CRANBERRY TWP — Responding to reports that a fellow state representative is seeking additional security measures because of him, state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe on Friday took aim at “liberals” who are attempting to “stop my work in defense of taxpayers and our liberty.”

Earlier this week, Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat who serves northwest Philadelphia, said an interaction with Metcalfe, R-12th, made him worried for his safety.

The conversation occurred after a House State Government Committee meeting in which House Bill 722 was altered via a party-line vote. That vote removed a proposed citizens committee and the governor from the process to redraw the state’s political districts.

Rabb said the heated exchange ended with Metcalfe saying, “We’d have a very different conversation on the street.”

In response, Rabb sent a letter to house security leaders asking for additional protection during interactions with Metcalfe, citing the “threatening” language. He said he was further concerned by rumors that Metcalfe carries a weapon while in the House.

On Wednesday, Metcalfe denied the allegations, and said Rabb was the aggressor during the exchange. He took to social media Friday to double down on that response.

“Another lying Philadelphia Liberal Democrat Legislator attacking me this week with the help of the media!” he wrote. “Another Democrat playing the victim while he is actually the perpetrator!”

Metcalfe wrote that Rabb approached him following the committee meeting and “launched into a profanity laced disrespectful tirade.”

“A week later he wrote a letter making false accusations that I threatened him and based it on me possibly being armed because of my support for the 2nd Amendment!” he wrote.

Rabb responded via Twitter, writing, “I reminded Daryl before he made his not-so-subtle threat that I wouldn’t say anything about him behind his back that I wouldn’t say to his face — an ethic I made clear to him after #Charlottesville last year when I asked him to his face if he was a white supremacist.”

According to Metcalfe, the claims continue a pattern of attacks made by, “liberal loser Democrat legislators on my committee.” Specifically, he pointed to former Rep. Leslie Acosta who he said, “is now convict Acosta.” Acosta, who represented a section Philadelphia, resigned in 2016 after pleading guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Metcalfe also addressed a December incident in which he was accused of making homophobic remarks after an outburst during a committee meeting.

The comments came after Montgomery County Rep. Matt Bradford, D-70th, touched Metcalfe’s shoulder during a House State Government committee meeting. Metcalfe responded by saying, “Look, I’m a heterosexual. I have a wife, I love my wife, I don’t like men — as you might. But stop touching me all the time.”

Metcalfe later said he had planned the comments, and had repeatedly asked Bradford to stop touching him during previous exchanges. He said the comments were intended to show that invading someone’s personal space is not acceptable, particularly after repeated requests not to do so.

On Friday, Metcalfe addressed Bradford, who he said, “has touched me over 40 times in what many observers have said is an attempt to provoke me!”

Metcalfe also mentioned, “lying homosexual Rep Brian Sims,” who “has been under an ethics investigation.”

In July, Metcalfe accused Sims, the General Assembly’s first openly gay legislator, of berating him during a committee meeting before later calling him a bigot. He released video and audio of the exchange, in which he said Sims became “unhinged” during a committee meeting on legislation involving sanctuary cities.

Metcalfe said a “red-faced” Sims approached him after the hearing and threw papers at him, and later passed him on the House floor calling him an “ignorant, racist bigot.”

Sims responded to Metcalfe’s post via Twitter, writing, “You’re a gaslighter who threatens people and then backs down and claims victimhood when you’re called out. It’s the ultimate sign of intellectual dishonesty. Grow up and at least have the courage of your broken convictions.”

Meanwhile, Metcalfe said the incidents are a response to the failure of Democrats to pass legislation.

“When they oppose us on my committee, they lose every vote and we win every vote!” he wrote. “I block all substantive Democrat legislation sent to my committee and advance good Republican legislation!”

Sinceré Harris, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement that Metcalfe’s comments are an “admission that he is a partisan hack who abuses his power at the expense of making government better for Pennsylvanians.

“Metcalfe’s racist and homophobic outbursts and blatant admission that he blocks legislation from advancing for the sole reason that it is sponsored by Democrats is why Pennsylvanians distrust Harrisburg.”

Harris called for Metcalfe’s chairmanship to be revoked.

“Not only is he a disgusting human being, he is incredibly unfit to run the House’s State Government Committee,” Harris said.