ROCHESTER, NY— In the wake of the apparent attempted murder of GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin — also the Republican nominee for governor of the Empire State — at a campaign event outside Rochester this week, more has been uncovered about what happened in the hours before the attack, including an inflammatory email from Kathy Hochul listing Zeldin's campaign stops.
On July 21, the day of the attack, Hochul's campaign sent a press advisory characterized by at least one New York reporter as "very unusual." The advisory included fiery language castigating Zeldin's values and calling her opponent an "extremist" who is "peddling dangerous lies, misinformation, and his far-right agenda."
Very unusual advisory from @KathyHochul ?? just now, basically making fun of @leezeldin by mocking his campaign schedule this weekend and replacing his events with Democratic talking points about Trump.
— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) July 21, 2022
Usually the targeted attacks come from @nydems and @JayJacobs28 pic.twitter.com/1SaOrbaOX4
Here's how Hochul's emailed advisory described Zeldin's weekend stops:
On Thursday, July 21, 2022, "Big Lie" Lee and his entourage of extremists kick off the statewide "MAGA Republican" Bus Tour, which will make stops across the state peddling dangerous lies, misinformation, and his far-right agenda. At stops during the tour, Zeldin will be joined by top anti-abortion advocates, NRA enthusiasts, and a cast of extremist groups.
The advisory continued with more inflammatory language before listing out Rep. Zeldin's schedule for this weekend including dates and times along with calls to "RSVP" for the events — including Thursday evening's campaign stop at which he was attacked by a man who was subsequently charged with a felony and released under the state's woke bail laws. "You're done," the assailant told Zeldin as he began his attack.
His words as he tried to stab me a few hours ago were “you’re done”, but several attendees, including @EspositoforNY, quickly jumped into action & tackled the guy.
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) July 22, 2022
Law enforcement was on the scene within minutes.
The attacker will likely be instantly released under NY’s laws. pic.twitter.com/wZEyIyrjFe
To be clear, sending out a listing of an electoral opponent's campaign stops, even with language calling that opponent "dangerous" and an "extremist" is not outside of what's become the norm in American politics. However, for Democrats who frequently attack conservatives or Republicans for "inciting" rhetoric, actions such as Gov. Hochul's are blatantly hypocritical.
And while it's improper to wholly blame the violent actions of the attacker on Hochul since she didn't issue a clear call for a violent assault on Zeldin, it's pretty clear that she intended for Democrats and her allies in the mainstream media to disrupt Zeldin at his events over the weekend — whether she expected anyone to take things to the level of the man who tried to stab Zeldin is known only to her. But there's no other way to read Hochul's advisory than a call for Zeldin to be harassed in just her latest attempt to derail his campaign to unseat her.
For her part, Hochul responded to the attack and condemned the "violent behavior in the strongest terms possible," though she did not say anything about her campaign's inflammatory language about Zeldin before the assault.