Republicans Are Scrounging for Ways to Blame Democrats for the Waukesha Tragedy
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) appeared on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning and accused George Soros and Democratic donors of the “funding far-left, radical DAs and prosecutors” who let the man who drove his S.U.V. into a Waukesha, Wisconsin holiday parade go free on bail days before the attack. His comments are just the latest in a pattern of Republicans attempting to use the tragedy to attack Democrats.
Five people died and dozens were injured when Darrell E. Brooks drove his vehicle into a crowd of people, which included children, at the Waukesha annual Christmas parade. He has been charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide. A sixth victim, an eight-year-old child, died Tuesday from injuries sustained during the attack.
Weeks earlier, Brooks had been accused of using his vehicle to run over the mother of his child in a separate incident, authorities said, according to The Washington Post. Brooks had been released from custody five days before the parade after he posted $1,000 cash bail. Since the incident, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has said his bail was set “inappropriately low.”
“This guy who tried to run over the mother of his child just a few weeks earlier, they’re gonna let him out so he can run over a bunch of other people? It’s really sickening,” Crenshaw said.
“I’m not that conspiratorial,” the congressman added, “But it is pretty obvious that there’s people like George Soros who are funding these far-left, radical DAs and prosecutors around the country, which means millions of dollars.”
Discussing the Waukesha parade attack, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) says "I'm not that conspiratorial …"
… "But it is pretty obvious that there's people like George Soros who are funding these far-left, radical DAs and prosecutors …" pic.twitter.com/ghLm0a2Y73
— The Recount (@therecount) November 24, 2021
Crenshaw’s inflammatory comments followed earlier ones made by Republican flamethrowers Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Donald Trump Jr.
Johnson focused his blame on Democratic leaders. “I hope more Americans are waking up to the reality of what Democratic governance means and what the result of it is,” Johnson said on Fox News on Tuesday. “When you encourage lawlessness, you’re going to get more of it,” he continued, adding, “It becomes more and more violent. It starts spilling over from crime-ridden, generally Democrat-governed cities into the surrounding areas.”
Greene weighed in on Twitter, blaming a coalition of people and groups: Black Lives Matter, mainstream media, the Democratic Party and Biden. “After the widespread hateful reaction to the Rittenhouse verdict & dog whistle calls to radical BLM ground troops by the mainstream media, Democrats, and even the President of the United States, we must ask if they incited the mass murder in Waukesha, WI,” Greene tweeted on Monday, the day after it happened.
“Intentional homicide,” she added.
After the widespread hateful reaction to the Rittenhouse verdict & dog whistle calls to radical BLM ground troops by the mainstream media, Democrats, and even the President of the United States, we must ask if they incited the mass murder in Waukesha, WI.
Intentional homicide.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 22, 2021
Don Jr. poured more fuel on fire, cynically using the attack to blame the media for the tragedy while promoting his father’s upcoming picture book. “It was a real sort of strong hit on what’s become our weaponized media, where it’s not about truth, it’s not about presenting both sides, it’s about creating a narrative,” Trump Jr. said in an interview, according to Raw Story. “It’s totally one-sided.”
He continued, “You see how quickly they’re going to defend the Wisconsin attacker last night. It’s only a matter of minutes until it’s, ‘He was an incredible athlete that something went wrong.’ They’ll be coming up with every excuse for this piece-of-crap terrorist within about five minutes.”
His father addressed the Waukesha incident in a Tuesday evening interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Trump called Brooks a “rough cookie,” but he did find a silver lining to the tragedy: “The good news is that he hated Trump.”