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Republican lawmaker received threatening email after Congressional baseball shooting

Posted at 3:29 PM, Jun 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-14 17:29:50-04

By Saba Hamedy and Deirdre Walsh

CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) — GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney received a threatening email following the shooting in Alexandria, Virginia at a baseball practice for Congressional Republicans ahead of a charity game.

The email sent to Tenney had the subject line “One down, 216 to go,” Tenney’s office confirmed to CNN.

“Did you NOT expect this?” the body of the email read. “When you take away ordinary peoples very lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forfeit. Certainly, your souls and morality were lost long before. Good riddance.”

A spokesperson for the New York lawmaker said the office referred the threat to US Capitol Police, but she has not yet received any additional security. Capitol Police did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment regarding Tenney’s email threat.

Tenney, who was a supporter of President Donald Trump’s campaign, said this is not the first time she has received a threat.

People have walked into her local office and said “I hope you die,” she told CNN. Her office has also previously turned over multiple obscene phone messages to Capitol Police.

The Capitol Police Board issued an email statement Wednesday encouraging people on the Hill to remember “if you see something, say something.”

At least five people, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the third ranking member of House Republican leadership as the majority whip, were hospitalized after the shooting. Trump said the gunman, identified by federal law enforcement sources as James Hodgkinson, died from injuries.

Tenney, who plays for the bipartisan congressional women’s softball team, tweeted about the shooting Thursday.

“Thoughts & prayers go out to my friend & colleague Rep. @SteveScalise, brave Capitol Police Officers & all impacted by this terrible tragedy,” she wrote.

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