Thursday on social media, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise delivered a painful burn to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who asked for examples of “a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad,” reminding the former lawmaker that he was shot by a Sanders supporter during a congressional baseball practice in 2017.
“I have never seen @BernieSanders supporters being unusually mean or rude. Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad,” Ellison asked. “Also, are we holding all candidates responsible for the behavior of some of their supporters? Waiting to hear.”
“I can think of an example,” Scalise shot back on Twitter, referring to Sanders supporter and left-wing activist James T. Hodgkinson, who shot Scalise and injured three others at a congressional baseball practice in 2017. Hodgkinson specifically targeted the event because it was a Republican team.
Ellison’s challenge is easily met: political violence and partisan, personal demonization in the Trump era is almost exclusively the purview of the left.