Photo credit: Ryan Reilly

Lamar Smith has reached a new low in toxic political posturing today:

The chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee is blaming the “liberal media” for the level of public anger toward President Trump after a gunman fired at GOP lawmakers at a baseball practice the day before.

Time and time again, Smith and his GOP colleagues have told us not to politicize gun violence, but less than 24 hours after a terrifying shooting, Smith is making Trump-like attacks on the free press instead of looking for solutions to gun violence.

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Apparently for Lamar Smith, posturing for his backers at the NRA is more important than telling the truth or making Americans safer.

Look, I take this personally. I was a staffer for Members of Congress on Capitol Hill. More than once, my coworkers and I were told to “shelter in place” in our offices after a gun scare on the Hill.

Smith’s statements today are offensive, and they endanger even the people working for him because they cloud the issue and prevent real solutions to the threats posed to Members of Congress and their staffers.

Moreover, these kinds of attacks on the media set the stage for violence in our country. We saw that clearly during the presidential campaign when Trump encouraged his supporters to harass members of the media at his events. Members of Congress who encourage these kinds of attacks on the media have no place in public life.

We need responsible approaches to gun violence in our country, not toxic political posturing. We’re not going to get those things with people like Lamar Smith in office.

Donate now to help me unseat Smith.

Smith’s quote above and his attacks on the press are detailed in an articled published online today by The Hill: “GOP chairman blames media after lawmaker shooting.”

Derrick Crowe is running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the climate-change-denying chairman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. More information on Crowe’s candidacy can be found at https://electcrowe.com.