White supremacists accused of threatening two Black members of Congress are now facing time in prison weeks after Republicans scolded another Black legislator for taking steps to protect herself and her team. Rep. Cori Bush offered no apologies to the pundits who were quick to condemn her but slow even to address the more than 13 messages riddled with hate speech, profanity, racial slurs, and threats that she posted on Twitter. “You would rather me die?” she told CBS News when asked to respond to criticism over her $70,000 security bill. “Is that what you want to see? You want to see me die? Because, you know, that could be the alternative.”

When Bush posted the thread of threats, she did it to bring attention to the real-life threats legislators of color face just for doing their jobs. Sadly, those threats seldom end in actual charges holding the racists accountable, but the white supremacists who targeted Sen. Raphael Warnock and Rep. Maxine Waters weren’t as lucky. 

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The Washington Post reports that Eduard Florea, 41, of Queens, New York, faces 15 years in prison for threatening Warnock following his Senate runoff victory in Georgia. Florea wrote on the conservative social media site Parler that Warnock, a reverend by the way, “is going to have a hard time casting votes for communist policies when he’s swinging with the … fish.” Florea then wrote in another post referring to Warnock that: “Dead men can’t pass (expletive) laws.” 

He pleaded guilty to transmitting threats to injure and possessing ammunition after a felony conviction, according to a news release from the office of Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The day before the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol January 6, Florea, who admitted to supporting the Proud Boys, called for an attack in Washington, posting both: “We need to all come to an agreement . . . and go armed . . . and really take back Washington,” and “Tomorrow may very [well] be the day war kicks off . . .”  

His other posts highlighted in the news release on Monday include:

“Mine are ready….I am ready…. we need to regroup outside of DC and attack from all sides… talking to some other guys….I will keep watching for the signal.”
“I am awaiting my orders…armed and ready to deploy….”
“Guns cleaned loaded . . . got a bunch of guys all armed and ready to deploy . . . we are just waiting for the word”
“There 3 car full of armed patriots heading in from NY….”
“Me and some guys are gearing up to head in. . . . where are you . . . 3 cars already are enroute . . . .all armed.”
“It’s time to unleash some violence.”

“With today’s guilty plea, Florea admits to threatening the life of a successful candidate for U.S. Senate and to urging others to take up arms to unleash violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to thwart the results of the Presidential election,” Kasulis said in the release.

According to The Mercury News, apparently taking a page from the insurrectionists, Michael Anthony Gallagher is accused of sending Rep. Waters a death threat using a racial slur signed on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan. “The Sheriff of Stanislaus County says you and your (expletives) are (expletive),” Gallagher allegedly wrote on a postcard sent Jan. 8, 2019. “We will successfully put a bullet in your head. -+KKK.” He was charged with a federal crime on Wednesday, The Mercury News reported.

This, however, doesn’t usually happen. Many of the threats legislators receive are made anonymously, including the ones directed at freshman Rep. Bush. She told CBS News her critics often lie about her to drum up support from their base. “Then, because they lie about me, I receive death threats,” she said. “Now, they don’t address the fact that I receive death threats after they go on air and say horrible things about me, but then they want to say, ‘Oh but she wants, she needs private security.’

“I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now.”

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