Democratic congressional candidate asks whether it’s ‘open season’ on Donald Trump, Bill Barr, other GOP’ers

Democratic congressional candidate Pam Keith is asking whether it’s “open season” on political rivals she deems “bad guy(s)” — including President Donald Trump — in a Twitter post Wednesday morning.

Keith was questioning logic used in some conservative circles regarding the death of George Floyd. Some conservative commentators have raised Floyd’s criminal past in discussing his killing at the hands of Minneapolis police, seemingly implying his criminal past justified his killing, or at least made it less appalling.

Trump shared one of those posts last week. In the clip, conservative provocateur Candace Owens criticized the fact Floyd has been held up as a “martyr” and as a “symbol of black America” given his criminal record.

Aside from Trump highlighting that post, that strain of thought has not surfaced widely among GOP politicians. Still, Keith decided to paint Republicans with a broad brush Wednesday.

“GOP: Yeah he’s dead. But it’s not a big deal because he was a ‘bad guy,'” Keith began.

That’s when Keith began making her own list of “bad guys,” including the President and several of his allies.

“Is that REALLY the new rule they want? Killing is OK if it’s a ‘bad guy?’ Is it now open season on: [Michael] Flynn, [Paul] Manafort, [Roger] Stone, [Rick] Gates, [Michael] Cohen, TRUMP, [Bill] Barr, [Brett] Kavanaugh, [Corey] Lewandowski, [John] Bolton, [Mike] Pompeo, [George] Papadopolous, [Brad] Parscale[?]”

GOP: Yeah he’s dead. But it’s not a big deal because he was a “bad guy.”

Is that REALLY the new rule they want? Killing is OK if it’s a “bad guy?”

Is it now open season on:

Flynn
Manafort
Stone
Gates
Cohen
TRUMP
Barr
Kavanaugh
Lewandowski
Bolton
Pompeo
Papadopolous
Parscale

— Pam Keith (@PamKeithFL) June 10, 2020

“I believe that every life is valuable, even the lives of people who have made mistakes or committed crimes,” Keith said in a statement to Florida Politics about her Wednesday post.

“So, I am deeply offended by the GOP raising George Floyd’s past or his mistakes to justify what Chauvin and the other officers did. We do not do extrajudicial killing in this country. So the idea that George’s killing was just fine because he was a ‘bad guy’ is beyond obscene. If the GOP is using the argument that it was OK to kill George Floyd because of his past actions, then where does that lead us? My tweet asked a simple question:  If that is the new ‘rule,’ does it apply to all people we perceive to be ‘bad?’ The GOP position is racist, lawless, immoral and untenable.”

When asked to provide other examples of Republicans using Floyd’s past to “justify” the officer’s actions, Keith was unable to provide specific examples.

It’s unclear whether Keith’s post will violate Twitter’s newly-increased enforcement rules aimed at pushing back against the “glorification of violence.”

Asked about that possibility, Keith argued her tweet “does the exact opposite of glorifying violence. It makes the point that the violence against George Floyd was an abomination, and that those who claim it was justified because of his past would never countenance the same brutality being used against the men I listed.”

Early last week, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz had a post flagged in which he asked if the U.S. could “hunt down” antifa — a movement with supporters he deemed terrorists — “like we do those in the Middle East.”

Trump also felt the effects of Twitter’s new policy. In a post on rioters infiltrating protests following Floyd’s death, Trump threatened to bring in the National Guard and stated, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Keith is competing against Democratic candidate Oz Vazquez for the chance to advance to the general election in Florida’s 18th Congressional District. She ran in 2018 as well, losing out in the Democratic primary to Lauren Baer.