House Minority Whip Steve Scalise says Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes "showed a real lack of character" for not apologizing over an old tweet in which Barnes claimed Scalise "took one for the team" when he was shot by a deranged liberal five years ago.
"It's just bizarre that you make a disgraceful comment like that, get called out on it, and, I mean, most people say, 'Yeah, you know what? It was years ago, they were foolish and they shouldn't have done it," Scalise told "The Dan O'Donnell Show" Monday. "Instead, he just doubled down and then he goes after Ron Johnson and just continued to make more foolish comments."
On October 3, 2017, Barnes quote-tweeted a story from The Hill titled "Scalise: Shooting didn't change my views on gun control" and said "Taking one for the team. I question how people vote against self interest but this is next level. He literally almost died on this hill."
That June, Scalise and five other people were shot and injured when a 66 year-old man who had volunteered with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and drove from Illinois to Virginia opened fire in what investigators concluded was "an act of terrorism" that was "fueled by rage against Republican legislators."
Scalise spent more than three months in the hospital recovering from life-threatening injuries.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week on a number of Barnes' controversial tweets, including his missive about Scalise. Scalise blasted Barnes for "in essence condoning political violence." In his response, Barnes did not apologize to Scalise and instead attempted to turn the focus on Senator Ron Johnson, against whom he is running in November.
"This is a very personal topic for me as someone who has experienced the pain of losing friends and loved ones to gun violence," Barnes said in a statement. "My comments came from a place of frustration with politicians like Ron Johnson who see gun violence happen everyday and turn their backs on solutions that would keep people safe."
Scalise said Monday that he was put off by Barnes' refusal to apologize.
"This is the thing people are tired of: You can't even admit when you were wrong and then you continue to go down this rabbit hole instead of just saying "You know what? Any kind of violence is wrong.,'" Scalise explained "If he said something foolish years ago, just say 'I aplogize, I was wrong.' But he can't do it; he can't bring himself to admit he was wrong and it shows a real lack of character."