The Hill News

The number three-ranking House Democrat on Monday invoked the rhetoric of a Tea Party Senate candidate in describing the actions of the man accused of shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. 

The alleged shooter Jared Lee Loughner used a "Second Amendment remedy" against Giffords (D), Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said, channeling the words of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Republican opponent, Sharron Angle.

{mosads}"He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that's what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection," Clyburn said during an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier. 

The congressman's remarks highlight the ongoing debate over whether political vitriol surrounding the highly charged 2010 midterm elections were connected to Loughner's actions.

Some on the left have said that comments made by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and other conservative leaders could have inflamed Loughner, who shot Giffords at close range during a meet-and-greet event with constituents in Tucson, Ariz. on Saturday.

During her campaign against Reid (D-Nev.), Angle said that the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which grants the right to bear arms, is intended to help people "stop tyranny."

"I'm hopin! g that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems," she said. 

At least one of Clyburn's Democratic colleagues in the House has said that the Giffords shooting should not become a political football.

"I think it's unfortunate that people are trying to make this a left versus right thing," Blue Dog Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah) said on KSL Radio Monday.

"Anger and vitriol" is "as high as it's ever been," he said. But he cautioned that people should "be careful not to overreact in that regard."

Clyburn, who has long supported the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine requiring equal time on the airwaves, said that could be a solution to tamp down heightened rhetoric.

"Free speech is as free speech does," he said. "You cannot yell ‘fire' in a crowded theater and call it free speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that."