Anti-trump groups: Shooting won’t change tactics

DENVER — Liberal groups resistant to Republican policies say they have no plans to change their tactics or approach after a gunman driven by his hatred of President Donald Trump opened fire at a GOP baseball practice, grievously injuring a House Republican leader and several others.

Within hours of the shooting, leaders from both parties called for unity rather than recriminations, and many liberals — most notably former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders — immediately condemned the attack.

A resistance group in the Louisiana district of the injured lawmaker, Rep. Steve Scalise, asked its members to call the congressman’s office and wish him a speedy recovery.

But online and on talk radio, several conservatives questioned whether aggressive opposition to all things Trump had created a dangerous climate, and some faulted those on the left. Rush Limbaugh said the shooter represented the “deranged base of the Democratic Party,” and Michael Savage tweeted in caps, “I warned America the Dems constant drumbeat of hatred would lead to violence.”

The attack creates a difficult dynamic for a movement opposed to violence but urging its followers to challenge lawmakers at town halls and district offices, as well as to write and call them on issues such as the environment, health care and gun control.

Leaders on the left say they are emulating the tactics used effectively by the tea party movement at health care town halls in 2009; their work helped Republicans win majority control of the House in 2010.

“We will continue to lawfully and peacefully resist,” said Anna Galland, executive director of the liberal group Moveon.org.