Source: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Getty
If you thought the racist aftermath of the Capitol attack was over, think again.
While some Americans have moved on from the abhorrent display of white privilege, emboldened individuals who participated or advocated for the violence on Jan. 6 are ramping up new threats and violence.
According to The Washington Post, Kenneth Hubert, a 63-year-old white man who self-describes as a “right-wing nutjob,” was recently charged with threatening to assault and murder Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, a Black lawmaker from Missouri, and Rep. Steve Cohen, a Jewish lawmaker from Tennessee.
Hubert was also charged with using interstate communication to make a threat and pleaded not guilty. On Monday a judge ruled that because of his violent history threatening lawmakers, he will remain in custody. His trial will begin in May.
Hubert is accused of leaving a voicemail on Cleaver’s office phone in Missouri, calling him the n-word and advocated for his lynching. The call took place on Jan. 7, one day after the Capitol attack.
The threat made against Cohen dates back to 2019. Hubert reportedly called Cohen’s Washington D.C. office and told one of his staffers that he would “put a noose around his [Cohen] neck and drag him behind his pickup truck.”
The news comes after Maxine Waters revealed she was also targeted by death threats weeks leading up to and after the Capitol attack.
The reasoning behind Hubert’s ire against Cleaver and Cohen is painfully evident, however investigators uncovered specific instances where he began formulating a plan of attack. Investigators say it was a tongue-in-cheek joke Cleaver made on the first day of the new Congress to reflect the historic number of women serving: “Amen and a-woman.”
Cleaver, a methodist minister, made the joke in good fun without the knowledge that it could lead to a threat on his life.
Hubert told investigators that he set his sights on Cohen after he made critical comments about Donald Trump.
Hubert’s threats against the lawmakers follows a string of disturbing events including a Secret Service investigation for saying President Barack Obama “needed to be hanged by a light post.” In 2014 he also threatened and made harassing homophobic phone calls to a federal judge in Montana over a same-sex marriage ruling, prosecutors say. In 2016 Hubert was investigated for harassing calls he made to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Pack up your tents and go back to your [expletive] Arab country, that’s if you want to stay alive,” he said in one message. At the time he told the FBI that “the point of the call was to make them worried.”
Hours after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack Hubert called the Missouri Democratic Party office twice, and in the latter call threatened a replay of the day’s events at the office headquarters in Missouri.
“You see the [expletive] happening at the Capitol? It’s coming your way next,” he supposedly said.
Investigators claim that Hubert was not in attendance on Jan. 6.
And yet somehow Hubert was allowed to walk around with only a mere slap on the wrist or faced questioning from law enforcement. Incredulously Hubert’s lawyer said that he’s been a “law abiding” citizen throughout his life.
Cleaver told The Post he feels safe knowing Hubert remains detained.
“But then, hate has such bad eyesight that a thrown rock might hit anyone within range,” Cleaver said. “Maybe it’s good that he remain in a place where there are no rocks.”
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Capitol Police Investigating New Round Of Death Threats Made Against Maxine Waters
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