Angie Craig’s office criticizes Fox News after receiving threatening messages over DC attack
The office of Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) is criticizing Fox News after the lawmaker received a number of vulgar and threatening messages after a man attacked her in her Washington, D.C. apartment building.
Some of the audio recordings mention a segment on “The Five” and then criticize Craig in the wake of the attack in which an assailant grabbed her by the neck and punched her in the face.
“I’m listening to your story on ‘The Five,'” one person says in one of the recordings. The person then incorrectly says that Craig got attacked in Minnesota before continuing.
“Well that’s what you get for turning that what, five or six time felon, crack-smoking, fentanyl-eating, counterfeit money-passing, armed robber holding guns on fetusus, n****r (George) Floyd as a public hero,” the caller stated.
Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck led to sweeping calls for police reform and racial justice in the United States.
Other messages the lawmaker shared include: “I hope the f*****s get you again,” and, “I am so glad that you were attacked.”
Craig’s office is drawing a link between the messages and an episode of “The Five.”
During that edition, co-host Geraldo Rivera said the lawmaker, was “very brave, heroic, almost,” before noting that critics had linked Craig to the defund the police movement
“And, you know, I like what she did, but critics are now pointing out that the congresswoman’s ties to the defund the police movement, you know, really make it sound hypocritical,” he said. “One of her top staffers spoke out against law enforcement for example, during the George Floyd riots.
When reached out to for comment, Craig’s office reiterated that she is not supportive of the “Defund the Police” movement and noted she was endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association during the 2022 election cycle.
Laura Cottrell, a spokesperson for the Democratic lawmaker, said that “harassing the victim of a violent crime on national television is abhorrent behavior.”
Later in the show, co-host Jeanine Pirro also criticized Craig for criticizing the police in a remark that Craig’s office highlighted.
“Whenever you call them, you don’t get the police. If you want to defund the police, we’ll tell the P.D. dispatch, you don’t go to that person’s address, you know. That’s what they want. That’s what they should get,” Pirro said.
“But now that the Congresswoman has been victimized, now she feels your pain? Nonsense. And for those who say ‘at least now she’s on our side’ — baloney … You’ve done your damage, stick with it. Defund the police as it relates to you.”
Craig has in the past accused Republicans of using “defund the police” talking points to spin a bad faith political narrative.
During a 2021 debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee markup of the Build Back Better Act, Craig told her GOP colleagues she was “sick and tired of allowing you to talk about this defund the police movement when not a single action in the Democratic Congress has sought to do just that.”
Craig, who was bruised but “physically okay” following the Feb. 9 assault, said in a statement at the time that she was “very, very lucky” to escape the attack with only minor injuries.