Sherrod Brown Connects Trump’s Attacks on ‘Female Reporters’ to Upswing in Political Violence

Ohio Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate Sherrod Brown spoke to reporters this week about the attempted attack on gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton.

An armed man lunged at Acton at the Canfield Fair over the weekend, injuring bystanders but did not reach the Democratic Party candidate.

Brown, a former senator, spoke to reporters at a public campaign event about the incident and urged both sides to “tone down” the rhetoric and slammed President Donald Trump for his attacks on female reporters.

“What would be your message to anybody in this time of political violence that is trying to commit that crime, that is causing the problem? What would your message be?” asked a reporter.

“To those who commit it?” Brown followed up as the reporter said, “Yes.”

“Well, people that commit it should be held responsible. Absolutely. People that commit crimes, whoever commits crimes, should be held responsible. This is no different, no worse, no better than holding people responsible,” Brown insisted.

“Let’s talk about political divisiveness, too, that is attributed, in part at least, to these kinds of incidents,” asked another reporter.

“People should turn down the rhetoric when they attack people personally — when politicians attack people personally, right at the top levels of the U.S. government. People are called — the president’s calling people names, particularly female reporters, calling names — and there’s just no room for that,” Brown replied.

Another reporter asked Brown about how best to deal with the “uptick in political violence” in the country.

“My first reaction to that — my first goal — is to make sure the people who are with me, including the officers, but also campaign people, volunteers, and staff, are safe, because their lives can be in danger. I’m always aware of that. I won’t skip an event like this. I didn’t skip it yesterday when we heard about it. I’ll come every day. I guess I’ve got nothing more to say than: we all need to pull together and turn down the rhetoric, tone down the rhetoric,” Brown replied.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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