‘I Can Only Hope the Democrats Tone Down the Rhetoric’
Republican U.S. Congressman Chris Collins of New York is blaming rhetoric from Democrats against President Donald Trump for Wednesday morning’s shooting of GOP Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the third most-powerful House Republican.Â
Falsely calling himself “the most-visible Trump supporter in Washington” – Collins was the first congressional Republican to announce support for Trump, and likes to appear on cable news shows to defend the President, regardless of the veracity of his remarks – the Western New York Rep. went on the attack Democrats.
“I can only hope the Democrats tone down the rhetoric,” Collins told radio station WBEN. “The rhetoric has been outrageous, of the finger-pointing, just the tone, and the angsts, and the anger directed at Donald Trump, his supporters,” Collins insisted.
He said that rhetoric “fuels the fires,” adding, “I can only hope maybe there’s something here that would say, ‘tone down the rhetoric.'”
In addition to being the first GOP Congressman to support trump, Collins is also a big proponent of Trump’s health care bill, likely because he is also the “biggest health stockholder in Congress,” according to a report in one of his local newspapers.
But there’s more.
“Collins is the largest shareholder in Innate Immunotherapeutics, a small Australian biotech company, and a member of the company’s board. And he’s been happily talking up the stock to his congressional colleagues,” HuffPost reports.
As far as toning down the rhetoric, Collins should consider heeding his own advice.
In January Collins accused Democrats of “wallowing in their sorrow” over Hillary Clinton’s loss, saying they “can’t get over the fact that Donald Trump won.”
He accused civil rights icon, Democratic Rep. John Lewis, of “pouting.”
“He lost, it’s like a spoiled child, and we’ve seen it with the others, they can’t get over the fact that they lost, and what do spoiled little kids do? They run around and throw a tantrum,” Collins said.
“That’s what we’re seeing there, they are pouting, and frankly, it’s somewhat enjoyable, to watch, because it shows you again how upset they are, and when they were so smug when they left Congress, knowing that Hillary Clinton was going to win.”
When President Trump was considering Mitt Romney as Secretary of State, Collins weighed in, calling the former GOP presidential nominee “a ‘self-serving egomaniac,’ a ‘loser,’ and a ‘lone wolf’ who might not be able to follow instructions,” the Washington Times reported.
Last summer he falsely claimed Hillary Clinton “has already said she’s going to wipe out the Second Amendment. She doesn’t believe in the First Amendment. And, she also believes in big government, which flies in the face of the 10th Amendment”
UPDATE: 2:09 PM EDT –
The Buffalo News reports in 2009, Collins “saw his dreams of winning the 2010 GOP gubernatorial nomination disappear after he compared Sheldon Silver, then the Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, to Hitler and said Silver may be the anti-Christ. Collins later apologized for the comparison.”
Remember, Collins says Democrats should “tone down the rhetoric.”
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