Lee responds to heated rhetoric: ‘It’s important that we talk about where it comes from’

Near the end of a news conference to celebrate a federal grant at Salem’s Market in the Hill District on Monday, reporters asked one of the attendees, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, if she would take a political question. She agreed.

WESA’s Chris Potter started off by referencing a gunman’s attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler on Saturday. In the aftermath, some Republicans have said Democrats should back off their criticism of the former president. How do people criticize Trump, Potter asked, “if you disagree very strongly with him while still taking into account these are very difficult, dangerous times?”

Lee responded:

“These are frightening times. As someone who lives in them, I recognize that every single thing I say, or sometimes the things I don’t say, can attract so much attention that it makes us feel that we are threatened or at risk. And that risk is very real, as we saw play out on national television.

“The rhetoric is so heated, and it has been for years, and it’s important that we talk about where it comes from, and the reality is that it has come from the GOP.

“Criticizing presidents, criticizing elected officials, is something we have done throughout the entirety of the history of this nation. In fact, it’s one of the important things we must do. I think that people, our constituents, the people of this country, have a right to know precisely who we are. They have a right to question us, to question our motives, to question the ways in which we do policy and our politics. And, yes, we all as elected officials have a responsibility to do that in a way that does not endanger and does not incite.

“But it’s also important that we recognize from whence the endangerment and incitement has come from. There is an attempt right now, still, in the midst of an assassination attempt, to pretend that Jan. 6 wasn’t what it was, to pretend that we haven’t seen explicit calls from right wing media, from elected officials, people we work with every day, who put a target on our head. This is not a ‘both sides’ situation. There is one side that is making a very real criticism of the ways in which the Supreme Court, for instance, has moved — the impact of some of the rulings. There are people who have been endangered because of the policies of our government, and that criticism is important.

“It is different, however, to criticize trans folks, Black and brown folks, disabled folks. It is that type of criticism that makes our political discourse dangerous. And we need to be very clear about that. This is not a both sides [situation]. There are some people who have said some incredibly cruel things.”