Rep. John Garamendi threatened Donald Trump Jr. on Friday after the president’s eldest son claimed Democrats want the coronavirus to kill millions of Americans so his father’s campaign suffers.
“He should not be near me when he says that,” Mr. Garamendi, California Democrat, reacted during a live interview that aired on MSNBC. “There would be a serious altercation.”
“Don Jr. better not get any place close to me,” Mr. Garamendi said later during the segment. “It would not be a healthy situation.”
The congressman made the comment in response to being asked to reply to remarks the president’s son made earlier Friday while appearing on Fox News.
“Anything that they can use to try to hurt Trump, they will,” the younger Mr. Trump said about Democrats.
“The playbook is old at this point. But for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they can end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness,” he added.
Mr. Garamendi subsequently described the claim that Democrats want the coronavirus to claim American lives as “totally outrageous.”
“I can assure you that there is not a Democrat or Republican in Congress that wants anybody to be sick. What we are concerned about is the administration’s response to this illness,” the congressman said.
Andy Surabian, a spokesperson for the president’s son, issued a statement later Friday slamming Mr. Garamendi for what he called an “outrageous” and “beyond the pale” comment.
“Almost as outrageous as the Congressman’s comments was the lack of pushback or condemnation from MSNBC host Hallie Jackson, who’s silence about political violence aimed towards a member of the first family, was truly deafening,” Mr. Surabian said. “By threatening Don Jr. with physical violence on national TV, Congressman Garamendi made clear to everyone watching that he is better suited to represent Antifa than the people of California’s 3rd Congressional district. He should apologize immediately.”
“If he wants to come to my office to explain his comments, my door is open,” Mr. Garamendi replied Friday evening. “There is no threat of physical violence—but he can expect a strong verbal altercation.”
Ms. Jackson and MSNBC did not immediately return messages seeking their reaction to Mr. Surabian’s statement.
President Trump has faced criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill over his handling of the coronavirus amid concerns of the respiratory disease reaching pandemic proportions.
More than 82,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed since it was discovered in China in December, including 59 in the U.S., The World Health Organization said Thursday.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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