As rioters breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, one member of Congress was dealing with another life-threatening matter.
While the riot was happening, Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’s brother received threatening text messages from an unknown individual, warning him that the lawmaker’s rhetoric about the election, that President Biden beat former President Donald Trump, “is putting your entire family at risk.” Nearly three weeks later, law enforcement officers charged Robert Lemke, 35, with sending the threats.
In an interview Tuesday night on MSNBC, the congressman blamed the president for “radicalizing” Lemke.
“This is something that unfolded on Jan. 6, directed at a family member of mine. This individual apparently had secured a phone number, secured an address, made it appear as though they were prepared to proceed violently, either at the address of my family member and/or my own home address, at the same time that the Capitol was being attacked,” Jeffries told Chris Hayes. “What was chilling in the message that was received is that this individual said, ‘Stop telling lies. Biden did not win.'”
“Your brother is putting your entire family at risk with his lies and other words,” one of the messages read. “We are armed and nearby your house. You had better have a word with him. We are not far from his either.”
The congressman claimed that Lemke’s threat, specifically as it relates to the outcome of the election, shows that he was “radicalized by the big lie that Donald Trump told and that has been supported by so many Republicans in the House and the Senate.” Jeffries also said that “We can’t allow the radicalization of these individuals to go without consequence,” before declaring Trump was “responsible for this type of activity.”
Trump, in the weeks before the Capitol riot, repeated a litany of false and unverified statements delegitimizing Biden’s electoral victory against him. He held a speech on the morning of the day when Congress was set to certify Biden’s victory and encouraged his supporters to go down to the Capitol to let Congress know how they felt about the certification. Trump also pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results, even though the vice president told him that was out of his control.
The protests got violent as rioters breached the Capitol, sending the building into a lockdown and evacuation mode. No lawmaker or staffer was harmed, though five people died in the clashes, including one Capitol Police officer.
Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection a week after the incident took place. Ten Republicans joined with the Democrats in making Trump the first U.S. president to be impeached more than once. The Senate’s trial will not begin until next month, more than two weeks after he left office.
On Sunday, the Senate defeated a motion by Sen. Rand Paul to halt the impeachment trial on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. The vote was 55-45, with five Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues, indicating that it will be unlikely for 17 total Republicans to vote to convict.
Jeffries called Senate Republicans’ collective stance against convicting the president an effort to “whitewash” the events at the Capitol.
