Bacon tweet on ‘assassination attempt’ of SCOTUS Justice Kavanaugh prompts criticism
Nebraska Congressman fielded comments on his gun-control stance
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - An hour after the initial presentation from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon was tweeting — but not about the insurrection.
Rather, he was calling out President Biden and “major media” for what he deemed as “silence” following what he called an “assassination attempt” on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
It wasn’t the first tweet Bacon had made on the subject of the safety of Supreme Court justices in the aftermath of an arrest of a man who had threatened to kill Justice Kavanaugh.
The initial tweet, posted more the seven hours earlier, received several responses calling for the Congressman’s attention to gun control in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. But his second tweet sparked much more backlash for the Republican representing Nebraska’s 2nd District, and not just from constituents.
Dr. Jim Harrold, a public administration professor at UNO who is also a retired colonel, was the first to comment on Bacon’s 10 p.m. tweet, noting Kavanaugh had a government-provided security team — the man authorities arrested were initially spotted by two U.S. Marshals who are part of the justice’s round-the-clock security that the Supreme Court justices have been provided since the SCOTUS draft opinion on abortion was leaked last month.
“Fourth graders don’t get this kind of protection,” Harrold pointed out to the Congressman.
Bacon responded with an attack — on the Biden administration as well as the professor himself.
A day earlier, Bacon was among more than 200 voting against the Protecting Our Kids Act, which passed the House on Wednesday mostly along party lines. It is not expected to survive a Senate vote.
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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