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How top congressional aides are addressing increased fears they have for safety of lawmakers and their staff
Now in his 12th year as a U.S. House aide, Mitchell Rivard acknowledges he’s increasingly worried about the harassment and threats against his colleagues — much more so than in the past.
Rivard, the chief of staff to Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan, said some of the calls made to his congressional office are at times so intimidating and so threatening that he tries to intervene to spare junior staffers from the hostility of the callers.
He said he now advises his staff to transfer these calls to his cellphone and to forward any threatening messages to him.
“If they’re raising their voice, they’re using inappropriate language or if they’re making you uncomfortable, transfer them directly to me,” Rivard told CBS News he has told his colleagues.
Rivard says he and a group of his fellow top House aides have held meetings about how to handle the toxic atmosphere of this political moment, which has seen a surge in the number of threats against members of Congress and their offices.
“The atmosphere in Congress wasn’t amazing when Congressman Kildee got here, but it certainly hasn’t gotten any better,” Rivard said. “When it comes to safety and security, I have to think constantly and frequently much more than I ever had before.”
Provided by Mitchell Rivard
A survey of dozens of top congressional aides conducted by the nonprofit Congressional Management Foundation reveals large majorities are feeling “anxiety and/or fear” about the safety of working in their jobs, and concerns about threats against Members of Congress during events and public appearance.
The survey, completed by 138 top congressional aides, showed a larger percentage of longer-tenured aides and female staffers were mostly likely to acknowledge fears of safety because of their jobs. Among the findings of the report: 70% of staffers said they have experienced “direct insulting or threatening messages or communications” while on the job. Nearly three out of four Senate staffers said they had frequently experienced anxiety about the safety of members of Congress.
And 38% of longtime aides — including women and those who’ve worked in congressional offices for longer than 11 years — question whether they should leave their jobs now due to safety concerns.
The foundation’s study said Democratic respondents were more likely to report anxieties than Republicans, even though incidents of harassing and threatening messages were reported broadly by staffers of both parties.
“Jan. 6 was still looming in many people’s minds,” said Bradley Fitch, president of the Congressional Management Foundation and a former top congressional aide. “The death threats that are coming into offices haven’t abated,” Fitch said. “This is a disturbing trend. I was just working with some interns last week, and it was shocking to me the number of death threats that they’ve received.”
“The front door swung open…”
Last week, a Florida man pleaded guilty to a federal charge for making phone threats against Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and his children. According to a signed plea agreement, Michael Shapiro acknowledged calling Swalwell’s office and leaving a message that said, “I’m gonna come and kiil your children you mother-f*****. I’m gonna kill your children.”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys noted Shapiro’s claim that he was angered about Swalwell and intoxicated when leaving the message, according to the plea agreement.
“When played an audio recording of a threatening message left with the Congressional office, the defendant stated, ”I don’t know what to tell you, it sounds like a drunk man.'”
The menacing behavior isn’t limited to phone calls or social media trolling. In May 2023, Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 50, allegedly wielded a baseball bat and attacked staffers in the Fairfax, Va., office of Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly. An FBI affidavit said Pham was demanding to talk to Connolly, a longtime Northern Virginia congressman.
A staffer was training a new intern in administrative tasks, and “[s]uddenly, the front door swung open and Pham, wielding a baseball bat, charged through it,” the affidavit said. “Using the bat, Pham struck (the victim) on the head, causing her to fall to the floor.”
Pham has not entered a plea in his federal case, which has been pending in federal court in Alexandria, Va., since mid-May, according to a review of the court docket. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to say why the case has stalled.
Not all of the recent attacks against Congress or staff have political overtones. Kendrid Hamlin, 27, will be in prison in Pennsylvania until April 2025 for assaulting Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat attacked in her Capitol Hill apartment building in February 2023.
Hamlin trapped and punched Craig in the elevator of Craig’s apartment complex tried to enter Craig’s apartment, according to court documents. She escaped after throwing hot coffee at Hamlin and running from the elevator at its next stop.
Though Hamlin pleaded guilty, Craig’s letter to the court at a sentencing hearing underscored the ongoing pain and recovery from the attack.
“He grabbed my neck and slammed me into the steel wall,” she wrote. “He punched me in the face.”
Craig also said she’s since been the subject of death threats and doxing amid the media attention of the assault. She wrote that her “mental and emotional recovery” is ongoing.
“Heated political rhetoric” that is “unprecedented and alarming”
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger will be testifying this week at a Senate hearing to argue for 2025 funding for the department’s security initiatives. He warned of rising threats against lawmakers at a House hearing last month.
“Our country is in the midst of an historical rise in threats that is flamed by the current climate of heated political rhetoric; it is both unprecedented and alarming,” he said at the House hearing. “Over the past year, we have seen a dangerous rise in acts of violence against Members of Congress, their families and staff.”
