Former Florida Congressman Alan Grayson blames Sarah Palin and other Republicans for last week’s Tucson shooting rampage, the National Journal reported.
Grayson, who lost his re-election bid in November, wrote in an e-mail to supporters Wednesday that Palin “instigated” last week’s “threats and violence.”
“As I observed on MSNBC last week, there has been a stream of violence and threats of violence by the right wing against Democrats,” Grayson wrote. “[Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords] warned against it, and then became a terrible victim of it. Palin has instigated it, and then tried to pretend that it doesn’t exist. What do I think? I think that Gabby said it best: ‘We can’t stand for this.’ We have to stand against it.”
Grayson described his reaction to Palin’s “America’s Enduring Strength” video as “interesting.”
“What else might Palin be defending? Cannibalism, maybe?” Grayson asked.
Grayson added that he didn’t react well to an image of the former Alaska governor popping up on his computer screen.
“When I opened my web browser yesterday, at yahoo.com, there was Sarah Palin, smiling at me,” Grayson wrote. “‘Oh God,’ I said to myself, ‘what has she done now.'”
Responding to Palin’s most recent appearance on Sean Hannity’s television show, Grayson provided his own summary of the interview, “Palin: I am so misunderstood. Hannity: I am so misunderstood. Palin: I am so misunderstood.”
Grayson added that he and Giffords, who remains in serious condition after being shot at a public event last week, were listed on Palin’s 2010 midterm elections map, which depicted rifle crosshairs over vulnerable districts.
“Even before I heard earlier Palin’s whining about ‘misguided finger-pointing’ and ‘irresponsible statements from people who are apportioning blame,’ I thought about this: Palin came to my district, and told her people to ‘take me out,'” Grayson wrote. “Palin told people again and again, ‘don’t retreat, reload.'”