GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger's staffer says the office temporarily turned off its phones amid 'overwhelming' threats

Rep. Adam Kinzinger has recieved threats for his work on the House January 6 panel.
His DC office receives thousands of angry phone calls a day.
Since releasing a video clip of these voicemails, they have received a lot of support, said one staffer.

Fielding hundreds of angry calls a day.

Thousands of people leaving irate voicemails.

One caller threatening to shoot up GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger's Washington, DC office.

These are just some of the things Kinzinger's congressional staffers have had to deal with in recent months as a result of his participation in the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

Maura Gillespie, Kinzinger's deputy chief of staff, told Insider that since the congressman started working on the January 6 committee, his office has had to contact US Capitol Police several times to report threats against the congressman. The phone calls and threatening voicemails tend to get worse on the days when the January 6 panel holds its public hearings, Gillespie said.

"At some point, we had to turn the phones off and put them to voicemail because it was so overwhelming," Gillespie said.

Kinzinger, an outspoken critic of Trump, has talked publicly about the threats he has received for being on the January 6 committee. Last month, the Illinois lawmaker shared on Twitter a death threat he received in a letter addressed to his wife, Sofia. The letter said, "That pimp you married not only broke his oath, he sold his soul." It went on, "Therefore, although it might take time, he will be executed."

Earlier this week, the Republican's office tweeted out a three-minute video clip featuring some of the threatening voicemails people have left him at his Washington office. One caller said, "I hope you naturally die as quickly as fucking possible." Another caller threatened to go after Kinzinger's wife and his newborn baby.

"I'm going to come to protest in front of your house this weekend," the caller said. "We know where your family is, and we're going to get you ...We're going to get your wife, going to get your kids."

In Kinzinger's DC office, the interns, who are high school and college students, usually handle phone calls that come into the office. The office has protocols to ensure that these kinds of threatening phone calls or voicemails get flagged to the US Capitol Police.

Gillespie said that since they released the video clip on Twitter, the Washington DC office has received an outpouring of positive and supportive messages.

"It's been a nice thing to see, honestly. When we shine a light on the darkness, humanity steps up, and good triumphs over evil," she said in an emailed statement.

Kinzinger and House select committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming are the only two Republicans serving on the panel. The threats Kinzinger has received are not isolated incidents. Several members of the January 6 committee have also come under increased security threats and had to increase their own personal security, according to Yahoo News.

Overall, the threats against US lawmakers have spiked in the last five years, according to data from the US Capitol Police obtained by Axios. The outlet reported that in the first three months of 2022, the Capitol Police opened cases into more than 1,800 threats.

Read the original article on Business Insider