The Washington Post this morning addresses the elephant in the room: Republican radicalism and the inevitable violence that resulted from targeting Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
In 2010, Republicans launched a “Fire Pelosi” project — complete with a bus tour, a #FIREPELOSI hashtag and images of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) engulfed in Hades-style flames — devoted to retaking the House and demoting Pelosi from her perch as speaker.
Eleven years later, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) joked that if he becomes the next leader of the House, “it will be hard not to hit” Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel.
And this year, Pelosi — who Republicans have long demonized as the face of progressive policies and who was a target of rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — emerged as the top member of Congress maligned in political ads, with Republicans spending nearly $40 million on ads that mention Pelosi in the final stretch of the campaign, according to AdImpact, which tracks television and digital ad spending.
Every Democrat should be holding them accountable. Don't let up:
“Sadly this attack was inevitable. Political violence is on the rise,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), said. “And instead of GOP leaders condemning it, they condone it with silence or, even worse, glorification.”
Swalwell, from a neighboring Bay Area district, has been a stalwart Pelosi ally since entering Congress a decade ago and has had an up-close seat for the attacks regularly leveled against her. On Friday afternoon, the Justice Department announced that a 22-year-old Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to calling Swalwell’s office and, in conversations with his staff, threatening to kill him. The man told Swalwell’s aides that he had many AR-15 rifles and that he intended to come to the Capitol.
Swalwell wrote a thank-you note on Twitter to the federal investigators and prosecutors, while also urging Republican leaders to speak out in a plea that seemed to apply equally to both his and Pelosi’s situation. “MAGA political violence is at peak level in America,” he wrote. “Somebody is going to get killed. I urge GOP leaders to denounce the violence.”
Joe Biden is right. It's despicable. Don't let Republicans off the hook.
