• TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 hours ago

    remember when sitting republican congressmen turned the attempted assassination of Nancy Pelosi into a joke? like actually making jokes about it? they’re so good at condemning political violence

    • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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      2 hours ago

      I was curious to see the difference of respones with the the attack on Paul Pelosi; the assassination of Melissa Hortman, their husband Mark, and the attempted assassination of JohnHoffman and their wife, Yvette.

      Attack on Paul Pelosi

      Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (who said that the assault “horrified and disgusted” him); by Republican House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (who was seriously wounded in the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, and who called the attack on Pelosi “horrific”); Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Republican Senate Minority Whip John Thune.

      Cool, so some Republicans will actually speak out about violence committed on Democrats. Granted, I don’t know how many of them push violent rheotric against Democrats on a regular basis.

      And then we get too

      Top Republican officials, such as Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer, rejected assertions that inflammatory Republican rhetoric, including vilification of Nancy Pelosi, contributed to an atmosphere that risked violence. A week before the attack, Emmer posted a video of himself firing a gun with the hashtag #FirePelosi; after the attack, he deflected a question asking if he should have used a gun in the ad. Some Republicans made jokes about the attack. When taunting Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, sarcastically asked, “How’s her husband doing?” He then remarked, “She’s against building a wall in our border, even though she has a wall around her house—which obviously didn’t do a very good job.”

      And then it gets worse:

      Right-wing figures who spread misinformation about the attack included Roger Stone, Dinesh D’Souza, and Steve Bannon, all of whom implied that the attack could be a “false flag”.

      Elon Musk, following his acquisition of Twitter, shared a tweet with an article from a right-wing fake news website, falsely suggesting that the attack resulted from a drunken Paul Pelosi having a fight with a male prostitute.

      Republican congressman Clay Higgins (of Louisiana), Republican congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene (of Georgia), and Claudia Tenney (of New York), as well as Donald Trump Jr. and David Clarke Jr., all disseminated other false claims about the attack, such as claims that Pelosi knew the attacker or was involved in male prostitution. Referring to various conspiracies, conservative talk radio host Charlie Kirk called for an “amazing patriot” from among his audience to “be a midterm hero” by deciding to “bail out” DePape “and then go ask him some questions”. Days after the attack, former president Donald Trump also spread false conspiracy theories about the attack, suggesting it could have been staged. Some right-wing pundits depicted the attack on Pelosi as a random crime, blaming Democrats for it, rather than a targeted assault. Some spreaders of misinformation seized on early inaccurate reporting by some news outlets in the immediate aftermath of the attack; despite the outlets providing corrections, these reports fueled baseless conspiracy theories that went viral online and in right-wing circles. rump Jr. responded to a tweet making fun of Pelosi about a Halloween “costume” of just a hammer and a pair of white briefs, writing, “The Internet remains undefeated.”

      So that’s:

      -Roger Stone

      • Dinesh D’Souza
      • Steve Bannon
      • Elon Musk
      • Clay Higgins
      • Majorie Taylor Green
      • Claudia Tenney
      • Donald Trump Jr
      • David Clarke Jr
      • Charlie Kirk
      • Donald Trump

      Hmmm, which of those names are going to appear in 2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators wiki article. To keep the comparison app, we’ll focus on the National response.

      U.S. House speaker Mike Johnson called the shootings “horrific political violence” that “every leader must unequivocally condemn”. House majority leader Steve Scalise, who was seriously injuired in the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, said “there can be no tolerance of political violence and it must be stopped”.

      Nice to at least see a couple of Repbulicans say something about political violence. Alas, it was not meant to be a long paragraph:

      After initially saying he might call Walz, on June 17 Trump said he had no plans to do so, calling Walz “whacked out” and “a mess”.

      Elon Musk shared tweets saying that “the left” had killed Hortman and tweeted, “The far left is murderously violent.” U.S. senator Mike Lee tweeted multiple times that the suspect was a “Marxist” and blamed the assassination on Walz. Donald Trump Jr. claimed the suspect “seems to be a leftist” and “was a Democrat”. U.S. senator Bernie Moreno and U.S. representative Derrick Van Orden both suggested that the shooter was a far-left extremist. Large right-wing social media accounts began spreading similar misinformation. Right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich suggested that Walz had ordered the assassinations, and Laura Loomer called Boelter one of “Walz’s goons” and called for Walz to be “detained” and “interrogated” by the FBI. YouTuber Benny Johnson claimed the suspect was a “Tim Walz associate”

      Wee gee golly. Color me fucking suprised. It looks like Ol’ Elon Musky and the purveyor of fine nose candy, Donald Trump Jr sure do love them misinformation. It sure do look like Donnie Trumpy doesn’t give a rats ass about violence against Democrats.

      A general rule of thumb should be if a Republican doesn’t push violent rheotric and does condemn political violence. It doesn’t hurt to give the benefit of doubt that they are acting in good faith.

      The rest of the fuckwits? Fuck em. They ain’t nothing except bad faith actors. Everytime, they open their mouth to complain. We should be replying back with “This you?” with evidence of them claiming violence against Democrats is fine.