MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – Many conservatives at the Republican National Convention (RNC) pointed to years of vitriolic rhetoric from President Joe Biden when asked about his call for “unity” in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
“Let’s remember here in America, while unity is the most elusive of all goals right now, nothing is more important for us now than standing together,” Biden said in his Oval Office address, where he also made references to January 6 and the vicious attack on Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi, in October 2022.
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Breitbart News caught up with Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge (R-AR), journalist Jack Posobiec, and a number of delegates filing into the Pfizer Forum, where Trump was officially nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Rutledge emphasized exclusives to Breitbart News that “as the Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, and as an American citizen, I am appalled that it’s taken this long for Joe Biden to call for unity when he and his Democratic allies, whether it was Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, all the Democrats have been demonizing Donald Trump for a decade.”
She said the world saw “the impact of that” on Saturday night when Trump was shot in the ear while delivering remarks at what was supposed to be a jubilant rally.
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“So I implore President Biden to be a man of his word,” Rutledge, a delegate, added. “I come from the hometown of his youngest grandchild. I know that family; he doesn’t know that family, and let me tell you something: If you turn your back on your own grandchild, you don’t need to be the face of America. It’s time for Joe to go.”
When asked for his thoughts on Biden’s call for unity in his third-ever Oval Office address, Posobiec challenged Biden to pardon former senior Trump staffers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro and to commute their sentences, in addition to “dropping” the federal cases against Trump.
“If President Biden wants unity, he can start by pardoning Steve Bannon, by pardoning Peter Navarro, by commuting their sentences, by dropping the cases against Trump. He could do those things within five minutes,” Posobiec exclusively told Breitbart News. “And if he’s truthful and if he actually wants to call for unity, then he will go and start submitting pardons immediately.”
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Former U.S. congressional candidate and alternate Florida delegate Anthony Sabatini (R) told Breitbart News that Biden’s address was “disgraceful” and “absolutely tone-deaf.”
“President Trump was almost assassinated, and [Biden] actually made it more about himself in many ways… if you listen closely to the speech,” he said of the address. “So just disgraceful, self-absorbed, and obviously more evidence that the man is losing his mind.”
Several North Carolina delegates offered their opinions on Biden’s unity call.
Leigh Brown of Concord offered her opinion that Biden’s “inflammatory” Trump rhetoric established a climate that led to the shooting.
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“The American people want unity, but the only way you get there is by taking responsibility for your actions. If President Biden is serious about unity, he will retract all the statements he’s made that have been inflammatory rhetoric that led to President Trump getting shot on Saturday,” she told Breitbart News.
Martha Jenkins, first vice president of the National Federation of Republican Women, said that Biden “has had three-and-a-half years to unify the country, and he hasn’t done it.”
“Every action that he’s taken has pitted people against each other instead of bringing us together, and I look forward to President Trump being the one who actually unifies this country,” she added.
Allison Powers of Waxhaw, North Carolina, told Breitbart News that “a lot of people are unified, but not because of Biden, but because of what he’s done and what he said, and now they’re unified behind President Trump.”