Just days after a Politico reporter attacked supporters of President Donald Trump as “garbage people,” law enforcement authorities have arrested several people for making violent threats against Republican congressmen. One of the lawmakers threatened is Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was nearly murdered last year after a deranged left-wing activist shot up a park full of Republican politicians before being killed by police.
Carlos Bayon, of Grand Island, New York, was arrested Thursday for allegedly leaving threatening voicemails on office phone lines belonging to Scalise and the Washington state office of another congressman, according to WKWB. Here’s what Bayon reportedly said in the voicemail police have linked to him.
Hey listen, this message is for you and the people that sent you there. You are taking ours, we are taking yours. Anytime, anywhere. We know where they are. We are not going to feed them sandwiches, we are going to feed them lead. Make no mistake you will pay. Ojo por ojo, diente por diente (Spanish for ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’). That is our law and we are the majority. Have a good day.
Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, also received a credible death threat from a man whom police say is 43-year-old Dereal Finklin, of East Orange, New Jersey. The suspect, who is a Democrat, was arrested on Saturday for making terrorist threats at Smith via social media, according to WUSA9.
https://twitter.com/Cameron_Gray/status/1025112870281994241
Smith, who has served as a member of Congress since 1981, says that he’s faced more threats of violence recently and that he believes people are trying to intimidate elected officials they don’t think can be beaten at the ballot box. More from WUSA9.
In an interview with the Asbury Park Press on Wednesday, Smith said the threat –which he confirmed was a death threat – was just the latest incident in a pattern of abuse and harassment that he and his staff have endured over the past five years, as the political discourse in the United States has grown more polarized.
The congressman has installed electronic security and surveillance systems at his office and established new safety protocols for his staff, he said. Yet the tires on his personal car have been slashed seven times in as many months, he said.