Police mounted patrols Sunday night around the Loveland house of Republican state lawmaker Ron Weinberg after someone posted a message on Facebook saying he and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, along with a GOP candidate running for Larimer County commissioner, should be “put in the crosshairs.”
Weinberg, who serves in the House, said the comment was made on the Facebook page of a Loveland politics group on Sunday afternoon.
“My initial reaction was safety for my wife and two kids,” he told The Denver Post by phone Monday.
Drew Sexton, campaign manager for Boebert, said Weinberg spoke to him Sunday night about the threat. He said the Republican congresswoman, who also has lived in Larimer County since her decision late last year to run for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, was in Washington, D.C., on Sunday night but that the campaign is reaching out to Capitol police to inquire about any additional protection that might be needed.
The third person mentioned in the post is Ben Aste, a Republican running for commissioner in Larimer County, Weinberg said.
Weinberg in a statement on Sunday called the Facebook post a “disturbing and unacceptable death threat,” especially coming eight days after a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man tried to kill former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally.
“The alarming assassination attempt on former President Trump makes it clear that the rhetoric and actions surrounding our political differences have become far too contentious,” Weinberg wrote. “We are not enemies!”
The first-term representative said the man who made the Facebook post has threatened to punch him in the face before, but had never made reference to using firearms. He declined to name the person, saying that could potentially place him in danger.
“I want to protect him,” Weinberg said.
But he said police know who he is and are monitoring the situation.
The Facebook post associated the three politicians with Christian nationalism even though Weinberg is not Christian.
“I’m a Jew, for Pete’s sake,” he said.
In the post, Weinberg was referred to as “‘Mr. Militia’ Weinberg,” which the lawmaker presumed was a shot at him for helping start a Patriot-themed group in Loveland that attended school board meetings to make sure “our voices were heard.”
“When you hear patriot today, you have to carry an AR and a pistol on your hip, apparently,” he said. “It’s time to come back to the center.”
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Originally Published: July 22, 2024 at 12:24 p.m.
