Cartoonist Scott Adams famously wrote that “Democrats…use guns for shooting the innocent,” while “Republicans use guns for sporting purposes and self-defense.” Two Nebraska Democratic Party officials seem determined to prove his point.
Earlier this week, Phil Montag (above), technology chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, had a conversation with Nebraska Democratic Party Black Caucus Chair Chelsey Gentry-Tipton and one of her friends who has, so far, not been identified.
The conversation turned to the attempted murder of Representative Steve Scalise (R-La.) and other Republican members of Congress by a radicalized socialist. Montag’s reaction was sufficiently beyond the pale that the unidentified friend began recording the conversation, which subsequently went viral and left Montag out of a job. The audio can be heard on YouTube here — the relevant part is transcribed by the author below:
Montag: That mother-fucker, the one who was shot, this Scaife [sic] guy, what’s his name? [JKP: He may have been thinking of the late Pittsburgh billionaire and conservative activist Richard Mellon Scaife.]
Gentry-Tipton: Scalise.
Friend: I really don’t want you to deflect right now.
Montag: This mother-fucker, his whole job is, like to get people — Republicans — to fucking kick people off fucking health care.
Gentry-Tipton: We know all of this….
[overtalk]
Friend: Phil, Phil…
Montag: I’m fucking glad he got shot.
Friend: Dude…
Montag: I’m glad he got shot. I’m not going to say that in public…
Friend: THEN WHY ARE YOU SAYING IT TO US FOR? WHAT ARE YOU TELLING US FOR?
Montag: I wish he was fucking dead.
Friend: Why are you telling us, but not telling anyone else?
Montag: I’m trying to fucking figure this shit out…
Friend: It’s okay, because I’ve been recording this conversation since you’ve come in, so I will publicly release it myself.
That was apparently too much. Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb sacked Montag earlier today, saying she viewed the audio as a possible death threat. “I’ll leave that to the police to determine their next steps. That’s not my role,” she was quoted as saying in the Omaha World-Herald.
Ironically, Montag had met with Gentry-Tipton to talk about remarks she posted to her Facebook account last week about the attack on the GOP baseball practice. Again, quoting from the Omaha World-Herald:
Watching the congressman crying on live tv abt the trauma they experienced. Y is this so funny tho? …
The very people that push pro NRA legislation in efforts to pad their pockets with complete disregard for human life. Yeah, having a hard time feeling bad for them.
There were immediate calls for Gentry-Tipton to resign, although she has refused “at this point” to do so. Ms. Kleeb didn’t quite have the courage to sack her yet. Ms. Gentry-Tipton later offered, by way of explanation, that she was a victim of gun violence herself, and it disproportionately affects her community — although why that excuses metaphorical dancing on the hospital bed of a Republican who had nearly been murdered by a Democrat is unclear to me.
Why is this surprising, though? Democratic Party officials, from last year’s standard-bearer on down, spent much of 2016 falsely characterizing Republicans as deplorable racists who wanted to elect another Hitler, murder gays and poor people, and put anyone who disagrees with them into concentration camps. Gun owners, of course, were targeted early, having been flagged as “enemies” by Hillary Clinton as early as 2015.
We shouldn’t be surprised that people would eventually act on these ideas — which are such common currency on the left that it didn’t strike Kathy Griffin that she was going beyond the pale by visually suggesting that Trump be decapitated.