Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment building Thursday morning, fighting off her attacker by tossing hot coffee at him in an incident that her office said does not appear to be politically motivated.
“Rep. Craig defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay,” Nick Coe, her chief of staff, said in a statement. The lawmaker called 911, but the assailant fled the scene of the assault that occurred at 7:15 a.m.
Despite the attack, Craig went to the Capitol later in the morning, casting three votes on the House floor during the day’s proceedings.
A D.C. police report said Craig saw the alleged assailant in the lobby, “acting erratic as if he was under the influence” of a drug or other substance.
Craig told police she said to the man, “Good morning,” and got into an elevator. She told police the man followed her onto the elevator “and began to randomly do pushups,” according to the report.
The report says Craig told police the man punched her with a closed fist on the chin and grabbed her by the neck. Craig said she threw hot coffee on the man, who then got away, the report says.
Two police officers searched the basement level parking garage but did not find the man, according to the report.
“Rep. Craig is grateful to the DC Metropolitan Police Department for their quick response and asks for privacy at this time,” Coe said in a statement, adding that, “There is no evidence that the incident was politically motivated.”
D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck confirmed that an assault occurred in an apartment building in the Northeast section of Washington, not far from Union Station. No arrest has been made. Sternbeck said it appears that the attacker may suffer from mental health issues.
Craig, 50, who’s serving her third term in Congress, represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.
The attack on Craig comes amid heightened security measures at the Capitol. The area around the Capitol complex was secured with fences and additional officers this week for President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, under advice from the Capitol Police board. However, while members of congressional leadership receive a security detail, those not in leadership are not assigned individual police protection.
Just last year, the Capitol Police investigated 7,501 threats against members of Congress. While that number represented a decrease from threats compared with 2020 and 2021, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said threats against lawmakers “are still too high.”
Last October, in a politically motivated incident, a man attacked then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul with a hammer in the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. Authorities said the attack was spurred by far-right conspiracy theories.
