During the June 18 airing of Breitbart News Sunday, Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) warned of the rise of the “militant left” in U.S. politics.
On June 16, Breitbart News quoted a Daily Caller report which indicated the Alexandria attacker had an “assassination” list in his pocket, a list which contained the name of Rep. Franks.
While a guest on Breitbart News Sunday, Franks said news of the list has been widely reported, and he does not see a need to try to “characterize the list” because “[he] thinks it has already been fairly accurately characterized.” Moreover, he said he did on want to say anything that “impedes the investigation of the Capitol Police or the FBI.” He added, “I want to be sure they have the opportunity to express the character of the list as they choose because they may have important reasons for doing so.”
Franks then shifted focus from the list in order to talk of causal matters. He said that the attack appears to be “premeditated,” which means “we have devolved to a great point in our society now. To the point where the militant left is out there to the extent that they are willing to shoot people.”
Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle then brought up the left’s knee-jerk gun control reaction following the attack. Breitbart News reported on Governor Terry McAuliffe (D), Hollywood celebrities, and gun control proponent Mark Kelly unabashedly pushing gun control following news of the shooting. Boyle suggested the message ought rather be about how good guys with guns stopped the Alexandria attacker in his tracks.
Franks responded, “I think there are very few high-profile incidents in the media lately that have argued more against removing guns from law-abiding citizens than the one that we’ve just been through.” He observed the attacker’s “unlawful” use of his firearm proves he was “probably not what you would call a model citizen.” He added, “The only thing that they kept it from being a mass slaughter there, in my judgment, was the fact that there were good guys with guns there to take the guy down.”
Franks then expressed concern over the rise of the “militant left”:
The militant left here has been outrageous. It’s not conservatives that are going out there burning cars and turning them upside down in universities just because someone is speaking. It’s not the conservatives that are saying “pigs in a blanket” and advocating for the killing of police officers. It’s not the conservatives that are shooting people in the baseball field. This militant left is out of control and I think that the so-called moderates should stand up and eschew this and really call them out in a flagrant way.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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