In an interview with Breitbart News on Thursday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) blasted the left's hypocritical attempts to "cancel" right-leaning news outlets for allegedly inciting violence, pointing out that the "garbage" spewed by left-wing outlets may have contributed to the actions of the crazed, far-left activist who shot and nearly killed Scalise during a congressional baseball practice in 2017.
“It’s important that we call them out on it and that we put the mirror in front of them and remind them what happens on some of these other networks — their darling far-left radical networks and the garbage that they’re spewing," Scalise said. "I wanted to just remind my colleagues that when the shooter from the baseball field back in 2017 walked onto that field, he had a list of Republicans in his pocket that he wanted to execute.”
Scalise pointed out his attacker was spurred on by the liberal media - the same media who accuse right-wing outlets of inspiring violent behavior from their followers.
“He was fueled [by] far-left media personalities and politicians [who] inspired him to go kill Republicans, and I don’t blame the politicians or journalists from the far-left that inspired him with their rhetoric to go kill Republicans. I blame the shooter,” Scalise continued.
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“If you really think that canceling people because you want to blame them for other people’s actions is where you’re going, then let’s start where it all started, and that is on the far left," he added.
Scalise also explained that “cancel culture” has become an all-too pervasive tactic in recent years.
“We’ve seen the cancel culture on full display these last few years. They started when President Trump ran for president. They wanted to cancel him before he even got sworn in. Then they wanted to impeach him. And then after he’s gone, they want to just act like he wasn’t even president,” said Scalise.
He added, “They want to shut down Republicans. They want to close down Fox News and Newsmax and OAN... We’re not going to let that happen, but they’re serious about it.”
Rep. @SteveScalise is right: pic.twitter.com/fXOHkCAKLr
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 25, 2021
Scalise then added that he believes “cancel culture” has gained popularity due to the left’s inability to persuade people to their side through any other means.
“A lot of it is because they’ve lost the ability to debate ideas," he said. "When you look at the cancel culture on college campuses, which is where people learn how to disagree in a polite way, where you learn how to just sharpen your ideas against people with different ideas because, for goodness’ sake, if you can’t defend what you believe in against someone who believes in something differently, maybe you need a evaluate whether or not you’re believing in the right thing.”
“There’s an insecurity on the left when they try to cancel us. It’s because they know they can’t debate us successfully,” he concluded.