A Republican congressman said that some lawmakers are so scared of crime in Washington, DC that they have taken to sleeping in their offices.
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Missouri) made the comments on the conservative Todd Starnes Show podcast Wednesday when asked about Monday’s gunpoint carjacking of his colleague Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).
Burlison, 47, claimed it was “insane to even own a car” in the district due to the expense of parking and because it was “likely” to get broken into or stolen by force.
“I don’t want to walk back and forth from an apartment in DC at night or in the morning, early morning to get to work. It’s not a safe environment,” said Burlison.
“It’s sometimes it’s a security calculation to actually sleep in your office,” he said.
The freshman congressman blamed a 40% increase in violent crime, including a 38% murder hike in the nation’s capitol this year on “progressive leftists” in DC’s city council.
Car thefts were up 105% so far in 2023 as compared to the same time in 2022, according to police statistics.
Cuellar, 68, was uninjured in the Monday incident, which happened around 9:30 p.m. outside his apartment, according to his office.
The Texas lawmaker was in DC’s trendy Navy Yard neighborhood when he was carjacked at gunpoint, according to DC’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Cuellar was reportedly outside “a dorm building in which dozens” of House members live, according to Axios reporter Andrew Solender, who cited a group chat used by the lawmakers who occupy the building.
