Republican Rep. Dan Meuser (Penn.) suggested that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was asking for it when an attacker burned down part of his house after his Passover celebration and that he needs to “tone it down” with actions against President Donald Trump.
“This guy is a psycho of course,” Meuser said of the attacker during an appearance on a local radio show on Tuesday. “And our hearts go out to the Shapiro family on this. But you know, they’ve got to tone it down, too. I mean, every action Josh Shapiro has taken so far against the president has either been a lawsuit or a falsehood.”
Meuser’s take comes three days after Shapiro, who is Jewish, along with his family and guests, had to flee the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in the middle of the night because an attacker broke into the residence and set a fire that left significant damage. Police say they arrested Cody Balmer, 38, in connection with the attack.
At a briefing Wednesday, Shapiro said there was “nothing” the attacker “could do [that] would deter me from doing my job as governor, nothing he could do would deter me from proudly and openly practicing my faith.”
Meuser also compared the attack on Shapiro, whom Trump has slammed as a “highly overrated Jewish Governor,” during a religious holiday to the recent attacks on Tesla properties.
“The whole thing with the governor’s office yesterday being attacked ― and on Passover, which was horrible, absolutely awful, needs to be condemned. But, you know, it just kills me, and I hate to have to go back to this, but there’s been so many Tesla dealerships firebombed,” Meuser said on The Bob Cordaro Show on WILK Newsradio.
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“Meanwhile you got those on the left continuing to make kind of, you know, violent type of hostile commentary,” he continued.
He also chastised Shapiro for not making a big statement about a Tesla Cybertruck exploding as part of an attack outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, which is more than 2,300 miles away from the Pennsylvania capital.
“I’m not sure the governor’s office made too much of a statement about that,” Meuser said.