Just hours after Republican lawmaker Steve Scalise was shot by former Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer James T. Hodgkinson, producers of a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar-- featuring an actor dressed like President Trump being assassinated-- say the show will go on.
The Gateway Pundit also reports that Time Warner-- the parent company of The New York Times, CNN and TNT-- is standing by its decision to sponsor the controversial play, even as GOP and Democratic lawmakers are calling for unity and the ratcheting down of the type of heated political rhetoric that inspired Hodgkinson to leave his home in Illinois and travel to Virginia with the goal of killing as many Republicans as possible.
Time Warner, New York Times refuse to drop sponsorship
Although Bank of America and Delta Airlines have dropped their sponsorship of the controversial version of the Shakespearian tragedy, Time Warner and its subsidiaries have doubled down on their decision to offer financial backing to the play.
"We have sponsored Shakespeare in the Park for 20 years. As an institution that believes in free speech for the arts as well as the media, we support the right of the Public Theater to stage the production as they chose," reads a statement by The New York Times that was issued on Monday.
The Shakespeare in the Park rendition of Julius Caesar is set in modern times, with Donald Trump as Caesar and his wife Melania as Calpurnia.
Although some critics have described the play's lengthy assassination scene as gratuitously and excessively violent, CNN's Fareed Zakaria recently hailed it as "a masterpiece."
TNT signs on as sponsor, Wednesday performance will not be canceled
The New York Times and CNN aren't the only Time Warner companies embracing the controversial play.
TNT, a sister network of CNN, will be sponsoring the June 17-18 performances of the play, with the aim of promoting its own new series about a young William Shakespeare.
Rep. Scalise was critically injured and remains in critical condition. The other patient is in good condition.
— MedStar Washington (@MedStarWHC) June 14, 2017
According to the Shakespeare in the Park website, the Wednesday night performance of the play will proceed as planned, even as Rep.
Scalise fights for his life after being shot earlier in the day.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Scalise remains in critical condition, according to MedStar Washington, where the Republican representative was taken after the shooting.
Rep. Steve King places some of the blame for Hodgkinson's actions on the culture of pro-GOP violence promoted by the left.
“America has been divided,” said King to the Washington Post after the Wednesday morning shooting. “And the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the left.”
