Milwaukee – Former New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin said he’s “sick of seeing” Republicans being verbally and physically attacked, arguing that anti-Trump, anti-Republican rhetoric has reached new heights in recent years.
“The rhetoric has gotten so bad. Yes, remember the bullseye comment, Dan Goldman commenting that President Trump needs to be removed. Bennie Thompson wants to remove Secret Service protection. [Thompson’s] “Aides were just complaining that the shooter missed President Trump on Saturday evening. I’m tired of seeing the Republican Party attacked in this way,” Zeldin told Fox News Digital at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
Zeldin was responding to President Biden’s retraction of comments he made earlier this month that “it’s time to target Trump” after a 20-year-old man tried to assassinate Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, saying the remarks were a “mistake.” Zeldin recalled that verbal and physical attacks against Republicans had been ongoing and intensifying for years before the gunman tried to kill the 45th president.
“We saw it with the shooting of Steve Scalise a few years ago, the attack on Senator Rand Paul, the attack on Judge Kavanaugh and the near assassination of President Trump. Yes, we should settle it at the ballot box. I’m for that. It’s true. It’s something that everyone should preach and it’s something that everyone should believe,” he continued.
Florida Rep. Mills calls for “J13”-style committee on Democratic rhetoric following Trump assassination attempt
Washington DC, District of Columbia, USA – 03/04/2023: Former Congressman Lee Zeldin speaks during the third day of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Washington DC Conference at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort & Convention. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“At the end of the day, we have to face up to the fact that there is a very large-scale effort outside of the ballot box that is doing everything possible to stop President Trump from taking office…This is an overreach. This is sick and it needs to end,” he continued.
Biden admits ‘point-blaming’ comments about Trump after assassination attempt were ‘mistakes’
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump arrives to attend the second day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Seeger)
Zeldin said that three days after Trump announced he would seek re-election in 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced he would appoint Jack Smith as special prosecutor to prosecute Trump, while Georgia prosecutor Nathan Wade was “sitting in the White House Counsel’s Office” and Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo was “filing paperwork to leave the Justice Department and take a job in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office ahead of the indictment of Trump in the New York criminal case.”
Trump nominates Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance for 2024 presidential run
On the second day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA on July 16, 2024, Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump applauds a gesture by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
Democrats are watching their victories ‘evaporate’ before their eyes, Montana Senate candidate says ahead of Republican National Convention speech
“This comes just nine days after President Biden said we need to look at ways other than the ballot box to defeat President Trump,” he said. “I’m just not going to accept the fact that this is all just a coincidence.”
Click here to get the FOX News app
“Any normal, common-sense, average American can see through that. Let’s really focus on settling it at the ballot box and not focus on crazy criminal cases and attempts to bankrupt the president and other attempts to undermine our security.”
