On Wednesday morning, the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA), shook Washington D.C. Two Capitol Hill police officers were also wounded in the shooting. The gunman has been identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Illinois, an avid Bernie Sanders supporter from Illinois. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle delivered heartfelt speeches, sending prayers to those injured in the shooting. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “you may not know this but every time I pray, which is frequently, I pray for all of you.” Later, Bernie Sanders declared “I condemn this in the strongest possible way.”
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JUST IN: Bernie Sanders says alleged gunman volunteered on his campaign, condemns action in strongest possible terms https://t.co/oPSs184okg pic.twitter.com/1l5dlXrc79
— CNN (@CNN) June 14, 2017
And there were a number of stories of heartfelt kindness out of Washington, like the moment that a kind stranger dropped off Gatorade and Chick-Fil-A for police officers still at the scene. In the senate buildings, congress members were in tears, still wearing baseball jerseys, as they weaved between reporters.
An SUV just approached this Alexandria cop to hand him a bag of food and iced tea. pic.twitter.com/hYyirlsdqh
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 14, 2017
But not all the reactions were so unified, on the far-left corners of the internet, heartless cruelty abounded. Instead of condemning the situation, some social media members chose to point out that Scalise spoke to White Supremacists in 2002 –though Scalise said he didn’t know who the group was.
So Rep. Steve Scalise, who once spoke at a white supremacist event sponsored by David Duke (google it) was SHOT today in Alexandria.
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) June 14, 2017
RELATED: The man who opened fire on congressional Republicans frequently bashed them online
When confronted with the allegation, #SteveScalise confirmed this connection w/ David Duke's white supremacist group https://t.co/MaF6G0pF3J
— New York City Antifa (@NYCAntifa) June 14, 2017
Twitter user Malcolm Harris, whose Twitter bio claimed that he was with Vox sent out a tweet poking a joke at the moment.
If the shooter has a serious health condition then is taking potshots at the GOP house leadership considered self defense?
— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) June 14, 2017
Unsurprisingly, the tweet backfired and he quickly changed his bio to read “NOT a full-time employee at @voxdotcom.” But Vox had its hands full on Twitter as they repeatedly disavowed Harris.
Malcolm Harris’ Twitter bio falsely claimed he was an employee of Vox. He is not nor has he ever been associated with our brand.
— Vox (@voxdotcom) June 14, 2017
Some on Twitter, including an account with 2,033 followers claiming to be the “Official Antifa” page were downright evil.
https://twitter.com/OfficialAntifa/status/874977210930802688