Three federal prosecutors have been assigned to help the Capitol Police handle cases involving threats. They’ll be based in Tampa, San Jose, Calif. and Washington, D.C. The prosecutors bring and will further develop an expertise in handling the threats against federal officials.
Rep. David Valadao, a Cailfornia Republican who recently took over as chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for Capitol Police, told CBS News he recently met with the Capitol Police chief and House Sergeant at Arms to talk about the security of members and their families in their hometowns.
“I think most members of Congress have had experiences — in a negative way — when it comes to threats and things like that,” Valadao said.
“Safety questions are relevant” for staffers considering whether to keep working in Congress
Fitch said the harassment and intimidation incidents risk fueling attrition among congressional aides.
“Capitol Hill is a plum job for many people, but clearly the mental pressure and mental wellness issues are unfortunate,” he said. “The safety questions are relevant for people when they consider whether they want to keep their jobs in Congress.”
Staffers organized a support and trauma group that met regularly in the months after the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. One organizer said the group recently stopped its formal meetings, but it made strides in responding to the trauma and fear suffered after the attack.
Another founder said, “It helped us connect with one another to talk about it … to share our experiences with each other and compare.”
Rivard said congressional staffers are experiencing more pressure as their workloads increase and concern about heightened threats. He helps operate an association of congressional chiefs of staff to exchange ideas about how to respond to the stresses: “We try to bring folks together to hopefully make this place work in this pretty partisan times.”
A man who failed in an attempt to break into Brazil’s Supreme Court killed himself in explosions outside the building Wednesday that forced justices and staff to evacuate, authorities said.
The two strong blasts were heard about 7:30 p.m. after the day’s session finished and all the justices and staff left the building safely, Brazil’s Supreme Court said in a statement.
Local firefighters confirmed one man died at the scene in the capital Brasilia, but did not identify him.
EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images
Celina Leão, the lieutenant governor of Brazil’s federal district, said the suspect had earlier detonated explosives in a car in a Congress parking lot, which did not cause injuries.
“His first action was to explode the car. Then he approached the Supreme Court and tried to get in the building. He failed and then there were the other explosions,” Leão said in a news conference.
Local media reported that the car that exploded belonged to a member of Brazil’s Liberal Party, the same of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Leão said only investigations will determine whether the owner of the car is the same man who died in the blasts.
Leão recommended that Congress be closed Thursday to avoid new risks. Brazil’s Senate heeded her call and the lower house will be shut until noon, speaker Arthur Lira said.
“It could have been a lone wolf, like others we’ve seen around the world,” Leão said in a news conference. “We are considering it as a suicide because there was only one victim. But investigations will show if that was indeed the case.”
Leão added only forensics will be able to identify the body, which remained outside the Supreme Court for three hours after the blasts.
The blasts outside the Supreme Court took place about 20 seconds apart in Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza, where Brazil’s main government buildings, including the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace, are located.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not in the neighboring presidential palace at the time, spokesman José Chrispiniano said.
Police blocked all access to the area and the presidential security bureau was conducting a sweep of the grounds around the presidential palace.
Brazil’s federal police said it is investigating and did not provide a motive.
The Supreme Court in recent years has become a target for threats by far-right groups and supporters of Bolsonaro’s due to its crackdown on the spread of false information. In particular, Justice Alexandre de Moraes has been a focus for their ire.
Lula’s spokesman said that late on Wednesday the leftist leader was gathering at the presidential residence with federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues, and Supreme Court Justices de Moraes and Cristiano Zanin.
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What to know about Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
Donald Trump is vowing to reduce wasteful federal spending by tapping two billionaires — Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — to spearhead the initiative, which the president-elect is calling the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
The appointments, announced by Trump on Tuesday, raise a host of questions about the effort, including whether Musk and Ramaswamy will have the authority to make changes in federal outlays, given that Congress authorizes the nation’s spending, as well as where the businessmen might look to cut spending. Under the plan, meanwhile, DOGE is not an official government department, raising questions about how its powers and how it will operate.
The announcement comes a week after Trump won a second term as president, with voters expressing their dissatisfaction with the economy under the Biden administration. As part of his campaign vows, Trump promised to slash government spending. Musk’s bio on X, the social media platform he bought in 2022, now reads, “The people voted for major government reform.”
“Frankly, it does need to be done again, so every few decades you really need to look at everything,” Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution who managed the Clinton Administration’s National Performance Review, an effort to cut government spending in the 1990s, told CBS MoneyWatch.
But Kamarck also harbors reservations about Musk and Ramaswamy’s mandate, especially after the former recently suggested he could find more than $2 trillion in savings — almost one-third of the federal government’s $6.7 trillion in annual spending. Two-thirds of that spending is mandatory through programs including Social Security and Medicare, while discretionary spending is largely spent on defense.
