Rehberg "Jokes" About Gun Threats To President Obama

Posted Sep 09, 2010

Congressman Denny Rehberg Wednesday joked about death threats to President Obama on a visit to a Stevensville machine shop, according to the Ravalli Republic newspaper. 
 
"If Obama is president, maybe you need to spend more time developing a gun lock, a trigger lock," Rehberg was reported to say “with a chuckle.” Rehberg, who recently joined the Tea Party caucus, has spent the summer pandering to right-wing extremists and Tea Party activists in events across the state. 
 
Dennis McDonald, Rehberg’s opponent in the fall election, said, “I am horrified by Congressman Rehberg’s so-called ‘joke.’ It was insensitive, disrespectful and, quite frankly, dangerous. I demand the Congressman immediately apologize publicly for such reckless, irresponsible banter.” 
 
“On the eve of the anniversary of one of the most horrific acts of terrorism America has ever witnessed, Congressman Rehberg has hit a new level of irresponsibility by making light of threats to the life of the President of the United States,” McDonald said. 

Wednesday’s “joke” comes at a time when threats against the president have seen a 400 percent increase, according to the Secret Service.

This latest outrage comes on the heels of state Tea Party president Tim Ravndal's expulsion from the group for joking about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. The group is now reconsidering the expulsion and may reinstate Ravndal. 
 
Rehberg received unwanted national attention in 2008 for an offensive joke that equated homosexuality with bestiality. Human rights groups called on Rehberg to apologize for the stunt, but those calls were ignored by the congressman. 
 
“It’s a shame the congressman feels he needs to pander to the most unsavory, divisive elements of his constituency,” McDonald said. “Many in the Tea Party are simply interested in balancing the budget, fairness in the tax code and moving the country forward—goals that I share. Why he thinks it necessary to encourage the kind of hateful rhetoric he laughed about Wednesday, I don’t understand,” he said.

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