As House Speaker Mike Johnson gathered lawmakers this week to mourn Charlie Kirk, he summed up the grief felt by many on Capitol Hill — and the pervasive fear.
“For so many of us, it has felt as if the ground was shaken,” said Johnson, R-La. The killing of Kirk, the prominent conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder, has unnerved lawmakers in both parties, amplifying their long-standing concerns about safety in a heated political climate where threats against political rivals and calls to violence have become frighteningly common.
Responding to those concerns, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Thursday night engineered unanimous passage of a measure that will allow senators to use money designated for their offices and staff for security purposes. Members of the House are pushing for increased security funding as well. It’s all part of a significant shift for lawmakers who increasingly feel that their engagement in public life requires the same kinds of security precautions long reserved for the president and members of the Cabinet. “If you go back several years ago, people were like, Yeah, I understand there’s a risk.’ But now it’s different. Our families are coming to us and saying, OK, what are we gonna do?’ Our staff are coming to us and saying, What are we gonna do?’” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. Unlike the president and other top executive branch officials, rank-and-file lawmakers are often unaccompanied by security agents when they are off Capitol Hill, which is guarded by the US Capitol Police.