Tracy Mitrano, candidate for the Democratic nomination
for the U.S. 23rd Congressional District, issued the following statement
regarding a Steuben County man’s pleading guilty to threatening to kill a
member of the U.S. Congress.
“Threatening language and attacks on U.S. congressional
representatives have penetrated the 23rd Congressional District, and this may
be laid at the feet of U.S. Representative Tom Reed (R-23).
“Today’s announcement that Patrick Carlineo of Addison, in Reed’s
home county of Steuben, has pled guilty to threatening the life of U.S. Rep.
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is not only alarming, but it is also hateful.
“President Trump’s constant name calling and hateful slurs
and Congressman Reed’s divisive campaign language, vilifying his opponents as
'extreme’ and 'dangerous,’ only fuel behavior like Carlineo’s. These labels are
not only untrue, but in today’s hyper-partisan environment, they may also lead
to real violence.
"The exact language used by Carlineo, calling
Representative Omar a ‘terrorist’ and claiming that the American forefathers
would have ‘put a bullet in her…’ is very disturbing and sounds familiar.
Representative Reed’s past tweets contribute to this kind of action by implying
an inherent suspicion of those coming to our country for a safe haven; for
example, ‘Refugees need to be screened to ensure Americans are protected from
terrorists.’ In a fundraising email in August 2019, Reed said, ‘Will you sit
back and watch the Extremists in Congress trample on our Constitution and erode
the vision our Founding Fathers had for our country, or will you stand up and
fight back?’ It is not hard to see where
Carlineo may have taken his cues from—Representative Omar is well known to have
come to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia.
"In fact, when President Trump told Representative
Omar, among others, to ‘go back’ to where they came from, Representative Reed
was one of the few in Congress who used the opportunity to defend and reinforce
his support for the President, saying, ‘I will fight extremism each and every
day. There are members of Congress today represented by that squad that I think
are embracing an extremist agenda. And that to me is not good for the long term
of the country if we go down that policy path.’
“Reed has a documented track record, from fundraising emails
to debate stages, of using inflammatory language about his political opponents
-- a campaign strategy which is divisive, pollutes our civil discourse and
exploits peoples’ fear and anger. We
need to be better than this; the 23rd District deserves leadership that
inspires understanding, equality and tolerance.
“Name calling, labeling and childhood taunts have no place
in the upcoming 2020 elections. I am
calling on Congressman Reed to commit today not to use the hyper-partisan
language that colored his previous campaigns. Our district, and our nation,
need to see better examples of civility than what they have seen in recent
years. I am pledging to keep my campaign free of partisan attacks and name
calling, and I am waiting to hear from Mr. Reed’s campaign that he is
committing to the same—before someone gets hurt.”
