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Last December, the Biden White house welcomed leaders of the Climate Defiance group, including co-founder Michael Greenberg, for consultations with Biden’s clean energy czar John Podesta. On April 18, Climate Defiance disrupted a Washington event for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, accused of being an “ecocidal pyromaniac.” Climate Defense now aims to “shut down” the annual congressional baseball game at Nationals Park on June 9. While that awaits, legislators might dial it back to June 14, 2017.
As Republicans practiced for the game, James Hodgkinson opened fire, wounding Rep. Steve Scalise and three others, including two police officers. Nothing about the attack was random.
Hodgkinson worked on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and closely aligned with the Vermont socialist.
Hodgkinson was a true believer in anthropogenic “climate change” or “global warming” and exorbitant taxes for “the rich.” He urged Senate Democrats to filibuster the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, freighted his Facebook page with posts such as “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.” Hodgkinson also belonged to the on-line group “Terminate the Republican Party.” On June 14, 2017, he set out to terminate a list of Republican representatives.
Hodgkinson deployed a Smith and Wesson 9mm pistol and an SKS automatic rifle, a precursor to the Soviet AK-47 that uses the same 7.62 cartridge. The rifle had been altered to accept a detachable magazine and folding stock. Before opening fire, Hodgkinson asked if the players on the field were Democrats or Republicans. He fired at least 70 rounds, seriously wounding then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Rep. Roger Williams staffer Zach Barth, and lobbyist Matt Mika. Capitol Police officers David Bailey and Crystal Griner returned fire, and Griner took a bullet in the ankle.
The FBI did nothing to prevent the attack, played no role in the takedown of Hodgkinson, and tried to pass off the shooting as a case of “suicide by cop.” That came as a surprise to Steve Scalise, who nearly died. “I was shot by a deranged Leftist who came to the baseball field with a list of Congressional Republicans to kill,” Scalise tweeted. “This was NOT ‘suicide by cop.’ End of story.” According to former House speaker Newt Gingrich, there was more to it.
“You’ve had a series of things, which sends signals that tell people that it’s okay to hate Trump,” Gingrich told reporters. “It’s okay think of Trump in violent terms. It’s okay to consider assassinating Trump and then. . . suddenly we’re supposed to rise above it — until the next time?” The attack was part of “increasing hostility on the left,” but Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t see it that way.
“We are all horrified by this dreadful attack on our friends and our colleagues,” said Ryan, who failed to name or condemn Hodgkinson or identify his motives. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi called the shooting an “injury in the family,” and the PBS story said Rep. Scalise was “injured,” language more suited for an accident than a planned shooting. Pelosi rejected the suggestion that “vitriolic rhetoric from the left” was to blame.
“I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,” proclaimed Bernie Sanders, who did not identify James Hodgkinson or name the victims. Hodgkinson’s “action” was authentic domestic terrorism but congressional Democrats failed to condemn it as such or even to call it “gun violence” and demand a ban on “assault weapons.” That recalls “Soldier of Allah” Nidal Hasan’s mass murder at Fort Hood in 2009, which the Obama administration called “workplace violence,” not terrorism or even “gun violence.”
After several surgeries, Steve Scalise returned to Congress on September 27 to a standing ovation. In 2018, Scalise took the field at the congressional baseball game, fielding a ground ball and throwing out the first batter. The attack itself was largely ignored, and seven years later, hostility on the left is raging as never before. Biden has been a disaster, but Donald Trump remains the primary target.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, who ran the Democrats’ January 6 committee, has now authored the “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act,” which would remove Trump’s Secret Service protection if he is convicted of a felony. As Robert Spencer explains, it’s the “bill to make it easier to kill Trump.” The spirit of James Hodgkinson is alive and well in Congress, and consider developments at The Nation, the Dead Sea Scrolls of the American left.
“Strengthening the ties between the anti-war/anti-imperialist/peace and environmental/climate/justice movements has long been a priority for both of us,” Jeff Jones and Eleanor Stein explain. “The globe’s two most immediate crises—climate change and genocide—are dimensions of the same system with different facets: Call it racial capitalism, imperialism, settler colonialism, environmental racism, or extractivism. Let’s examine this intersection.”
The campus jihadists are now contending that “Zionists do not deserve to live,” by which they mean Jews do not deserve to live. For their part, the climate jihadists are contending that Sen. Lisa Murkowski “is a murderer,” and everybody knows what murderers deserve. On June 9, members of Congress will assemble for a baseball game. Climate Defiance, once hosted by the Biden White House, aims to shut it down.
As Trump says, we’ll have to see what happens.
