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Here's a typical example of the violent rhetoric that has emanated from the GOP for decades now. David Neiwert often refers to it as eliminationism and outlines what it means here. An apology came out as soon as TPM reported the story because it was such an outrageous thing to publicly say.

Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) sent TPM a public apology Thursday after we obtained audio of the five-term Republican telling constituents at a town hall this week that he’d have to personally shoot members of the U.S. Senate to get a budget passed through the chamber. Sullivan, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma’s First District, was at a town hall meeting in Bixby, Okla., Wednesday when he lamented that the Paul Ryan Budget which the House passed in 2011 had no chance of passage in the Senate: Like I said, after this last election, the first order of business is pass a budget. Now, I believe that. I supported the Paul Ryan budget and sent it over to the Senate. Now I live with some Senators, I yell at them all the time, I grabbed one of them the other day and shook him and I’d love to get them to vote for it — boy I’d love that. You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.

MSBC's Kelly O'Donnell offered a bizarre defense to Martin Bashir for Sullivan by saying that these things can happen in off-the-cuff settings. Is she serious? He's a five-termer talking to a town hall. Bashir rebukes her by pointing out that he watched her moving description of Gabby Giffords return to the House because she was indeed shot.

In other words...WTF, Kelly? Sullivan is not a rookie at speaking to people at public settings.