At least five people, including Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House majority whip, were injured when a gunman opened fire Wednesday morning on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, where Republican members of Congress and their staffers were practicing for an annual charity baseball game.
The shooter, who was taken down (President Trump just announced the gunman is dead from his injuries) by a fusillade of police gunfire, is being tentatively identified as James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, IL.
In the Age of Trump where so many of these sorts of shootings are done by disaffected, disturbed white conservatives, Hodgkinson’s profile shows him to be a committed Bernie Sanders supporter who has been posting progressive, liberal ideas since 2012.
According to witnessses, the suspect approached them in a nearby parking lot and asked if the people on the ball field were Republicans or Democrats.
Naturally, our friends on the right are looking at this incident and are urging caution, waiting for all the facts to come in before offering blanket condemnation of all on the left.
Who am I kidding? Here are some recent comments from his Facebook Page.
As this story develops, there are so many things to worry about. Republicans didn’t blink an eye when Gabby Giffords was shot. All those innocent children at Sandy Hook died in vain when Congress kowtowed to the NRA. And even the most prominent victim of today’s shooting found that his A+ rating from the NRA and $20,000 in contributions couldn’t shield him from bullets fired from an automatic weapon that President Trump just made it easier for emotionally or mentally disturbed people to obtain.
What happens to the Russian probe now? Do the rabid right wingers point to the fact that the Russians stole the 2016 election, blame the left’s reaction to that theft for the “rabid libtard hate” and so now that investigation is no longer important?
Does President Trump use the alleged fact that a liberal with a gun and apparent animus towards Republicans took an automatic weapon to mow down Republicans to further suppress free speech, to fire Special Investigator Robert Mueller since the investigation has “stirred up all this leftie hate?”
Are the facts being reported even accurate? Is this another “Reichstag Fire”, the sort of “false flag” Info Wars Drama Queen and Trump advisor Alex Jones champions as he prepares to spread his poison to a national TV audience this weekend?
Be worried. And if someone asks you if you are Republican or Democrat, consider your answer carefully.