Senator Chris Coons (D-DL) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that the country was at risk of a “season of political violence.”
Partial transcript as follows:
BAIER: All right. Last thing before we get to January 6. The law has been made this week about words, how much they matter, how much stirring the pot, giving the green light to violence in any way, shape, or form is unacceptable.
Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.
(CHEERS)
You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: On the steps of the Supreme Court, did those words qualify, Senator?
COONS: So here’s a key distinction. What Senator Schumer was saying was that he was upset. He was alarmed, he was concerned at the prospect that justices would reverse decades of a well-established fundamental constitutional right in our country. What he did not say was let’s go attack them.
The point of the January 6th hearing is to prove that that is in fact what President Trump did, that he, in the words of Congresswoman Cheney, summoned the mob, stirred up the mob and then lit the fuse that sent them storming the Capitol of the United States.
I do think there’s a distinguishable difference between what we just heard from Senator Schumer and the actions taken by former President Trump and his circle of advisors in the days before January 6th.
BAIER: OK.
COONS: And the results were clear and I think catastrophic. The physical assault of officers that led to several officer deaths and the shattering of the Capitol perimeter. Frankly, as one of the members of the Senate who had to be escorted out along with the vice president by Capitol police just feet ahead of an angry mob, I do think that we are at risk of a season of political violence in this country, and all of us should reduce the temper and level of our rhetoric.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN