WASHINGTON – In an interview with MSNBC, Minnesota Congressman and Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee Keith Ellison said that campaign rhetoric of President Donald Trump may have encouraged an attack on Congressional Republicans.
Ellison appeared on MSNBC’s “All In” Monday. During his time on the program he continued his trend of blasting Trump’s language during the president’s successful 2016 campaign. According to Ellison, the president’s language is fueling some of the “ugliest, most pernicious elements in our society,” reports The Washington Free Beacon.
Chris Hayes, the host of “All In,” then parlayed Ellison’s comments into a question about the attack on Republican lawmakers earlier this month.
The Republican team for the Congressional baseball game was practicing when James Hodgkinson fired somewhere between 50 and 100 rounds from a rifle at the Congressmen. It was later revealed that Hodgkinson, 66, was a volunteer on the ill-fated presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.)
“What I think is when the president says ‘punch them in the face,’ ‘carry them out in a stretcher,’ he creates a culture of incivility which sort of lets anybody who’s loosely hinged to reality just sort of go off the rails,” Ellison said on “All In.”
Hayes reminded Ellison that Trump’s remarks were made on the campaign trail, and that the president has not made remarks in anyway similar during his time in office thus far. Ellison conceded the point, but it seemed not to matter to him.
“[Trump] has not really renounced them in office, either,” Ellison said on “All In”. “I know Steve Scalise, and I pray for his family every day, but I will tell you that the head of state ought to counsel civility, ought to tell people that we’re not going to allow problems to be solved with guns and with street violence, and that’s what the president should be doing.”
If you liked this story you may also like the following:
MN Congressman Accuses Trump of Pushing White Supremacy
Ellison to Dems: Stop Working with GOP or Face Primaries
Ellison Calls the Trump Administration a Dictatorship
Ellison: Trump “Chief Cheerleader” of Muslim Intolerance
