What happens when a congressman threatens a colleague with violence?

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

In March 2010, 10 months before the shooting, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin had posted a map of 20 congressional districts she and John McCain won in 2008 but whose representatives in Congress had voted in favor of the Affordable Care Act. The map marked each district with a set of crosshairs. Palin promoted the map by tweeting “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD.” One of those crosshairs targeted Gabby.

Although no direct connection was ever established between Palin’s map and Gabby’s shooting, surely Palin’s violent rhetoric contributed to a climate of political violence in America in which a delusional man would mark Gabby for assassination. Gabby herself had expressed concern about Palin’s map.

Just as surely, Palin’s inflammatory post was a step toward increasingly violent political rhetoric on the way to Donald Trump and the insurrection of 6 January.

Last Friday a group of House Democrats introduced a resolution to censure Gosar for posting his video. The motion was introduced by Representative Jackie Speier, co-chair of the Democratic women’s caucus, and nine other lawmakers. “For that Member to post such a video on his official Instagram account and use his official congressional resources in the House of Representatives to further violence against elected officials goes beyond the pale,” the group said. “As the events of January 6th have shown, such vicious and vulgar messaging can and does foment actual violence.”

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/16/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-congressman-threatens-violence

[ampm]

1. Yes word like pictures can and do cause violence

So much in the media and online anything everywhere are not funny, because someone always gets it wrong and violence can and does happen Someone get hurt

[Uncle Joe]

2. Yes, that's true ampm

but easy to forget.

[marble falls]

3. All depends on who, when, and how. There's been bloody physical attacks on the Floors ...

... of both Houses over the years.

[electric_blue68]

5. Vague memory - didn't somebody cane another? ?1800's

[marble falls]

6. Seriously beat the victim, over slavery; which of course had nothing to do with causing ...

... the Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_of_Charles_Sumner

The Beating of Charles Sumner, or the Brooks–Sumner Affair, occurred on May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate chamber, when Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts. The attack was in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized slaveholders, including a relative of Brooks, Andrew Butler. The beating nearly killed Sumner and contributed significantly to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery. It has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse"[1] and the use of violence that eventually led to the Civil War.

[electric_blue68]

8. Woah! Thanks for info...

[malthaussen]

4. Hell, nothing happens when a congressman commits violence on a colleague...

... just ask the shade of Charles Sumner.

-- Mal

[electric_blue68]

9. Got it, now that it was explained to me Eeeks!

[pfitz59]

7. My guess? Civil War