Rep. Angie Craig assaulted in apartment building elevator

​Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted Thursday morning in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, but defended herself by tossing coffee at the attacker, according to local reports and the Minnesota Democrat’s staff.

“This morning around 7:15 a.m., Rep. Craig was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, DC,” Craig chief of staff Nick Coe said in a statement.

“Rep. Craig defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay.”

Coe said Craig called 911 and the assailant fled, adding that the attack doesn’t appear to have been politically motivated.

“Rep. Craig is grateful to the DC Metropolitan Police Department for their quick response and asks for privacy at this time,” Coe said.

Craig, 50, a third-term House member, told officers that she noticed a person who appeared to be affected by an unknown substance acting erratically in the lobby, according to a police report obtained by WCCO in Minneapolis.

The person punched Craig in the chin area once inside the elevator and grabbed her neck, the report said, adding that Craig defended herself by tossing hot coffee at the assailant.

Hours after the assault on Craig, the GOP-led House of Representatives voted 250-173 to overturn a revamping of the district’s criminal code, which lowered the maximum penalties for burglary, carjacking and robbery. Craig joined 31 Democrats in voting for the measure.

While official statistics from the nation’s capital show the rates of most violent crimes went down in 2022, the district recorded more than 200 homicides in consecutive years for the first time in nearly two decades.

Meanwhile, the US Capitol Police said last month that the number of threats against members of Congress declined slightly to 7,501 cases in 2022, but remains “historically high.”

That number is down from 9,625 in 2021 and 8,613 in 2020.

But there were 6,955 threats in 2019, 5,206 in 2018 and 3,939 in 2017.

“Overall, during the last couple of decades the Threat Assessment Section’s caseload has increased because people on social media have a false sense of anonymity and feel more emboldened,” Dr. Mario Scalora, the US Capitol Police’s consulting psychologist, said on the agency’s website. “This is not a problem we can only arrest our way out of.”