NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Staten Island Republicans gathered at the borough’s GOP headquarters on Sunday morning to condemn the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, extend condolences to the 50-year-old Pennsylvania man who was killed and thank law enforcement for their efforts.
Many of those who spoke pointed to the threat of political violence, and asserted that it is a product of the rhetoric being leveled against Trump by “the president himself,” Democrats and the media amid his 2024 presidential campaign.
“You can’t call your opponent a threat to democracy … and not think that someone might not want to protect the democracy,” New York State Sen. Andrew Lanza said, pushing blame for Saturday’s violence toward Trump’s political opponents.
“They indicted Donald Trump. They prosecuted Donald Trump. They tried Donald Trump. The left. They convicted Donald Trump. They shot Donald Trump,” Lanza said.
The conference on Richmond Road was held as politicians and Americans continue to reel from the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening. Trump was wounded when a bullet grazed his right ear, and 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, was killed while shielding his family. Two others were injured.
“Those types of actions have no place in our society,” New York City Minority Leader Joseph Borelli said in condemnation of the shooting, allegedly perpetrated by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
“We need to make sure that we have the right people in place to protect President Biden, to protect President Trump, and all candidates,” Borelli said.
Some officials raised concerns about the state of federal security, and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, told 1010 WINS that these fears must be quelled with a thorough investigation.
“It begs the question how this could happen. The fact that a shooter was able to go on a neighboring building’s roof. This seems to me a security failure that certainly warrants more investigation,” Malliotakis said.
In his address to the nation on Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden stated that the investigation into the shooting must be “thorough and swift.” He also confirmed that he ordered a complete security review by the U.S. Secret Service ahead of the Republican National Convention, which is set to kick off in Milwaukee on Monday.
In their comments, elected officials affirmed that violence cannot be a tool of democracy and that extreme political division can have dangerous consequences.
“You can't demonize someone, say that they’re worse than Hitler and that they are a threat to your freedom, and not expect that some deranged person might say, ‘hey, I'm going to save us from this worse-than-Hitler person,’” Lanza said.
State Assemblyman and Staten Island Republican Party Chairman Michael Tannousis agreed with this stance, calling the shooting un-American.
“What separates us from communist states, dictatorships, third-world banana republics is that we don't murder our political opponents,” Tannousis said.
Ultimately, Republicans are backing Trump and his “defiant” response to the attempt on his life, both in the moment and as he heads to Wisconsin for the RNC Convention.
“It showed how courageous, how defiant [Trump] is and I do believe he will be the next president of the United States,” Malliotakis told WCBS 880. “And I think that people see his courage the way that he got up quickly, he put his fist in the air to show people that he’s there, he’s going to continue to fight. I think he's unstoppable.”
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