“This is the first warning sign that this is going to be a failed operation,” Kamarck said. “That’s insane.”
The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Here’s what to know about the Department of Government Efficiency.
What is the Department of Government Efficiency?
Trump announced the DOGE in a statement on Tuesday, describing it as an effort to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
The name is a nod to Musk’s support for a cryptocurrency called dogecoin, which was created as a joke by two software engineers and uses the image of a smiling Shiba Inu dog. (Dogecoin has more than tripled in price during the last month, and now trades at 38 cents.)
Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy’s work “will conclude no later than July 4, 2026,” or by the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump only outlined the initiative’s contours and didn’t disclose how it will be staffed or funded. The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request about the DOGE’s funding or whether Musk or Ramaswamy will be paid for their work on the effort.
Can the DOGE actually cut federal spending?
At the moment, that appears unlikely given that the DOGE isn’t a real government department, which would need to be created by congressional approval. Federal spending is authorized by Congress, and senators and House representatives may hesitate to support cuts to major programs like Social Security or Medicare, which are popular with millions of voters, or to the nation’s military.
It’s also not clear how the organization will operate. It could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public.
Trump described Musk and Ramaswamy’s role as providing “advice and guidance from outside of government.”
That doesn’t amount to much, Kamarck said.
“They have no authority — none whatsoever,” she added, while noting that the backing of the president can help convince lawmakers to throw their support behind efficiency efforts.
What have Musk and Ramaswamy said about federal spending?
Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth of $319 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has described the U.S. government as bloated and said it its spending is unsustainable. The Tesla founder also said he wants to reduce the number of federal agencies to 99, down from more than 400.
“There are so many [agencies] that people have never heard of, and that have overlapping areas of responsibilities,” Musk said earlier this month.
While on the campaign trail with Trump, Musk also said he could cut “at least $2 trillion” from the annual budget. “Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency will fix that,” Musk said.
Musk is known for cost-cutting at his own companies, slashing most of X’s workforce after he bought the business two years ago as well as focusing on manufacturing costs at Tesla. Even so, those efforts have had mixed results, with X’s valuation falling by about 80% since his purchase. Tesla’s stock price, meanwhile, has surged 48% in the past year, bumping its value above $1 trillion.
Ramaswamy, whom Forbes says has a net worth of about $1 billion, dropped out of the presidential race in January after running on an “anti-woke” campaign. He also advocated for government cuts by eliminating the Department of Education, a goal shared by President-elect Trump.
Have administrations previously tried to cut costs?
Yes, both Republican and Democratic presidents have created efforts to cut government spending.
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan created the Grace Commission, led by wealthy businessman J. Peter Grace, the CEO of W. R. Grace & Company, a chemicals business. About 150 business people volunteered for the commission, which ultimately recommended 2,500 reforms, according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“Most of the recommendations, especially those requiring legislation from Congress, were never implemented,” the library notes. “However, the Commission’s work provided a starting point for many conservative critiques of the federal government.”
In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton created the National Performance Review with the goal to create a government that would work better and cost less, Kamarck said. The group was staffed with civil servants who understood the bureaucracy, and many of whom had frustrations with it, she added.
The group had some successes in streamlining operations and paring costs, eventually cutting more than 300,000 jobs, according to a study from the Congressional Research Service. Kamarck noted that the group also focused on integrating technology into departments at a time when the internet was just emerging, leading to efficiencies such as online tax filing.
Where could the Trump administration cut spending?
While experts are skeptical of Musk’s claim he can cut $2 trillion in spending, they also point out there are opportunities to look at efficiencies.
Eliminating Medicare fraud is one area that could result in savings, according to the Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan group that looks at government spending. Its recommendations also include reducing the nation’s contributions to the U.N. and ending subsidies for some agricultural products, like dairy and sugar. Its projected savings: $377 billion in the first year, or about 19% of the $2 trillion that Musk is eyeballing.
But efficiency goes beyond cost-cutting, Kamarck noted. It’s also about understanding how the bureaucracy works,
“Every single thing in the federal government is big and complicated, and there are layers and layers of complexity,” she noted. “Al Gore and I relied on hundreds of experienced civil servants to tell us how this worked — and if you don’t do this, which I suspect they won’t because Musk is an arrogant billionaire, you will fail.”
Does Musk have conflicts of interest?
Yes, as Musk’s SpaceX works with the Department of Defense and NASA, with the federal government pledging $3 billion to his companies last year, according to the New York Times. Tesla, meanwhile, has been investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as by other agencies.
Federal employees are generally required to disclose their financial assets and entanglements to ward off any potential conflicts of interest, and to divest significant holdings relating to their work. Because Musk and Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those requirements or ethical limitations.
contributed to this report.