The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has spiked concerns from members of Congress, who themselves have been the subjects of increased threats.
Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert knows this firsthand.
“The Sergeant Arms told my staff I was number three for threats,” Boebert said, including toward her family, as well as credible threats that led the FBI to take action. Earlier this year, Boebert said it’s unsafe for her to do in-person town halls.
“I'm just sick of this stuff,” Boebert told CPR News Thursday. “That's not why we come here. We come here to serve and make a difference and deliver on the promises that we made, not to hate people and certainly (not) go through assassination attempts and successful ones. It’s just disgusting.”
Boebert called Kirk’s death a turning point, a reference to the name of the organization he founded, “and I hope it turns in the right direction.”
In 2022, a Florida man was arrested for making online threats against Boebert. The next year, a Denver man was arrested for threatening Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse.
And the threats and the political violence have only increased since then.
This year in June, two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot in their homes. Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband died. There was an arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and last year, there were two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Capitol Police have tracked about 14,000 assessments of threats and concerning behavior so far in 2025, up from 9,000 last year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that there’s been a “deluge” of calls from members for increased security in the wake of Kirk’s death. “We’re looking at that. We have to take serious measures for serious times.”
After the Minnesota lawmaker shootings, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Ranking Member of the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joseph Morelle, wrote to Johnson about increased security. “Member safety must be an area of common ground. Representatives from both sides of the aisle have endured assassination attempts that changed their lives and careers forever. Too many other patriotic public servants have left Congress because they no longer felt safe carrying out their duty as elected officials. We must act to protect each other and preserve this great American institution.”
South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace said she is “deeply concerned” about her safety. “I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, any elected official across the country, if you’re vocal, your life is at risk,” she said.
“People are scared to death in this building,” said Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz on the steps of the Capitol. “Not many of them will say it publicly, but they’re running to the Speaker talking about security .… Everyone here has got families and we’re away from them half the time, so people are very worried.”
Last year, a man was arrested near Moskowitz’s home with weapons and a manifesto with antisemitic rhetoric.
Lowering the political temperature
“I think many (members of Congress) are nervous, of course, they’re public figures. They’re exposed all the time,” said Speaker Johnson. “We have great security measures for members of Congress, but there’s a desire on many people’s part to have more. These are the new realities.”
But he added there’s a recognition that the tone of political rhetoric and hatred also needs to be turned down, calling social media “a toxin in politics. I think it has added to this vitriol.”
Moskowitz echoed that. He noted lawmakers in the building argue with one another, “but you know none of us want anything to happen to each other, right? But that gets lost online.”
There was a visible example of that as members left for their districts Thursday morning. On her way out of the building, Boebert, who has been hit hard by Kirk’s death, got a hug from a friend, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
Moskowitz said it’s incumbent that everyone try to bring the temperature down. “It’s got to happen at the top, too.”
That was a message echoed by Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, who stepped up his security this summer “because of death threats.”
“Anytime you're in the news, you just become a bigger target,” he said. Massie has been in the news a lot this year, and the subject of fierce criticism from Trump both online and in the media.
“I think he should lower his own rhetoric,” Massie said of the president. “He called it a hostile act for members of Congress to co-sponsor the Epstein resolution. Using words like ‘hostile act,’ I think, is irresponsible on his part.”
He added that Kirk’s assassination in such a public venue “was meant to instill fear in people.
“This, I think, was a statement by some deranged person, most likely, and we can’t let that person win,” Massie said.
Democratic Colorado Rep. Jason Crow said that political violence is “unacceptable and needs to be condemned by everybody, regardless of the form it takes and who’s targeted.”
And when asked how to lower the rhetoric, he said, “What you need is you need leaders in this country who are not going to use terrible tragedies to try to cast blame and attack other people.”
While there is still no suspect in custody and no identified motive, President Trump turned his ire to the “radical left” in a video message on Wednesday that also praised Kirk.
"For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now," Trump said.
Boebert said there should have been a change in rhetoric already, following the assassination attempts on Trump last year.
“We said, ‘Knock it off. Stop this evil rhetoric.’ And I mean, right away, you hear, unfortunately, on left-wing media, the same talking points. And they’re saying how divisive Charlie is and that he speaks hate, just because they don’t agree with him. Charlie gave folks who disagreed with him a platform … welcomed the dialogue at every turn.”
As for the future of member security and how politicians handle public events, Boebert, who was supposed to be with Kirk at a conference in Woodland Park later today, said she doesn’t know what that looks like.
“I’m certainly not in a position where I would ever disarm my constituents who I serve and take away their constitutional rights,” Boebert said. “I think a lot of things are going to look different. I don't know what that looks like. I mean, I refuse to live life in fear and so did Charlie.”
