Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening Republican Lawmaker To Death Over Infrastructure Vote.
A man from Long Island, New York, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly threatening a Republican lawmaker who voted for the Biden administration’s infrastructure package.
Kenneth Gasper, 64, was arrested following a telephone death threat against Representative Andrew Garbarino (RN.Y.), Nassau County Police said in a statement.
Gasper “was extremely upset about an infrastructure bill” and promised, “If I see that mother (expletive) on the street, I will kill him.” according to the criminal complaint Against him.
The call, made Monday, came just days after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Tweeted that Garbarino and 12 other Republicans were “traitors” for voting in favor of the Jobs and Investment in Infrastructure Act. The tweet also included the phone numbers of those Republican lawmakers.
“It is incredible that people want to kill me for paving roads and drinking water”, Garbarino told to media.
He has also emphasized the seriousness of the problem and said that the “misinformation” spread by his colleagues in the House and conservative experts has put legislators at risk.
“There are members of Congress who are raising funds from their misinformation and attacking us, and that is causing us to receive death threats.” told The New York Post.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a news conference Friday that his department has “zero tolerance for this type of behavior for any of our residents,” referring to the death threat. The Long Island Press reported.
“In the world we live in today, the climate that exists, we take these threats very seriously,” he added.
Gasper was charged with aggravated harassment in the second degree and was arraigned Thursday. Pleaded not guilty, was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay away from Garbarino and the assistant who answered his phone.
His attorney, John Rey, has denied that Gasper made the threat.
“Ken is an ordinary American who took offense when the politician Garbarino became a Democrat overnight and voted, in Ken’s opinion, to destroy our country,” Ray said. according to a local ABC News affiliate.
Gasper is due to return to court later this month.
Several other Republican lawmakers have reported receiving hate calls and death threats since they voted on the infrastructure bill.
US Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told The Associated Press in September his department was seeing thousands of more threats against lawmakers than a few years ago.
He predicted that authorities would respond to about 9,000 threats against members of Congress this year.