DIEHL HITS CURTATONE FOR MAGA VAN TWITTER SLAM
Dem comment condemned
Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone started a tweetstorm with a mocking message comparing the so-called MAGA bomber’s van to the “inside of Geoff Diehl’s head” — remarks that drew immediate condemnation from the U.S. Senate candidate.
“The outside of this guy's van looks like the inside of Geoff Diehl's head. #MAGABomber #mapoli #masen2018 #vanifesto,” Curtatone tweeted yesterday.
Curtatone did not respond to requests for comment from the Herald, but Diehl did.
The Whitman GOP state rep, taking on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Nov. 6 election, said the mayor’s tweet was insulting.
“Sadly, this kind of dangerous and poisonous rhetoric intensifies the toxic political climate in our country,” Diehl said. “The comment was outrageous and uncalled for.
“It’s unacceptable. Period,” he added.
The van of the Florida man accused of terrorizing Democrats with mail bombs this week was pasted with stickers that insulted CNN, placed President Trump atop a tank, put Hillary Clinton’s face in a bull’s-eye and said toss your enemy into the “Everglade for gators.”
Curtatone’s tweet was shared and liked multiple times, but other commenters called him out for being crass.
He was accused of being Warren’s henchman, a “Marxist,” “a sad excuse of a leader” and “crazy.”
Authorities say pipe bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc sent 14 explosive devices to prominent Democrats across the country. He was arrested in Florida yesterday.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was quick to call for political unity in the wake of the mailbomb scare.
“I hope and pray that our leaders are prepared to lower the temperature of our public dialogue,” Biden said at a stop yesterday in Hartford, Conn. “We just have to remember who we are and what we stand for as a nation.”
Trump said there should be “no blame” for the suspect's actions.
The president praised law enforcement and compared the bomb scare to a Democratic supporter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders who shot up a GOP baseball practice last summer. Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana almost died in that attack.
“Let this serve as another reminder that threats and violence have absolutely no place in American politics, or anywhere else in our society,” Scalise tweeted yesterday after the alleged bomber’s arrest.
As for Curtatone, he was back on Twitter last night — but he was playing it safe, re-tweeting about the renovation of a city park.
Diehl, who was Trump’s campaign manager in Massachusetts during the last election, was also on Twitter late into the night calling on those who supported Curtatone’s attack to apologize.
Diehl also tweeted to Warren: “I am calling on @SenWarren to condemn her colleague and supporter’s comments. Her continued support for this poisonous rhetoric is unacceptable.”