Pearl Jam unapologetic for White House poster
HELENA, Mont. — Republicans on Wednesday condemned a poster by Pearl Jam that shows the White House in flames and a bald eagle pecking at a skeleton they say is meant to depict President Donald Trump.
The National Republican Senate Committee compared it to the now-infamous photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a fake decapitated Trump head.
The rock group’s Twitter account says the official poster from Monday’s concert in Missoula, Montana, is a collaboration between bassist Jeff Ament and Bobby Brown, an artist also known as Bobby Draws Skulls.
The “Rock2Vote” concert aimed to encourage young people to vote in the November midterm elections and support Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who is from Ament’s hometown of Big Sandy.
The poster includes an accompanying message from Ament that says, “Y’all know the deal, we’re at a tipping point and its (sic) time for action.”
The poster shows Tester in a tractor flying over a burning Washington, D.C., framed by the letters “P” and “J,” with smoke forming the word “Vote” in the background.
Several objects and people are in the foreground, including a skeleton with a full head of hair lying face down, an eagle pecking at the bones of its foot.
Tester’s Republican opponent, Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, also is depicted with a crab claw for a hand and carrying a “Maryland” flag, a reference to Rosendale’s native state.
The message from Ament accompanying the poster included the description: “D.C. burning. Tester Evel Knievel on tractor . . . over the cesspool below. Russian money, golf courses, hookers? Maryland Matt. Stars and Stripes as flames.”
Rosendale called the poster “disgusting and reprehensible” and called on Tester to “denounce this act of violence and blatant display of extremism.”
The National Republican Senate Committee, which is supporting Rosendale’s campaign, also blamed Tester for not speaking out against the poster it called “gory.” The committee compared it to other examples of public figures “encouraging violence” against Trump, like Griffin’s photo.
Tester communications director Chris Meagher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ament told The Associated Press in April that the band wanted to use the Montana concert to support local advocacy groups, encourage voter participation and boost Tester’s campaign. He said he believed that the political climate had become too divisive.
“Probably more than ever it’s important to have a congressman that can sort of make people think less emotionally about some of these things,” he said.
Jeff Ament said in a statement Wednesday that he was the “sole conceptualist” for the poster depicting a burning White House and what appears to be President Donald Trump’s skeleton.
Ament says the role of an artist is to make people think and feel, and the current administration has people thinking and feeling.
He says he welcomes all interpretations and discourse and ends with, “Love, from the First Amendment, Jeff Ament.
The official poster from the band’s Monday concert in Missoula, Montana, is being condemned by Republican groups for its depiction of a dead Trump.
The concert was put on to promote youth voter registration and Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s re-election campaign.