Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., has not been in Washington, D.C., this week as a result of ongoing threats, following her feud with President Trump regarding his conversation with a Gold Star widow last week.
Wilson last voted in Congress on Oct. 12 prior to the House being out of session for a week. Since Monday, she has missed 19 votes.
“She’s home,” said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., according to McClatchy. “I have not spoken with her about it, but I’ve heard that she’s received substantial death threats and I think she is doing everything she can to ratchet down and let some of us, including me, take over.”
An unnamed source confirmed to McClatchy that Wilson had stayed out of Washington, D.C., because of the threats.
Wilson has been embroiled in a war of words with Trump after she said Trump told the widow of one of the four soldiers killed in Niger this month that her husband “knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
Trump allegedly made the comment while speaking to U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, who is pregnant with her late husband’s third child. Trump called Myeshia Johnson just before her husband’s body arrived at the Miami International Airport on Tuesday.
Wilson, who asserted Trump was being insensitive with the way he conducted the call, has been backed up by the family.
Staff for Wilson said last week her D.C. office had received a series of threatening calls directed at the congresswoman after she disclosed the conversation.
Capitol Police, Miami Garden Police, and the threat division of the U.S. House of Representatives had been notified of the calls by Wilson’s staff, Miami CBS4 reported last week.
