Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker thinks at least two Senate Democrats should be held accountable if the Department of Justice believes former President Donald Trump is culpable for the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump was indicted earlier this week following a second investigation led by DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith.
While appearing on Julie Mason’s SiriusXM radio show, Walker predicted the latest charges brought against Trump by the federal government are likely to have “an impact on primary voters” and on general election voters.
“What I mean by that is, in the primary election I think there is this sense – two words come to mind – ‘family’ and ‘forward,’” Walker said. “With family, you think about even for Republicans who Donald Trump wasn’t their first pick going into 2024, maybe they are interested in some of the other candidates, I think there’s a sense when they feel like someone’s being attacked, there’s a sense in the family of circling around that person and trying to protect them, and I think that’s a little bit of it here.”
“People think, ‘Well, if these sorts of things are worthy of indictment, why aren't they indicting [Vermont Senator] Bernie Sanders for inciting violence against [House Majority Leader] Steve Scalise and the other Republicans at the baseball practice or [New York Senator] Chuck Schumer for the things he said about Supreme Court justices?’” Walker continued. “And then people ended up in violation of federal law in front of their house.”
Walker was referring to the June 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice, where a former volunteer for Sander’s 2016 presidential campaign opened fire and injured several people including Scalise. Scalise was hospitalized, recovered, and was able to return to his then-position as House majority whip.
Sanders condemned the shooter, calling the attack a “despicable act.”
“Let me be as clear as I can be — violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society, and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,” Sander said in a statement, per NPR. “Real change can only come about through nonviolent action, and anything else runs counter to our most deeply held American values."
Walker’s second reference was to comments made by Schumer after the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade leaked to the media.
Protestors demonstrated outside the justices’ homes for weeks after their addresses were leaked by pro-abortion activists. Gail A. Curley, Marshal of the Court who oversees security, asked Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to intervene and break up protests at the Montgomery County homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“For weeks on end, large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices’ homes in Maryland,” Curley wrote in a letter to Hogan and Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, per Time. “Earlier this week, for example, 75 protesters loudly picketed at one Justice’s home in Maryland for 20-30 minutes in the evening, then proceeded to picket another Justice’s home for 30 minutes, where the crowd grew to 100, and finally returned to the first Justice’s home. … This is exactly the kind of conduct that the Maryland and Montgomery County laws prohibit.”
An armed man was arrested outside of Kavanaugh’s home in early June. The man, Nicholas Roske of Simi Valley, was reportedly angry about the leaked decision and was carrying a backpack with a Glock 17 pistol, two magazines, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, a nail punch, crowbar, pistol light and duct tape, reports ABC News.
Roske told a friend online he was “gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned” and that he was “shooting for 3” justices.
“All of the major decisions for the past 10 years have been along party lines so if there are more liberal than conservative judges, they will have the power,” Roske wrote, according to an FBI search warrant.
After Roske’s arrest, Schumer said at a press conference in May of 2022 that he did not see a problem with protests outside the homes of the court’s conservative justices if they were “peaceful.”
“My house — there’s protests three, four times a week outside my house. The American way to peacefully protest is OK,” he told reporters, per The Hill.
Walker argued in the Aug. 2 interview that “one of the mistakes Trump and his allies made last fall was spending too much time looking backward.”
“If think in the general election, voters in battleground states like mine want to hear about what’s next. What are you going to do to get the country on the right track,” said Walker. “If liberals are focused on the last presidential election, I think they are in trouble.”
