GOP Leadership Silent On Increasingly Violent Rhetoric

The Associated Press reports:

In the past week, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted a video showing a character with his face killing a figure with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face. Several of the 13 House Republicans who backed a bipartisan infrastructure bill said they faced threats after their vote. In one profanity-laced voicemail, a caller labeled Rep. Fred Upton a “traitor” and wished death for the Michigan Republican, his family and staff.

The response from Republican leaders? Silence. Less than a year after former President Donald Trump’s supporters staged a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power, the GOP’s refusal to broadly and forcefully condemn more recent examples of disturbing rhetoric and behavior suggests an unsettling shift. Representatives for McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment.

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The growing ubiquity of symbols of violence on one side of the aisle – think of all of those ads where politicians are waving guns around – communicates that your political opponents are enemies to be erased using non-democratic means. https://t.co/Mk2dUKuB74

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) November 12, 2021

“One of the nation’s two major political parties appears increasingly tolerant of at least some persistent level of violence in American discourse, or at least willing to turn a blind eye to it.” https://t.co/7dneG8D07X

— Julie Pace (@JuliePace) November 12, 2021