Republicans Defend Their Violent Rhetoric

Eye Roll, Please 

Politico reports Republicans are saying their violent rhetoric has nothing to do with the attack on Paul Pelosi.

And National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who posted a video last week of himself firing a gun with the hashtag #FirePelosi, deflected a question about whether he should have used a weapon along with the hashtag.

Instead, Emmer sought to contrast the media’s treatment of the Pelosi attack with what he argued was a comparable lack of attention to the 2017 politically motivated shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).

Seems like the kind of tit-for-tat I used to hear in middle school. An adult needs to step in and tell Mr. Emmer that was over five years ago, and I seem to recall extensive coverage of the shooting of Steve Scalise. 

I Googled the shooting. There are over 750 thousand links to the shooting and reaction well after the event.

And what was Nancy Pelosi's response to the shooting of Mr. Scalise and others at that practice? I found this at FactCheck.org.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who was the Democratic House minority leader at the time — held a press conference the day after the shooting, in which she referenced the people who “lose their lives to gun violence in America every day.  Within many families and communities across America, the anguish that we are feeling personally in Congress today is altogether too familiar.”

Answering a question about political vitriol, Pelosi at one point referred to inaction on the issue.

“I think our energy should be used in our thoughts and prayers for Steve Scalise and Mr. Mika, and that’s really where our hearts are right now,” she said. “It’s a question of gun safety that, you know, has never happened. Little babies, little children in kindergarten, were massacred and nothing happened.”

There's a huge difference in the responses. Can you see it? Do you understand the difference?