The White House was the target of a “swatting” call on Monday morning, triggering a large emergency response.
Officials said that a caller told 911 that a fire at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. had trapped someone inside the building. Multiple units from D.C. Fire and EMS arrived at the scene at 7:03 a.m. and determined that it was a false alarm.
The call was “in the same spirit” of the recent slew of similar incidents directed at public officials, D.C. Fire and EMS communications director Noah Gray told NBC News. No law enforcement was dispatched to the scene, he said. President Joe Biden was at Camp David, Maryland, during the incident.
A “swatting” call involves a false 911 report of an emergency at a location to elicit an aggressive police response. Monday’s incident is the latest in a string of incidents that have targeted public officials who have also seen an increase in the number of violent threats against them and their families at a time of acute political polarization.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in an interview with ABC News in late December that there has been an influx of threats to public officials “on a weekly basis.” “Just this week, we’ve had cases involving threats to kill FBI agents, a Supreme Court justice and three presidential candidates,” Monaco said at the time, without mentioning the names of those targeted. The uptick in violent rhetoric against public officials can be traced back, in part, to political figures like Donald Trump and his allies, who have primed their base with conspiracy theories about perceived political foes and incendiary comments about “retribution” against the “deep state.” Such rhetoric has already resulted in incidents of real-world violence — often stemming from the right, experts say.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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