Democratic Representative Troy Carter is torching Republicans for leveraging the horrific New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans as short-lived political fodder.
Speaking with CNN on Thursday, the Louisiana Democrat flamed conservative leadership, accusing the party of using the deaths of 15 people to push misinformation that directly benefits their agenda.
“This is an American attack. This is an attack on our democracy. This is an attack on our freedoms. This person was radicalized, but it was an American citizen, a citizen of Texas, and someone who was honorably discharged from the United States Army,” Carter told anchor Brianna Keilar. “And we should not play games with the American people to try and imply that it was something that it wasn’t, which somehow suggests that this was a Democrat or Republican issue. And we have to be more mature and more direct and fair and honest with the American people.”
“This is not the time to play political brinkmanship or gamesmanship,” he continued.
Carter was, in part, responding to a lengthy rant that Donald Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday, in which he repeatedly claimed that the domestic terrorism incident was the result of open borders and the Democratic establishment. In the same breath, the president-elect attacked the FBI and the Department of Justice, baselessly accusing the agencies of being distracted by his own wrongdoing to prevent terrorist attacks.
But Trump’s nativist messaging is in direct conflict with the facts of the case: The FBI’s suspect for the attack, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is a U.S. citizen born in Texas. And choosing to undermine the reputation of investigative agencies looking into the attack is a hair-raising choice for the man about to retake the White House in 18 days.
“This is a time that we should be united as Americans to push back against terrorism, push back against terrorist threats, and to demonstrate to the American people that we will use every resource that we have to combat these kind of hateful and heinous acts,” Carter said. “The families of the loved ones who have died and those who are in the hospital fighting for their lives, and our law enforcement agents from the federal, local, and state deserve better.”
The post Democrat Slams GOP for Politicizing Attack as Trump Politicizes Attack appeared first on New Republic.
