WASHINGTON – White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed the “throwing away” of the nation’s call on Tuesday, after someone falsely reported to 911 that there was a fire at the executive mansion the day before.
The fake calls “create danger and risk to our society,” Jean-Pierre said during a virtual press briefing.
The trend is “obviously a concern for us,” he added.
“This is something that obviously the Secret Service will monitor very closely as it relates to us particularly in the White House or this administration.”
DC Fire and EMS received a call at 7:03 a.m. Monday claiming that the White House was on fire, prompting them to the scene, where it was determined about 14 minutes later that there was no fire.
President Biden was at Camp David in Maryland at the time, and the Secret Service has not released a statement on the incident.
The calls are the latest to target high-profile US politicians and are likely to step up efforts to catch the perpetrators.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the country’s “hitting” on Tuesday. Getty Images
Similar calls saw police and other emergency personnel dispatched to the homes of judges and politicians from both major parties.
False reports intended to trigger a heavily armed response can be deadly — for example, a false report fueled by a dispute involving the video game “Call of Duty: WWII” resulted in Wichita, Kan., police shooting and killing 28-year-old Andrew Finch on year 2017.
Republicans hit in the past month include Rep. Georgia Majorie Taylor Greene, Rep. New York’s Brandon Williams and Florida’s Senator Rick Scott.
Democratic victims include Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, billionaire donor George Soros and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who ordered the removal of former President Donald Trump’s name from the state’s 2024 ballot last month.
DC Fire and EMS received a false tip at 7:03 a.m. Monday claiming that the White House was on fire. Xinhua/Shutterstock
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the civil fraud trial against Trump, and DC federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the former president’s criminal trial for trying to reverse his 2020 loss, were also targeted — as was computer repairman John Paul Mac Issac, who distributed the contents of firstborn Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.
The motive behind the anonymous call was unclear and officials did not describe the suspect.
The calls have similarities to other harassment campaigns, such as the 2016-2017 wave of phone threats made to Jewish institutions.
A teenager living in Israel, himself Jewish, was convicted in 2018 of making about 2,000 of those calls, admitting, “I did it out of boredom. It’s like a game,” and claimed he was paid in Bitcoin to make some of the threats.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
