It’s now been two days since the murder of Alex Pretti by Trump regime goons in Minneapolis on Saturday, January 24. The reaction from Virginia politicians: overwhelming concern and condemnation by Democrats, “crickets” from Republicans. See below for what I mean:
First, here’s the Augusta Free Press on Reps. John McGuire (R-VA05) and Ben Cline (R-VA06):
“McGuire, on his personal Twitter page, did, sorta, kinda, address Minneapolis and ICE, though not the shooting itself.
McGuire reposted an item from discredited MAGA influence peddler James O’Keefe in which O’Keefe, who makes a living surreptitiously filming and editing clips of people on the other side of the political spectrum from him to make them appear to be saying things they didn’t say, complained about being confronted by political ‘agitators’ from the other side, who he then threatened, in his post, to ‘expose.’
McGuire’s comment, which had a 7:15 a.m. Sunday timestamp, on the O’Keefe post: ‘Paid operation?’
So, McGuire knows what’s going on.
Cline might not; he comes across to me as being a Mike Johnson type, who likes to claim that he hasn’t seen whatever the latest national political controversy is in the news, and Cline is so good at it that it can be hard to tell if it might be the case that he actually is clueless.
Either way, they’re not weighing in on the latest shooting by the ICE thugs.
Silence is complicity.”
And as of this morning? For his part, McGuire tweeted that, “Due to inclement weather, my Washington D.C., Lynchburg, and Goochland Offices will be closed, Monday, January 26th.” Also, MAGA fanatic and Trump bootlicker McGuire tweeted this sycophantic blather: “During House GOP’s Media Row I talked about President Trump”s amazing wins, like leading U.S. crude oil production to reach an all-time high in 2025, setting a record output of 13.6 million barrels per day.” As for far-right-extremist Cline, he tweeted about how he supposedly had something major to do with “President Trump’s swift approval of our request yesterday for Virginia’s Emergency Declaration ahead of tonight’s winter storm.” Riiiight…sure, dude. Anyway, pathetic as always from McGuire and Cline.
As for Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01), who is highly likely to lose his seat in November if we get new districts, and in political jeopardy even if the districts stay the same, other than a tweet about the snow/sleet/ice storm…nada. As for Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09), he had nothing to say about the Minneapolis murder, but DID have time to take credit (dishonestly) for Trump’s emergency declaration for Virginia. Last but most definitely least, HIGHLY vulnerable (e.g., she’s almost certainly political “toast” in November) Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA02) tweeted about meeting with “ARMADA, to discuss innovation and emerging technologies that strengthen our military readiness and national security”; about “urging Secretaries Pete Hegseth and Doug Burgum to reconsider halting offshore wind projects like the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project” (except that the Trump people know that Kiggans is all bark and no bite); and also about the fact that “the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning.” And that’s about it from her. This November, it will be awesome to see her defeated by former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA02) or whoever is the nominee in VA02!
How about former Virginia AG Jason Miyares? On his Twitter feed, it’s a mix of bad-faith attacks on Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Virginia Democrat, plus a humorous tweet about the snow/ice, and…nope, nothing about the cold-blooded murder in Minneapolis from this supposed “law-and-order” guy. How about former Gov. Glenn Youngkin? Silence on his Twitter feed – apparently, he’s busy moping or whatever now that he’s out of office and watching Abigail Spanberger work to undo all the damage he did. Also, silence on former LG Winsome Earle-Sears’ Twitter feed. Nothing on the VA GOP’s Twitter feed either, other than retweeting a fear-mongering article by the far-right NY Post (“Virginia Dems propose law to drop mandatory prison time for rape, manslaughter”).
How about Virginia Senate GOP Leader Ryan McDougle? All he’s got is “No snow days allowed in the Senate! We are here in the General Assembly Building fighting for real affordability and common sense policies!” (spoiler: Virginia Republicans are actually fighting AGAINST “real affordability” and FOR right-wing/non-common sense policies). Virginia House GOP leader Terry Kilgore? All he’s got is a retweet about “the generation mix in PJM,” in order for this fossil fuel industry puppet to score a cheap shot against clean energy. And, again, NOTHING about the murder in Minneapolis.
Sensing a pattern here? Bottom line: Virginia Republicans have nothing to say about the Trump administration’s thuggishness, lawlessness, authoritarianism, violence, etc., because in the end they know that 1) Trump/MAGA is who they are, who they endorsed, who they voted for, etc; 2) they know where their hard-core “base” is at; 3) politically speaking, they presumably know that the American people (other than the Republican “base”) DISAPPROVE of ICE’s tactics. Plus, presumably, they don’t have great talking points on the murder of Alex Pretti, other than joining in the Trump administration’s disgraceful, callous, appalling smear campaign against an ICU nurse who was holding a cell phone and trying to help a woman who had been pushed by a federal agent. So clearly, Virginia Republicans have calculated that for the time being at least, their best – albeit cowardly – bet is to simply ignore the biggest story (by far) in America right now. Yet again, nothing if not pathetic.
