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Capitol Police have 1,800 cameras used to monitor the Capitol and the homes of some lawmakers, yet no one was watching the video feeds outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home the night her husband was attacked, according to a report. of the Washington Post.
Several current and former law enforcement officials spoke to The Post anonymously and said that if Capitol Police were going to prevent an attack on any member of the House of Congress, they had the best chance of doing it at Pelosi’s house. One official added that Pelosi is the subject of the most violent death threats of any lawmaker.
Police attribute the level of threats the House speaker is receiving to being a woman, second in line for the presidency and being targeted by Republicans, according to The Post.
On Friday, suspect David DePape broke into the Pelosi residence and attacked Paul Pelosi, the speaker’s husband, with a hammer in a “politically motivated” attack. On Tuesday, DePape pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted murder and kidnapping.
The Post reported that Capitol Police installed cameras around the Speaker of the House’s property more than eight years ago and have a 24/7 security detail. On the night of the attack, most of her security team traveled with her to Washington, D.C., and officers were only partially monitoring video feeds from outside her home, according to the report.
In a press release Tuesday, Capitol Police Chief Tom Munger said that while there have been improvements, including plans to hire 280 more officers this year, the country’s “political climate” will require “additional layers of physical security.”
Pelosi has been the target of violent threats in the past. In March 2019, a man in Florida called her office to tell staff he would “go to great lengths to hit her in the head with bullets” and decapitate her “jihadist style,” according to court documents from the trial of.
Violent threats to lawmakers have increased dramatically in recent years, according to police. Data from the Capitol Police found that threats against congressional lawmakers increased 144 percent between 2017 and 2022.
