By Connor Greene

Copyright time

Johnson recently said that Capitol Police have tracked close to 14,000 threats to federal officials this year, which is up from the roughly 9,000 instances that were reported in 2024.

“There are many security measures in place for members of Congress, at their homes, at their offices and when they go about,” Johnson said to reporters. “But we live in a dangerous society, and it’s difficult to cover even the president of the United States from every angle. The problem, ultimately, at the end of the day, is the human heart, that’s what we got to address.”

This year has seen a wave of political violence and threats against federal officials.

Democratic Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in a targeted shooting in June. Authorities said they found a “hit list” of dozens of other Democrats the suspect had intended to target next. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence was set on fire in April while he and his family were inside. A man named Robert Phillip Ivers was arrested in September for a threatening manifesto targeting federal judges. Democratic lawmakers from Texas were evacuated from an Illinois hotel after a bomb threat in August.