Scalise shooting fallout: GOP rep receives threatening email
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U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-NY, says she received a threatening email Wednesday morning from a constituent, hours after a gunman shot Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice in Virginia.
“One down, 216 to go,” the email to Tenney began, referencing the number of seats required to have a majority in the House. “Did you NOT expect this? When you take away ordinary peoples very lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forfeit. Certainly your souls and morality were lost long before. Good riddance.”
STEVE SCALISE SHOT AT BASEBALL PRACTICE IN VA: POLITICIANS REACT
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The email listed contact information for one of Tenney’s constituents in Boonville in Oneida County, New York.
The threatening message came around 9 a.m., just hours after Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA, and four others were injured after being shot by a gunman at a baseball field where Republicans were practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game.
“We get threats almost every day,” Hannah Andrews, a spokeswoman for Tenney, told Fox News. “Being a woman Republican, she has a target on her back. But the one this morning was particularly disturbing and disheartening.”
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STEVE SCALISE SHOOTING: CONGRESSIONAL BASEBALL GAME REMAINS ON
Tenney immediately reported the email to U.S. Capitol Police, according to Syracuse.com.
“The level of discourse in politics today is truly unfortunate,” Tenney’s office stated. “Our nation was founded on the principle of free speech, and it’s vitally important that we have a robust debate on the issues. However, protections under the first amendment do not extend to violence.”