Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon is getting death threats days after his decision to postpone further consideration of a bill that would create a single-payer health care system in the state.

The California Highway Patrol, which has a Capitol Protection Section, confirmed on Wednesday that it is investigating threats against the Lakewood-based politician.

“We are aware of the situation. Our officers are always vigilant,” Officer Deborah Sherrick-Lopez said.

Rendon received threats made over Facebook and Twitter, and he said in a statement that the hostile messages followed his recent decision to postpone further consideration of SB 562.

“There’s been a variety of reactions to my decision to hold SB 562, from supportive to quite negative. Even death threats to me and members of my family. I’m a grown-up in politics, so those are things I can handle,” Rendon said in a statement.

Rendon went on to chastise supporters of the single-payer bill who, in his assessment, offered “false hope” that the legislation would give Californians access to health coverage.

“SB 562 is more a statement of principles than a genuine bill that actually does anything to create a single-payer health care system in California that covers everyone,” Rendon stated. “The sponsors need to decide if they are serious about having a policy discussion about how to do this. Because a shell like SB 562 certainly isn’t it.”

Rendon’s office provided examples of the threats. One of the postings contains a proposition to burn down politicians’ “mansions” and to threaten them physically in retaliation for “threatening our health.”

More explicit posts reference various methods of execution, and another person wrote that he prays someone checks Rendon’s schedule for baseball practice. That post is likely a reference to the shooting committed earlier this month in Virginia by an assailant whose own social media history reportedly included several statements against Republicans and President Donald Trump. Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise sustained a critical injury after being hit.

Rendon is a Democrat who has repeatedly issued anti-Trump statements since the latter’s election. On the subject of health care, Rendon announced late Friday that he would not allow a bill seeking to create a single-payer health care system to proceed through the Assembly after its passage in the state Senate.

At the time and during an interview on Monday, Rendon said the bill lacked sufficient details on such matters as how state government would finance a single-payer system. The term single-payer refers to systems in which governments use taxpayer dollars to provide universal health coverage instead of the status quo of people relying upon private insurers if they do not qualify for government aid.

Rendon said he favors single-payer, but also wants the bill’s supporters in the state Senate to figure out how to pay for the system before the bill progresses further.

More than 100 people protested Rendon’s action Tuesday outside his local office in South Gate.

On Saturday, California Nurses Association Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro tweeted an image of the bear on California’s state flag with a butcher knife bearing Rendon’s surname embedded in its back.

“#SinglePayer covers pre-existing backstabs. Let’s tell @Rendon63rd to pull the knife out,” DeMoro tweeted in a post that was pinned to the top of her account as of Wednesday afternoon.

Her Twitter timeline includes several other posts criticizing Rendon’s decision.

DeMoro’s view on Rendon, however, isn’t the only one expressed by a major labor figure. State Building & Construction Trades Council President Robbie Hunter issued a statement Wednesday asking single-payer advocates to “tone down” anti-Rendon statements and attempt to help him and other lawmakers craft the kind of health care policy they’re demanding.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst reported a single-payer system could cost about $400 billion for California, and about half of that amount may require new taxes. Another study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst countered the proposal could cost $331 billion, which would be less than the $368.5 billion worth of total estimated health care spending in the state.

State Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, are key supporters of SB 562. They said they will continue advocating for single payer in a joint statement issued Friday.