Blame Game

"If I was shot and killed tomorrow, half of Twitter would explode in applause and excitement. This is the world we live in now.”

So declared presidential counselor Kellyanne Fiutzpatrick Conway on Fox & Friends the morning after the mass shooting at the ballfield in Alexandria, Virginia.

Violence directed against Mrs. Conway would be reprehensible, and any glee at her killing also would be appalling.  But her remark was placed in context by Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars:

“I went back and looked at exactly what was being discussed on all the TV shows, except yours, at 7:09 a.m. on Wednesday, when this happened, and it’s a really curious exercise."

"Because as Steve Scalise was fighting for his life and crawling into right field in a trail of blood, you should go back and see what people were saying about the president and Republicans at that very moment.”

“Of course, they had to break in with the news of this tragedy, and since then there’s been some introspection — some quieter, more muted voices toning down the rhetoric.”

“But look at Twitter,” she said.

“If I was shot and killed tomorrow, half of Twitter would explode in applause and excitement. This is the world we live in now.”

"You can't attack people personally and think tragedies like this won't happen."





Oh, dear. She went there. She went there even though last August

Repeating his contention that Mrs. Clinton wanted to abolish the right to bear arms, Mr. Trump warned at a rally here that it would be “a horrible day” if Mrs. Clinton were elected and got to appoint a tiebreaking Supreme Court justice.

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd began to boo. He quickly added: “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”





No slip of the tongue, that. The following month, Trump complained "She (Clinton) doesn’t want guns, take their — let’s see what happens to her,” Trump said. "Take their guns away, okay? It’ll be very dangerous."

Two days before several people were shot at a baseball practice, Newsweek had reported

Earlier this year, one of Trump’s favorite broadcasters, Alex Jones, threatened on air to “beat” Democratic Representative Adam Schiff and told the California congressman to “fill your hand”—a reference to taking up a pistol. An attorney with expertise in federal law told Newsweek at the time that the threats appeared to break a federal law, U.S. Code Title 18, Section 115, which makes it illegal to threaten to assault a U.S. official and provides a penalty of up to six years in prison.  

Jones was never charged.

Jones was never charged- but neither was U.S. Representative Michael Grimm, when three years earlier he expressed his displeasure when questioned on a balcony in the Cannon House building in Washington. Grimm told the reporter from CNN affiliate NY 1 "Let me be clear to you: If you ever do that to me again, I'll throw you off this f***ing balcony.  When the reporter noted he was merely asking "a valid question," the congressman responded "You're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half, like a boy.."





Michael Grimm didn't shoot Steve Scalise and the four other individuals. Neither did the evil Twitter people Kellyanne fears, nor even Donald Trump. It was James Hodgkinson.  And when Kellyanne Conway and other Republicans understand that, they'll begin to feel less like victims, and hold people accountable for their own actions.






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