If at first you don’t succeed … then amp up your intimidation tactics and go protest at a person’s home.
It seems that this has been the mantra of leftist activists in recent decades, who have increased their targeting of the private homes of lawmakers, White House officials and Supreme Court justices.
Doug Blair, my colleague, reported that dozens of protesters went to the residences of Justices John Roberts (and Brett Kavanaugh) over the weekend. On Monday night, Blair and another colleague, Virginia Allen, reported on how protesters went to the home of Justice Samuel Alito, shouting “abort the court.”
“You don’t get to take away our bodily autonomy and enjoy your Saturday night at home,” said one protester Saturday, presumably infuriated over the leaked draft opinion that showed the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Unfortunately, this is fast becoming the new norm in leftist activism. Here are eight examples from protests held at private homes in the recent past:
1. Chad Wolf
While he was acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Wolf’s home was targeted by protesters multiple times.
“The ‘protest’ in front of my residence usually played out the same way. The protesters would organize roughly a quarter of a mile away and march through my neighborhood streets, holding up traffic, until they arrived in front of my house,” Wolf, who served in the Trump administration, wrote for The Daily Signal in 2021. “There they remained for an hour or more to shout through loudspeakers, again while holding up traffic.”
Wolf, who lives in a suburb of Washington, D.C., added that the protests led to him and his wife having “tough conversations with our two sons, who were both in middle school.”
He also noted that “this unwelcomed activity put me on edge, since such ‘protests’ can turn ugly quickly.”
2. Josh Hawley
On Jan. 4, 2021, Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted: “Tonight while I was in Missouri, Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter, who can’t travel. They threatened, vandalized and tried to pound our doors.”
Hawley, a Republican representing Missouri in the U.S. Senate was targeted because of his views on the 2020 presidential elections. According to Washingtonian magazine, at least one protester jeered, ““Hawley, Hawley, shame on you! Biden-Harris won through and through!”
During the protest, “a shadowy figure appeared in the sidelight of the front entrance and the door opened. It was not the senator but his wife, Erin, holding the couple’s seven-week-old baby in her arms,” Washingtonian reported, adding:
‘Could you cut it out, please?’ she asked, according to video footage of the protest. ‘We’ve got neighbors and a baby. Thank you,’ she said before retreating into the house.
3. Brett Kavanaugh
Saturday night wasn’t the first time the Supreme Court justice had protesters outside his home. Last September, ShutDownDC, a leftist group that also was involved in the Wolf and Hawley protests, gathered a group to go to Kavanaugh’s house in a Maryland suburb.
At the time, Kavanaugh, along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, had recently voted against hearing a case from pro-abortion advocates who were trying to stop Texas’ heartbeat law, which bans abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected, from going into effect.
“Make no mistake, what’s happening to reproductive justice and abortion rights is far bigger than one person,” ShutDownDC wrote, per Newsweek. “But Kavanaugh is playing a key role, and so far he’s been protected from any backlash. No more.”
Outside the home organizers said was Kavanaugh’s, “two people took to the pavement and scrawled ‘resign Kavanaugh’ and ‘my body, my choice,’ as a lineup of speakers criticized the Supreme Court for a decision they said was grounded in political partisanship,” reported WTOP-FM.
4. Tucker Carlson
Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home in Washington, D.C., was targeted in 2018.
“A brief video posted on social media by a group calling itself ‘Smash Racism DC’ shows people standing outside a darkened home and chanting, ‘Tucker Carlson, we will fight. We know where you sleep at night,’” reported The Associated Press.
The incident was apparently terrifying for Carlson’s wife. The Washington Post reported that:
‘I called my wife,’ Carlson told The Washington Post in a phone interview. ‘She had been in the kitchen alone getting ready to go to dinner and she heard pounding on the front door and screaming. … Someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door.’
Carlson said that his wife thought it was a home invasion and locked herself in her pantry.
The couple has four children, but none of them were at home at the time.
5. Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielson, then secretary of Homeland Security, was attacked in her Virginia suburb townhouse in 2018.
“Several people stood along the sidewalk near her home with some holding signs. One demonstrator held a sign with Nielsen’s face on it featuring the words ‘child snatcher,’” reportedWJLA-TV is an ABC affiliate.
Nielsen was under fire from liberals at the time over the Trump administration’s policies on illegal immigration.
6. Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller, a top adviser for President Donald Trump at The White House, was also targeted in 2018.
USA Today reported that a group of protesters “stood in front of Miller’s apartment building chanting ‘immigrants are welcome here.’”
It wasn’t the only time Miller’s apartment building was the target of protesters. Six months after the initial protest, a group called WERK for Peace held a dance party in front of Miller’s building.
“When the group got to Mr. Miller’s apartment building at CityCenterDC, Mr. [Firas] Nasr yelled from the street using a microphone and invited Mr. Miller to ‘come and dance with the migrants and refugees who are suffering at the expense of your policies,’” reportedThe Washington Times.
7. Lindsey Graham
After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in 2020, leftist activists went to Washington, D.C., to meet Senator Lindsey Graham, R.S.C. Graham, who was then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee (now Trump), had stated that he was ready to move forward with Ginsburg’s replacement.
“On Monday morning, protesters and activists gathered outside the Washington, D.C., home of South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to ‘wake him up’ with pots and pans, strobe lights and audio recordings,” reportedKXAN-TV, a NBC affiliate based near Austin, Texas.
8. Mitch McConnell
Graham wasn’t the only senator targeted by the left after Ginsburg’s death.
Over 100 protesters also showed up at Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home in Louisville, Kentucky that fall.
“Protesters lined the streets … in front of the senator’s home in the Belknap neighborhood shortly after noon, chanting, ‘Hey hey, ho ho, Mitch McConnell has got to go’ and ‘vote him out’ as several passing drivers honked and waved support,” reportedThe Louisville Courier-Journal
McConnell’s home in the nation’s capital was also targeted.
CBS affiliate WUSA-TV reported that “a group of youth climate activists headed to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s D.C. home in Northeast Thursday morning with a live GoGo band to hold a noise demonstration.” The station reported that “crowds spent their time chanting, giving speeches and making noise outside of McConnell’s home.”
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