Former Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle condemned Tucson shooter Jared Loughner and expressed concern about the politicized placement of blame in a statement her office released Wednesday.
“I condemn all acts of violence,” Angle said, echoing former Alaska gov. Sarah Palin’s recent comment about hating war and violence.
“The despicable act in Tucson is a horrifying and senseless tragedy, and should be condemned as a single act of violence, by a single unstable individual,” Angle said in the statement. “The irresponsible assignment of blame to me, Sarah Palin or the Tea Party movement by commentators and elected officials puts all who gather to redress grievances in danger.”
A chorus of media commentators and journalists have blamed Angle and other conservative political figures for inspiring Saturday’s massacre, citing vitriolic political rhetoric.
In a Fox News interview over the weekend, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik suggested Angle and Palin were partially to blame for the nation’s current state of violence.
“When you have people like Sharon Angle, in Las Vegas, running against Harry Reid, making outrageous statements such as ‘We may need to resort to taking the second amendment into certain cases,’ and for people like Sarah Palin to say ‘We have people like Gabby Giffords in our cross-hairs,’ I think those statements are totally irresponsible and they’re not without consequences,” Dupnik said. “And we are seeing them here.”
Angle stressed the importance of avoiding finger-pointing when discussing the Tucson shooting.
“It contradicts the facts as they are known – that the shooter was obsessed with his twisted plans long before the Tea Party movement began,” the statement reads.