Skip to main content

Replies sorted oldest to newest

  • Tucson after the shooting
  • House Speaker John Boehner re-enacts the swearing in of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords earlier this month.
  • Tucson after the shooting.
  • House Speaker John Boehner re-enacts the swearing in of Gabrielle Giffords earlier this month.
Back
  • 1
  • 2
Share  

9 Jan 2011

The shooting yesterday of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has led to questions over the tone of a political campaign that “targeted” her because of her support for the health reforms of President Barack Obama.

 

Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat in her third term in the House of Representatives, was airlifted to a hospital in Tucson after being shot in the head at point-blank range outside a Safeway supermarket in the Arizona city during a public appearance. Yesterday, the father of the Congresswoman, Spencer Giffords, 75, wept when asked if his daughter had any enemies. “Yeah,” he told The New York Post. “The whole Tea Party.”

Giffords was named in March as a political campaign target for conservatives in November’s elections by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who published a “target map” on her website using images of gun sights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Miss Giffords, for backing the new health care law.

Five people were killed, and a “number of individuals” wounded including Giffords in yesterday’s attack, in which a total of 18 people were shot, confirmed Rick Kastigar, an official from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. One of the victims was a nine-year-old girl.

President Barack Obama called the attack an “unspeakable tragedy,” saying in a statement that “while we are continuing to receive information, we know that some have passed away, and that Representative Giffords is gravely wounded.”

In her own statement issued shortly after the attack, Palin offered her “sincere condolences” to the Giffords family and those of the other victims.

Giffords was meeting constituents in a “Congress on Your Corner” event when she was attacked from about four feet away. Eyewitnesses said the gunman, later named as 22-year-old Jared Loughner, tried to run away but was tackled by a bystander. In March last year, on the night Congress passed its sweeping health reform law, a window was smashed in Congresswoman Giffords’ office in Tuscon, and she had been the subject of intimidation and harrassment, including death threats. Last night she underwent extensive surgery.

“She’s in a critical condition,” said Dr Peter Rhee of the University Medical Centre. “The neurosurgeons have finished operating on her and I can tell you that in the current time period I am very optimistic about recovery ... she was following commands

FM
The language over the past 14 months has been vile. The far right has inflamed the passions of the impressionable. There comes a point when the words are simply not enough and sadly we are at that point. Today we learned of bricks being hurled through the windows of Democrats that voted for the healthcare bill, we have seen several Democratic Congressman ask for additional security because they have been receiving death threats, and to top it off Sarah Palin has this quote on her Facebook page "dont retreat..reload".
FM

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×