WASHINGTON, DC - Hillary Clinton told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in a televised interview Tuesday that Democrats cannot be civil with Republicans if they don't win a majority of seats in the U.S. House or Senate this November:
"You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That's why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that's when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength."
Many Republican Senators would find the nature and timing of Hillary Clinton's statements deeply troubling, after the spirited Democratic opposition to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court took a menacing turn.
During the tumultuous two weeks leading up to a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh, Republicans received death threats, had their personal information– including where their families live– published online, and even received suspicious powder in the mail, an overt act of terrorism to evoke fears of anthrax or ricin poisoning.
In an open letter published by CNN on October 3rd, Kelley Paul, the wife of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), warned any would-be home intruders– after having her home address doxxed by a Democratic congressional staffer who has worked for Rep. Sheila Jackson (D-TX), and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)– that she sleeps with a gun next to her bed.
The same day Clinton made her televised statements calling for a lack of civility if Democrats don't pick up seats in Congress this election, Sen. Rand Paul was speaking with Kentucky radio host, Leland Conway, and said that he's worried inflammatory rhetoric might lead to an assassination of a U.S. politician:
"I really worry that someone is going to be killed and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation... they have to realize that they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence...I think what people need to realize is when people like [Sen.] Cory Booker (D-NJ) say 'get up in their face,' he may think that that’s OK. But what he doesn’t realize is that for about every 1,000 persons who want to get up in your face, one of them is going to be unstable enough to commit violence."
Senator Paul has been the target of violent attacks twice over the last year, and referenced them in his remarks:
"When I was at the ballfield and Steve Scalise was nearly killed, the guy shooting up the ballfield, and shooting I think five or six people, he was yelling, 'This is for health care,' When I was attacked in my yard and had six of my ribs broken, and pneumonia, lung contusion, all that– these are people that are unstable, we don’t want to encourage them."
Watch The Entire Interview Here: