WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday denounced nationwide “knock-down” calls after someone mistakenly called 911 to report a fire at the presidential palace the day before.
Jean-Pierre said in a virtual press conference that fake calls “pose danger and risk to our society.”
This trend is “obviously a concern for us,” she added.
“The Secret Service is going to be watching this very closely because this obviously concerns us in the White House and the administration.”
D.C. Fire and EMS responded to the scene at 7:03 a.m. Monday when they received a call that the White House was on fire, but it was confirmed about 14 minutes later that there was no fire.
President Biden was at Camp David, Maryland, at the time, but the Secret Service has not released a statement regarding the incident.
The call is the latest to target a prominent US politician and is likely to intensify efforts to catch the perpetrator.
Similar calls sent police and other emergency personnel to the homes of judges and politicians from both major political parties.
False reports aimed at initiating a heavily armed response can be deadly. For example, a false report motivated by a conflict involving the video game Call of Duty: World War II resulted in police in Wichita, Kansas, shooting and killing a 28-year-old man. Andrew Finch, 2017.
Republican lawmakers who have come under attack in the past month include Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, New York Rep. Brandon Williams and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
Democratic victims include Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, billionaire donor George Soros and Maine's Democratic Party, which last month ordered former President Donald Trump's name removed from the state's 2024 ballots. This includes Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron and D.C. federal judge overseeing the civil fraud trial against Trump Tanya ChutkanHe was also targeted as he is overseeing the former president's criminal trial as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat. Also targeted was John Paul Mac Isaac, a computer repairman who distributed the contents of a laptop discarded by Biden's eldest son, Hunter Biden.
The motive for the anonymous call is unknown and authorities have not named the suspect.
The calls are similar to other harassment campaigns, including a series of phone threats against Jewish organizations in 2016 and 2017.
A teenager living in Israel who is also Jewish. convicted in 2018 He admitted that he made about 2,000 of those calls: It was like a game,'' he said, claiming he also received compensation in Bitcoin.
