Pence Makes Pittsburgh Synagogue Statement That No One Could Back Up

0
874

In Trump World, one apparently gets away with denying reality. The reality of the situation at hand remains, for instance, that President Donald Trump has routinely used blatantly violent rhetoric. Recently — among many other examples — he praised Montana GOP Congressman Greg Gianforte for bodyslamming a reporter, an assault he ended up held criminally liable for. To Vice President Mike Pence, though, there’s no reason to connect that rhetoric to violence against reporters — and others — among Trump’s supporters.

He told NBC News:

‘Everyone has their own style, and frankly, people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences. But I just don’t think you can connect it to acts or threats of violence.’

Here’s that “both sides” defense that Trump and his cronies are so fond of.

It might work if we were discussing two people having an argument in a grocery store about whether they should pay full or half price for something. However, that’s not where we’re at.

President Donald Trump has stood before the world and condemned the lion’s share of the mainstream media as the enemy of the people. A shooter who attacked the Capital Gazette in Maryland used that exact rhetoric in his harassment of the publication.

Not that long after, a fervent supporter of his sent apparent attempts at bombs to an array of prominent interests perceived as anti-Trump — including CNN.

And Pence wants us to think there’s no connection worth exploring there and that these people came up with their ideas essentially entirely on their own, although there’s video essentially anyone can look up of Donald Trump spouting them off.

In similar fashion, Trump pushed the idea that a migrant “caravan” attempting to make its way into the United States from Central America was being funded by outside Democratic interests. This weekend in Pittsburgh, a crazed anti-Semitic gunman attacked a synagogue in the seemingly deadliest attack on U.S. Jews ever apparently because he believed that Democrats — and more specifically, Jews — were funding the supposedly threatening caravan.

And Pence just wants us to look the other way.

He continued:

‘I think we need to be very careful in any way to connect the kind of violent behavior we witnessed in Pittsburgh today, the threats of violence against prominent Americans that we witnessed in the pipe bombs, what happened in Sutherland Springs, Texas, or what happened here in Las Vegas, to the political debate. We want a free and open political debate in America where everyone expresses themselves passionately and openly.’

That’s not what this is about, Mike.

He offered lip service to condemning the violence, yes, but he remains unwilling to acknowledge the legitimacy of those concerned with it being placed in some larger context of “freedom.”

He’s hardly the only one who seems unwilling to confront the situation as seriously as one might hope.

Trump himself, speaking not long after the incident, expressed concern that his hair had been messed up via delivering a statement about the shooting while waiting to board Air Force One.

At least, he said, we now knew he wasn’t wearing a wig.

This is the kind of “leadership” we’ve been left with in the United States by the ascension of Donald Trump.

Featured Image via YouTube screenshot