WASHINGTON — The wife of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said she has to sleep with a loaded gun by her bed thanks to Sen. Cory Booker's call to "get in the face" of members of Congress about issues that are important to them.

In an essay posted on CNN's website, Kelley Paul said her family has "experienced violence and threats of violence at a horrifying level." The most recent incident was at an airport where she said people were sticking their fingers in her husband's face.

“Preventing someone from moving forward, thrusting your middle finger in their face, screaming vitriol -- is this the way to express concern or enact change? Or does it only incite unstable people to violence, making them feel that assaulting a person is somehow politically justifiable,” she wrote in calling for Booker to retract his statement and "condemn violence, the leaking of elected officials' personal addresses (our address was leaked from a Senate directory given only to senators), and the intimidation and threats that are being hurled at them and their families."

Booker spokesman Jeff Giertz told The Hill that the comment that was made during a speech last July to a "nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to ending homelessness" was "deceptively edited."

The actual words spoken, according to the complete video of his address at the 2018 National Conference on Ending Homelessness, urged people to "get up in the face of some congresspeople and tell them about common sense solutions" to address homelessness and urged people to register to vote.

Messages seeking comment from Booker have not yet been returned.

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