New York man arrested for threatening Rep. Steve Scalise’s children

A man in New York has been arrested for leaving a threatening voicemail for Rep. Steve Scalise and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. The caller made reference to children separated from their parents at the border. The caller then suggested the lawmakers’ children could be murdered as payback. From WKBW:

63-year-old Carlos Bayon was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with interstate communication of a threat.

Prosecutors say the Louisiana office of a United States Congressman received a threatening voicemail on June 30. It stated:

Hey listen, this message is for you and the people that sent you there. You are taking ours, we are taking yours. Anytime, anywhere. We know where they are. We are not going to feed them sandwiches, we are going to feed them lead. Make no mistake you will pay. Ojo por ojo, diente por diente (Spanish for “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth). That is our law and we are the majority. Have a good day.”

The Washington Post reports Rep. Steve Scalise was one of the people targeted by the calls. The other was Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State.

Scalise (La.) and McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) are not named in the complaint, but congressional aides familiar with the investigation confirmed the identity of the threatened lawmakers. The charging documents indicate one call was made to a congressional office in Spokane, Wash., in McMorris Rodgers’s district…

“Whip Scalise is grateful to law enforcement for their actions,” Scalise spokeswoman Lauren Fine said. “He will never forget how their heroism saved his life and those of his colleagues last year. As he has said before, there is absolutely no place in our political discourse for violent threats.”

A spokesman for McMorris Rodgers declined to comment.

Most sites are reporting this as a threat against Scalise and while he was clearly meant to hear it, the threat itself is against the lawmakers’ children. Bayon is saying the children could be killed “anytime, anywhere” as payback for Trump’s policy of separating kids from parents at the border. Rep. Scalise has two children and Rep. McMorris Rodgers has three children. Here’s hoping the judge throws the book at this unhinged nut.

Last June a gunman nearly killed Scalise as he was practicing for an annual congressional baseball game. The shooter, James Thomas Hodgkinson, had participated in the Bernie Sanders campaign and was vocal on social media about his dislike for Republicans in general and President Trump in particular.