Swalwell Receives Voicemail Threatening Decapitation

* Note: Graphic language and imagery contained.

DUBLIN, CA — U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) received a violent, profanity-laden voicemail threatening decapitation of him and his family.

“I hope someone cuts that m—’s throat from ear to ear,” the caller said in a nearly two-minute violent rant that Swalwell posted on Twitter. “Cut his f— head off….cut his wife’s head off, cut his kids’ heads off.” The caller also said someone should “kill all Democrats” and used a racial slur to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Jessica Gail, a representative from Swalwell’s office, told Patch the call came through to his office in Castro Valley. Gail said the office contacted the Capitol Police, which they do each time they receive a threat of physical violence.

“LISTEN to this death threat against my children,” Swalwell wrote. “Since the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump, McCarthy, and MAGA Republicans are stoking violent rhetoric against lawmakers and law enforcement. Someone is going to get killed.”

Gail told Patch that Swalwell has received an increased number of threats over the past year, mirroring a national trend. He has linked to other threatening messages on Twitter, including recent texts saying he should be “hit over the head with the same gavel used on Pelosi” and “hung for treason.”

A New York Times investigation found that threats against members of Congress increased fourfold since Trump took office. In 2016, Capitol Police investigated 902 threats. The following year, police investigated 3,939 threats. Threats increased at pivotal moments, like Trump’s first impeachment, the Jan. 6 insurrection, and most recently the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida, according to The Times.

The Times reviewed 75 indictments of people charged with threatening lawmakers. Of those 75, more than a third consisted of Trump supporters threatening Democrats or Republicans they did not believe to be sufficiently loyal to Trump. A quarter of the cases involved Democrats threatening Republicans. Many others were not explicitly partisan, but driven by conspiracy theories like QAnon.

In July, Democratic California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s home in San Francisco was searched for bombs after his staff receiving a call saying he would “die today.”