Former NY congressman lays out Dems’ years-long escalating rhetoric ahead of Trump assassination attempt

MILWAUKEE – Former New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin said he’s “tired” of seeing Republicans verbally and physically attacked, arguing that anti-Trump and anti-GOP rhetoric has reached new highs across the years. 

“The rhetoric has gotten so bad between, yes, the bullseye comment, remember Dan Goldman making a comment about how President Trump needs to be eliminated. Bennie Thompson wants to take away Secret Service protection. One of [Thompson’s] aides was just complaining that the shooter Saturday evening had missed President Trump. I’m tired of seeing Republicans attacked like this,” Zeldin told Fox News Digital during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday. 

Zeldin was responding to President Biden backtracking on his comment earlier this month that “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye,” saying the remark was a “mistake” after a 20-year-old man in Pennsylvania attempted to assassinate Trump during a rally on Saturday evening. Zeldin reflected that verbal and physical attacks against Republicans have been ongoing and heightening for years before a shooter tried to kill the 45th president. 

“I saw it with Steve Scalise with the shooting a few years ago, the attack on Rand Paul, the targeting of Justice Kavanaugh, this very close, near-assassination of President Trump. Yes, we should settle our scores at the ballot box. I agree with that. It’s a truth. It’s something that everyone should preach and everyone should believe in,” he continued. 

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WASHINGTON, DC, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES – 2023/03/04: Former Congressman Lee Zeldin speaks on the 3rd day of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Washington, DC conference at Gaylord National Harbor Resort & Convention.  ((Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images))

“Ultimately, we have to confront, head on, the fact that there is a very extensive effort basically throwing everything that they can against President Trump outside of the ballot box to try to prevent him from taking office … It’s gone too far. It’s sick and it needs to end,” he continued. 

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Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to attend Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 16, 2024.  (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Zeldin said that three days after Trump announced his run for re-election in 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Jack Smith as special counsel to prosecute Trump, while Georgia prosecutor Nathan Wade “was sitting inside the White House Counsel’s Office,” and DOJ official “Matthew Colangelo was putting in his papers to leave the Department of Justice” to take a job in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office ahead Trump’s indictment in the New York criminal case.  

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Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump applauds as Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance gestures on Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 16, 2024.  (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

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“That was all nine days after President Biden said that we would have to pursue ways outside of the ballot box to take down President Trump,” he said. “I’m not going to just sign up for the fact it’s all just a coincidence.” 

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“Every normal, commonsense, average everyday American is able to see through it. Let’s truly focus on settling the score at the ballot box. Let’s not have to focus on crazy criminal cases and trying to bankrupt the president and all these other attempts that threaten safety.”