Source: The Federalist
While Democrats were obsessing over potential violence from Trump supporters on Inauguration Day, leftist think tank vice president and New York Times contributor Will Wilkinson took to social media to call for the execution of former Vice President Mike Pence.
In a now-deleted tweet, Wilkinson, vice president for research at the Niskanen Center, claimed President Joe Biden should lynch the former vice president to achieve political unity in the country.
“If Biden really wanted unity, he’d lynch Mike Pence,” Wilkinson said.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 21, 2021
Neither the Niskanen Center nor the New York Times responded to The Federalist’s questions about if Wilkinson’s comments affected his positions in their organizations.
While Wilkinson later returned to Twitter to explain the post, claiming it was “sharp sarcasm” and meant as a joke, the executive has a history of downplaying left-wing violence.
Last night I made an error of judgment and tweeted this. It was sharp sarcasm, but looked like a call for violence. That's always wrong, even as a joke. It was especially wrong at a moment when unity and peace are so critical. I'm deeply sorry and vow not to repeat the mistake. pic.twitter.com/cxL4Mo70c5
— Will Wilkinson (@willwilkinson) January 21, 2021
This tweet followed another noting that many right-wing critics of Biden were accusing him of insincerity about his calls unity simply because they disagreed with his policy proposals, as if a Democrat taking standard Democratic positions were inherently divisive.
— Will Wilkinson (@willwilkinson) January 21, 2021
Just last week, Wilkinson mocked dozens of murder victims by claiming the destruction caused by last summer’s spree of Black Lives Matter riots was limited to “smashing the window of a Jamba Juice.”
“Violently overrunning police to storm the seat of government during a joint session of Congress in a bid to overturn the result of a presidential election is categorically different from smashing the window of a Jamba Juice during a BLM protest. So f*cking stop it, right now,” Wilkinson wrote on Twitter the day after the riot at the Capitol.
Violently overrunning police to storm the seat of government during a joint session of congress in a bid to overturn the result of a presidential election is categorically different from smashing the window of a Jamba Juice during a BLM protest. So f*cking stop it, right now.
— Will Wilkinson (@willwilkinson) January 7, 2021
Earlier last year, Wilkinson’s boss Jerry Taylor, president and co-founder of the Niskanen Center, threatened the couple that brandished guns at protesters outside their St. Louis home, saying if he had been there, he would “beat their brains in.”
“If I were in that march, and these racist lunatics were waiving guns at me, I’d like to think I’d rush them and beat their brains in. And I wouldn’t apologize for it for one goddam second,” he wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.
He also encouraged violence and attacks on the couple by members of Antifa.
“Yeah, excuse me if I root for #antifa to punch these idiots out. Guilty as charged. I know who’s side I’m on,” he said.
