Dem Rep. Connolly: Republican Party ‘Enabling’ Violence

Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the Republican Party was “enabling” violence.

On the House Select Committee’s subpoenas to people involved in the January 6 riot, Connolly said, “That doesn’t mean that everybody involved was involved in a conspiracy, but no question that was planned in advance. No question far-right extremist white-supremacist fascist groups planned to do something violent on January 6 at the nation’s Capitol. They came equipped.”

He continued, “I think we need to focus particularly on the enabling of violence in our politics by one of the two parties. You know, we just censored Paul Gosar for threatening the life of a member of Congress and the president of the United States. Marjorie Taylor Greene was censored because she issued e-mails and texts threatening the speaker of the House. Matt Gates just said he’d hire Kyle Rittenhouse as an intern, a young man acquitted but nonetheless who murdered two individuals and shot a third.”

Connolly added, “What is happening in terms of normalizing violence in our politics? If we go down that road and if the Republican Party embraces that as a tool of winning campaigns, this country is in for a world of trouble.”