Several of Donald Trump\u2019s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats.<\/p>\n
The FBI said it was aware of \u201cnumerous bomb threats\u201d as well as \u201cswatting incidents\u201d, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Threats were made against at least nine people chosen by Trump to lead the Departments of Defence, Housing, Agriculture and Labor, as well as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, among others.<\/p>\n
Police are investigating the incidents, which happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump\u2019s transition team, said the Trump appointees \u201cwere targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said \u201claw enforcement acted quickly to ensure\u201d the nominees\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Neither Leavitt nor the FBI identified any of the targets by name.<\/p>\n
New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who Trump has named to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, was the first to say her family home had been targeted by a bomb threat.<\/p>\n
Her office said the congresswoman was informed of the threat while she was driving with her husband and three-year-old son from Washington DC to New York for Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
Defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth later confirmed that he was also targeted.<\/p>\n
On X, he said that a police officer had shown up at his home on Wednesday morning, as his seven children were sleeping inside to notify him they had received \u201ca credible pipe bomb threat\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not be bullied or intimidated. Never,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPresident Trump has called on me to serve \u2013 and that is what I intend to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his campaign, was not among those who receivedthe hoax calls,law enforcement sources told US media.<\/p>\n
He has received genuine threats recently, according to officials in Arizona who arrested a man earlier this week for posting videos on a \u201cnear-daily basis\u201d in which he threatened to kill Trump and his family.<\/p>\n
None of those targeted this week were protected by the US Secret Service, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
Lee Zeldin, who Trump has nominated to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also confirmed he was targeted, saying a \u201cpipe bomb threat\u201d was sent to his home with a \u201cpro-Palestinian themed message\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family and I were not home at the time and are safe,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are thankful for the swift actions taken by local officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooke Rollins, Trump\u2019s pick to lead the Department of Agriculture, posted on X to thank police in Fort Worth, Texas, for their \u201cswift efforts\u201d to investigate a threat to her family on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were unharmed and quickly returned home,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Scott Turner, Trump\u2019s pick for Department of Housing, and Lori Chavez-Deremer, his pick for Labour Secretary, also posted on social media that they had been targeted. They each vowed that they would not be deterred by the threats.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incidents, the White House said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and the President-elect\u2019s team, and continues to monitor the situation closely.\u201d<\/p>\n
US Capitol Police, which protects Congress, said in the statement that it was working with federal law enforcement agencies on any \u201cswatting\u201d, but declined to provide further details \u201cto minimise the risk of copy-cats\u201d.<\/p>\n
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, who recently dropped out of the running to become US attorney general, was also targeted.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office in Florida\u2019s Okaloosa County confirmed that a bomb threat targeted an address in the town of Niceville.<\/p>\n
The home\u2019s mailbox was cleared and no devices were located, police said, and a search of the area did not uncover anything.<\/p>\n
New York police told the BBC\u2019s US partner CBS News that the New York home of Trump\u2019s nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was also threatened.<\/p>\n
Pam Bondi, who was selected to replace Gaetz as Trump\u2019s nominee, was also targeted along with incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to CBS.<\/p>\n
Fox News reports that John Ratcliffe, Trump\u2019s nominee to be director of the CIA, also received threats.<\/p>\n
Similar hoax tactics have been recently used against other high-profile political figures, including against the judges and prosecutors who oversaw the criminal cases against Trump.<\/p>\n
Last year, US politicians around the country were swatted over Christmas. Most were Republican, but some Democrats were targeted as well.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several of Donald Trump\u2019s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats. The FBI said it was aware of \u201cnumerous bomb threats\u201d as well as \u201cswatting incidents\u201d, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target\u2019s home. Threats were made against at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}