Scalise Addresses Rise of Violent Threats from the Left

Statement

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel's The Ingraham Angle with Laura Ingraham to discuss the rise of violent actions and threats from the Left against conservatives, most recently resulting in the arrest of a New York man who made death threats against him and fellow House Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). After surviving an assassination attempt last year, Whip Scalise has long advocated for civil discourse between people of opposing viewpoints.

On Carlos Bayon, the New York man arrested for threatening Scalise and McMorris Rodgers:

"Clearly, these kinds of disturbing things, there's no place for it in politics. I first want to thank, once again, our United States Capitol Police. They were very quick to act when my office received this threat. [My office] sent the information on to Capitol Police. The Capitol Police did research, found out that this man has had some real serious concerns. It was hard to track him down because he was trying to use aliases. Ultimately, they found him. He's in federal custody, and hopefully he gets a serious sentence because you can't allow these kinds of threats and violence against people based on their political views.

"We'll find out a lot of that. Clearly, he had some strong disagreements with my political views and others. There were others that he threatened, as well. He's going to have to account for that. The Justice Department has him now. Again, my thanks and true appreciation goes out to our law enforcement, the United States Capitol Police, who acted quickly and worked with the New York authorities to make sure that he got into custody."

On the need for Democrats to condemn violent rhetoric on the Left:

"You look at some of the liberal rhetoric that's coming out from the left. They're encouraging and inciting, in many cases, violence. It's got to stop. In fact, liberals need to call this out. They need to speak up, just as we're speaking up saying that there's no place for it on the Republican or Democrat side. I think people on the left need to be just as vocal about calling out this kind of violence."

On Facebook's need to ensure against liberal bias on their platform:

"It's clearly a double standard. We've pointed some of this out. In fact, when Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee that I sit on just a few weeks ago, I brought up the bias that we're seeing on Facebook since they put a new algorithm in place to change the way that people get their news feed. They're literally starting to filter in--from what we've seen--a left-leaning way and having a bias against conservatives. We've raised it to them and they said this is something they're looking into. We need to watch it closely because if they get into a position where it looks like they're trying to become the platform of the Left, there are other social media sites people can and will go to if it becomes a liberal site. [Facebook doesn't] want their site to become a liberal site."

Source