WASHINGTON — As threats against members of Congress skyrocketed in recent years, some lawmakers have required added security while going to and from their jobs on Capitol Hill.
But Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) may be the first lawmaker to need personal armed guards specifically because of threats made against him by the president of the United States.
After Donald Trump called him a traitor and suggested he be hanged for telling service members that they can disobey illegal orders, Kelly’s office received graphic threats not only on his life, but on that of his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), who survived a gunshot to the head in a politically motivated mass shooting nearly 15 years ago, fueling the couple’s advocacy for gun violence prevention ever since.
In an interview with HuffPost this week, Kelly said he’d never imagined that he would now be the one in the crosshairs, walking around the U.S. Capitol with a security detail, something normally reserved only for congressional leadership.
“I understand political violence pretty well,” Kelly said in an interview with HuffPost. “It’s something my family’s dealt with. It’s something the president has dealt with, and his family has dealt with. He should get it. He shouldn’t be threatening to hang U.S. senators.”
