell the chanting, he began speaking “very quickly” in an attempt to drown out the crowd.
After the chant started, Trump was seen pausing before continuing to speak about Omar, saying, “And obviously and importantly, Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds.”
