A Lincoln Project adviser on Wednesday attempted to connect the boycott against Bud Light controversy over its sponsorship of a transgender influencer to a spate of recent shootings, blaming both on a "culture of fearfulness."
"Look, I think there’s a direct line between a culture of fearfulness where people who live in a world in which they feel threatened by Instagram posts or a beer label," Stuart Stevens, a senior adviser for the Lincoln Project, said in an appearance on MSNBC after host Stephanie Ruhle asked him about recent gun violence.
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Stevens was referencing the conservative backlash this month against Bud Light after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney announced a collaboration with the brand. His comments connected the boycott to recent allegedly unprovoked shootings in the United States, such as the shooting of a black Missouri teenager who knocked on the wrong door and of a woman in New York who was killed by a homeowner when she pulled into his driveway.
The Lincoln Project adviser went on to blame Republicans for the shootings, even though there have been no allegations of a political motive in either case. Stevens accused the party of making America the "home of the fearful" through their efforts to "maximize their predominantly white vote, which is a fear- and grievance-based tactic."
Stevens wrote on Twitter before the TV segment aired, "The same fear that an Instagram post and a beer label is a personal threat to your way of life is the fear that drives someone to shoot a stranger at their door or driveway. It’s a culture of fearfulness in which anything you don’t know or understand is a threat."
The commentator's remarks come after members of the media blamed Republicans for the Nashville shooting that killed six people at a private Christian school, with one Nation columnist stating, "Republicans are complicit in these murderers" as "the party of literal death."