Rep. John Gillette: “Unity Is No Longer an Option”
In Sunday letters, lawmakers accuse each other of fueling division and political unrest. A political heavyweight wished death on Trump — weeks before Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Arizona Rep. Sarah Liguori (D- LD5) issued a call for unity and restraint following a string of politically motivated attacks, including the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk and the killings of two Minnesota legislators. But her plea for decency was met with sharp criticism from Rep. John Gillette (R-LD30), who argued that Democrats bear responsibility for fueling the division.
Liguori letter warned colleagues that the country is in a “very, very dangerous spot right now,” pointing to about 150 politically motivated attacks in the first half of this year, nearly double the number from the year before.
“Too many of us have faced this violence ourselves,” Liguori wrote. “Members have had armed individuals show up at their door, shots fired at their house, and just this month a colleague had to move out of their home from increasing death threats. These are not abstract risks.”
She urged lawmakers to take greater responsibility for their rhetoric.
“Violent actions don’t happen in a vacuum,” she said. “Violent rhetoric fuels violent threats, which can empower individuals to real violence.”
Liguori emphasized that division is the “easy path,” while the harder path is to “model decency, not destruction.”
It Appears… Gillette Is In No Mood For “Unity”
Since announcing he will not seek reelection, many have noted that we’re seeing a fearless, unfiltered Gillette. Continuing in that vein, he unleashed a barn-burner of a statement in response to Liguori, one that leaves little doubt he’s finished playing nice.
Not sure the response Liguori was expecting — but what she got was based Gillette.
Rep. John Gillette (R-LD30) responded that Liguori statement ignored the root causes of today’s division.
“While I appreciate the concern, let’s identify where this division and violence is being stoked,” Gillette said. “It was the Democrat Party that labeled 75 million Americans and President Trump himself as ‘deplorables.’ Your side has called us Nazis, fascists, racists, misogynists, and ‘a direct threat to democracy.’ That rhetoric is not harmless. It demonizes half the nation and fuels the very environment you now pretend to lament.”
Gillette also criticized Liguori for citing the Minnesota killings without noting, he said, that the perpetrator was “a Walz appointee furious because they worked with Republicans to end benefits to illegals.”
He accused Democrats of standing with radical groups and foreign adversaries.
“You piss on about ‘tone,’ while many in your own party openly stand with Hamas, the PLO, and lend legitimacy to radical groups like CAIR. You stand with ANTIFA and BLM domestic terrorists that burned cities and attacked police,” Gillette said. “You openly support illegal immigration and sanctuary cities where a 22-year-old Ukrainian refugee was brutally murdered. You said nothing.”
Gillette went on to highlight differences on foreign policy, gun rights, and cultural issues.
“You demand gun control after every school shooting, yet you ignore the fact that the last eight school shooters were from the trans community, a crisis tied directly to mental health decline and hormone drug abuse that you refuse to even discuss,” he said.
Gillette concluded by directly linking Kirk’s assassination to what he called radical leftist extremism.
“Now, after a crazed leftist radical murdered one of the most prolific Christian voices of truth, Charlie Kirk, who preached Constitutional values, human dignity and law and order, you want to lecture us on ‘division.’ The division didn’t begin with us. It began with your radical party and your endless campaign to delegitimize conservatives.”
He closed with a stark declaration.
“Unity is no longer an option. We handed you an olive branch, and you broke it. Your party invited the radicals to the table and they took over. Now you own them.”
In an update to our Saturday story, ASU has backtracked and will now allow the College Republicans to host a prayer vigil on campus at NO COST to the students. The reversal came only after national attention — with U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon throwing her weight behind the students reminding ASU that she has previously sued on this issue.
Leading up to the vigil, the College Republicans reported that some students had been vandalizing their signs, adding to tensions on campus. The group pointed to the incidents as evidence of hostility toward their efforts, even as ASU reversed course and allowed the prayer vigil to move forward.
Here is the full interview with the ASU Chairman, Troy Holderby. We talked about the event and what Charlie meant to students.
In the weeks leading up to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Arizona GOP consultant Tyler Montague tweeted a message interpreted as wishing death upon Donald Trump. The post, quickly deleted, sparked outrage — especially in light of Kirk’s killing, which left the conservative movement shaken.
Montague, known as the “Machiavelli of Mesa,” represents the party’s establishment wing and has long been at odds with the MAGA base that Kirk energized. While Charlie built Turning Point USA into a national youth movement rooted in faith and America First principles, Montague spent years criticizing that very brand of populist politics, accusing it of stoking anger rather than building coalitions.
Montague’s reputation among grassroots Republicans is one of hostility toward Trump’s movement and, in full disclosure, he even filed a baseless lawsuit to try to remove State 48 News editor Christy Kelly from the ballot when she ran for the Arizona Corporation Commission.
State 48 News saw Montague’s tweet in real time but, in fairness, chose not to report on it.
Now, in the aftermath of Kirk’s death, Montague has been suspended from X — and it has not gone unnoticed. On Facebook, he defended himself and seemed to claim he was the victim of the “far-right” : “My detractors certainly aren’t providing context or sharing my immediate retraction.”
Mr. Montague, State 48 News will be fair and share both your original tweet and your explanation.
