A Russian lawmaker took to Twitter Monday to taunt the U.S. as it reeled in horror from a mass shooting at the D.C. Navy shipyard, saying it was an example of "American exceptionalism."
"New shooting at the Navy headquarters in Washington — Lone shooter and 7 corpses. No one is surprised. American exceptionalism," Alexey Pushkov wrote,
the Huffington Post reported in its translation of the tweet.
When a series of angry tweets followed the diatribe, he added:
"Exceptional Americans! Some of you have just proved that you are really exceptional - first of all, by your level of hatred and animosity,"
the New York Post reported.
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Pushkov, a member of the Russian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, was referring to the "American Exceptionalism" that President Barack Obama talked about in a speech to the nation about possible intervention in Syria.
"That’s what makes us exceptional," Obama said about U.S. willingness to use military might for just cause. "With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth."
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissively called the concept "dangerous" in an op-ed piece for The New York Times.
"It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation," Putin wrote.
It's not the first time Pushkov has pushed the social media envelop.
In July, he erroneously tweeted that Edward Snowden had accepted asylum in Venezuela, only to remove the posting minutes later, the Huffington Post reported.
And amid the heated debate on whether the Obama administration would launch a punitive strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Pushkov suggested Obama should return his Nobel Peace Prize if he authorized the attack.
"If the United States attacks Syria without UN approval, the global community should demand that the Nobel Committee strip Obama of his peace prize," he tweeted.
The twitter outrage over the Pushkov remarks included those from Dan Joseph, who posted: "In Soviet Russia, Workplace shoots YOU!!" the Post reported.
And AG tweeted: "Russia assassinates and jails people for criticizing Putin, and Alexey Pushkov has the chutzpah to lecture America about equal rights?"