A Nebraska Democratic Party official has been removed from his post following his violent comments that he is “glad” Republican Rep. Steve Scalise got shot earlier this month, and that he “[wishes] he were [expletive] dead.”
In an audio recording released to the public, Phil Montag said the House Majority Whip’s “whole job […] is to get people, to convince Republicans to kick people off health care.”
“I’m glad he got shot,” Montag said, while adding, “I’m not going to say that in public.”
It appeared Montag did not know he was being recorded.
“I wish he was [expletive] dead,” Montag then added.
Montag was removed from his post as co-chair of the state party’s technology committee after the audio recording was released.
Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb confirmed that the audio recording was of Montag.
“We obviously condemn any kind of violence, whether it’s comments on Facebook or comments in a meeting,” Kleeb told Fox News. “Our country is better than the political rhetoric that is out there from both the far right and the far left.”
Montag told the Omaha World-Herald that he was “horrified” by the shooting, and that his words were taken out of context.
“I did not call for the congressman’s death,” Montag reportedly said.
Montag said he did not make a death threat, and that this short clip was taken out of context of what was a much longer conversation, according to the report in the Omaha World-Herald.
Montag has since reportedly been fired from his position at Stillwater Insurance Company because of the comments.
(Twitter)
This incident comes on the tails of Nebraska Democratic Black Caucus Chairwoman Chelsey Gentry-Tipton being asked to resign over a recent Facebook post about the shooting.
“Gentry-Tipton had posted in a thread about the shooting: ‘Watching the congressman crying on live tv abt the trauma they experienced. Y is this so funny tho?,’ ” according to the Omaha World-Herald report.
Gentry-Tipton had declined to resign.
Scalise was shot earlier this month in an alleged political targeting, when the suspected gunman James Hodgkinson shot and injured four people, including Scalise, a lobbyist, a congressional aide and a Capitol Police agent.
Hodgkinson – who reportedly had a list of six names on his person at the time of the shooting, and who also allegedly harbored a hatred of President Donald Trump – had since died of his injuries, and the FBI uncovered a storage locker of his that contained more than 200 rounds of ammunition.
Scalise has been transferred out of the MedStar Washington Hospital Center Intensive Care Unit, according to a statement.
“He remains in fair condition as he continues an extended period of healing and rehabilitation,” the statement read.
(Twitter)
[revad2]
