House Majority Whip Steve Scalise Tuesday called for Americans to express their unity with the members of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue and with Pittsburgh, and for a stand against bigotry and hate, while saying he believes it was important for President Donald Trump to travel to Pittsburgh Tuesday to show his support.
"They need people to come together and stand against bigotry and hate and I think that's what you are seeing across this country by and large," said the Louisiana Republican on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Scalise was seriously injured in 2017 during a Congressional baseball team practice, after James T. Hodgkinson, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, opened fire at a suburban Washington D.C. baseball field. He said Tuesday that like Pittsburgh shooting suspect Robert Bowers, Hodgkinson, who was shot and killed by Scalise's security detail, had posted his sentiments online.
"The FBI found a lot of vitriol online," said Scalise. "He expressed a lot of anger and hatred towards Republicans and, you know, it's unfortunate that you see that play itself out sometimes. This isn't what most of humanity is about. For me I saw the evil side, but I also saw so much good in people."
Saturday's attack was not political, but was anti-Semitic, said Scalise.
"On all sides, you see attacks against people based on their political views and attacks based on people's own religious beliefs," he said. "It can't stand in America and we have to stand up when these kind of attacks happen and push back on it very, very hard."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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