Don Jr. Condemns Democrat Call to Violence Against Him, Calls for Apology

Andrew Surabian, a former White House official and spokesman for Donald Trump Jr., released a statement Friday after Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) threatened Trump Jr. on MSNBC.

Surabian released the following statement, saying Garamendi’s comments “were beyond the pale”:

The outrageous remarks from Congressman Garamendi were beyond the pale and should be universally condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike. Almost as outrageous as the Congressman’s comments was the lack of pushback or condemnation from MSNBC host Hallie Jackson, whose silence about political violence aimed towards a member of the first family, was truly deafening. By threatening Don Jr. with physical violence on national TV, Congressman Garamendi made clear to everyone watching that he is better suited to represent Antifa than the people of California’s 3rd Congressional district. He should apologize immediately.

Garamendi’s remarks were made after he was asked by MSNBC host Hallie Jackson to respond to Trump Jr.’s suggestion “that Democrats are taking a pandemic seemingly hoping, and I quote, ‘it comes here to kill millions of people so it can end the president’s winning.’”

“He shouldn’t be near me when he says that,” Garamendi said.

Garamendi went on to say that there would be a “serious altercation” if he is around Trump Jr. over his comments:

There would be a serious altercation that’s totally outrageous. That’s totally outrageous. I can assure you there’s not a Democrat or Republican in Congress that wants anybody to be sick. What we are concerned about is the administration’s response to this illness. We have known since December that there was an epidemic in China, and we have known since that time there were Americans exposed to this. We know there was a Princess cruise ship with high exposure and cases in Japan. Those people who were brought back to the United States frankly with very little planning and very little preparation. And no testing available in the United States to see whether they had the virus or not. Those are known facts. We also suspect that there was inadequate safeguards for the personnel that were serving these evacuees at the airbases. We’ll continue to investigate that. We know there’s community spread in my district. I know there’s an individual that’s very sick. Don Jr. better not get close to me. It would not be a healthy situation.

After Trump Jr. requested an apology, Garamendi denied making a “threat of physical violence,” to Trump Jr. and said he is welcome to “come to my office to explain his comments” in a statement to The Hill.
GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also condemned Garamendi’s remarks, saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democrats should condemn his statements.

“Pelosi and Democrat leaders need to condemn this unhinged threat against @DonaldJTrumpJr,” McDaniel wrote in a tweet.