Republicans Have Refused to Condemn Trump’s Hate, and Now That a GOP Rep. Has Been Shot They’re Blaming Democrats

Remember Trump Calling on ‘The Second Amendment People’ to Stop Hillary Clinton? Now Republicans Are Blaming the ‘Rhetoric’ From Democrats for the Shooting of a GOP Congressman.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Those are the word that Donald Trump used to launch his presidential campaign two years ago this coming Friday. 

For two solid years, Donald Trump, first as candidate, now as president, has used ugly, racist, misogynistic, fascistic, and other hate-filled rhetoric to attack his opponents, women, and minorities. 

For two solid years, almost without exception, Republicans on Capitol Hill have refused to stand up to Trump. Occasionally, say, when the “Access Hollywood” tape came out, some, but far from all, took the opportunity to denounce his words, actions, or behavior. Almost none have committed to opposing Donald Trump, his words, or his attacks.

There’s no question that hate crimes have skyrocketed in the Age of Trump. “The Trump effect” is blamed for attacks by schoolchildren on their minority peers. On social media, the level of vitriol and hate has also decidedly increased. 

Trump wielded his Twitter account like a sword, using it against his opponents without regard, and his supporters loved it.

This was the direct result of Donald Trump:

So was this:

Hillary Clinton and Democrats across the nation denounced the effect Trump was having on American society, on political discourse, even on our children, as Clinton did effectively in several political ad featuring Trumps remarks:

Last August, in a thinly-veiled call for violence, candidate Trump told North Carolina voters that Hillary Clinton will eliminate the Second Amendment if she is allowed to pick Supreme Court justices, unless “the Second Amendment people” stop her.

An insane madman early Wednesday morning, reportedly living out of a small backpack and spending much of him time in the lobby of the YMCA the past few months, after volunteering for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, took a rifle and shot at Republican congressmen, a lobbyist, and two Capitol Hill police officers. The Republican Majority Whip, Congressman Steve Scalise, was among the injured. A hospital report just released says he has undergone and completed surgery but is still listed as critical.

All day today, Republicans on Capital Hill have denounced the political rhetoric – of Democrats.

“The rhetoric has been outrageous, of the finger-pointing, just the tone, and the angst, and the anger directed at Donald Trump, his supporters,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) insisted. “I can only hope the Democrats tone down the rhetoric,” Collins, who once compared a top New York Democratic lawmaker to Hitler and called him the anti-Christ, told local reporters Wednesday.

Collins was the first House Republican to announce support for Trump, and was his New York Chairman.

“My breaking point in supporting Donald Trump, I’m not sure there ever would be, considering Hillary Clinton and her actions, her lies to America,” Collins said in the wake of the release of the Trump “Access Hollywood” tape.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), as The Washington Post reports, Wednesday tied the shooting of Rep. Scalise to violence from the left.

“America has been divided,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who, in suit and tie, stopped by the crime scene to pray and was viscerally angry about his colleagues being attacked. “And the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the left.”

King, of course, is best known for saying of undocumented immigrants: “For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

Lawmakers weren’t the only ones to blame Democrats and liberals for the shooting.

The President’s eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., retweeted remarks by a little-known right wing pundit who pointed the blame at “NY elites.” 

When it comes to violent rhetoric, and rhetoric inspiring violence, it’s time the Republican party starts looking in the mirror.

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license