Rising Incidents of Political Violence: Man Charged with Hate Crime for Attacking Congressional Staff with Baseball Bat.

Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, a man charged with attacking two staffers for Rep. Gerry Connolly with a baseball bat in his district office, is also being charged with a hate crime for damaging a car and chasing a woman in a Virginia neighborhood less than an hour earlier. Pham, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, is being held without bond pending a preliminary hearing in July. None of the injuries Pham inflicted were life-threatening, but the incident highlights the vulnerability of public servants in an era of toxic political rhetoric.