House Democrats told 'you guys are next' in alarming phone calls after baseball shooting
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Lawmakers received threatening emails and calls following the shooting at a congressional Republican baseball practice Wednesday. New York Rep. Claudia Tenney's (R) office was sent an email with the subject line "one down, 216 to go," apparently a reference to the 217 representatives who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Spectrum News reports. Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was injured in Wednesday's shooting.
"Did you NOT expect this?" the email said. "When you take away ordinary people's lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forfeit[ed]. Certainly, your souls and mortality were lost long before. Good riddance."
It wasn't just Republicans who were targeted. Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-Calif.) told BuzzFeed News' Ema O'Connor that "multiple Democratic members of the House have gotten calls saying 'you guys are next.'"
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The shooter, identified as 66-year-old James Hodgkinson, was reportedly a "progressive" who asked what party the congressmen belonged to before opening fire at the baseball field. He died of his injuries. Scalise, who was hit in the hip by a bullet, underwent surgery and is "doing well," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
