W.Va. Gov. Justice critical of baseball practice where shooting happened

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- While West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice referred to Wednesday's shooting in metro Washington, D.C. that injured a congressman and others as "tragic and sad," he said it was another example of misplaced politics.

"You’ve got congressmen that are taking a game that’s supposed to be for a charity event deathly serious," Justice said. "They get up at five o’clock in the morning and go practice because the Democrats want to beat the Republicans and the Republicans want to beat the Democrats. It’s serious stuff, and they absolutely take it that way."

The shooting happened during a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. Among those hurt were Congressman Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, whose condition is listed as stable, and Capitol Police officers. The gunman died in the shooting.

During an interview with WSAZ's Blaine Carragher, Justice asked why those involved were outside practicing baseball.

"Isn’t that wrong?" he said "Don’t they have so much other to do for the people? Why does it have to be a game all the time between the Democrats and the Republicans? It’s not a game here. We have work to do here for the people. It’s a tragedy of what happened beyond belief, but really and truly it is just a game ... It should be thought of as something to go to as a fundraiser for the people. It shouldn’t be thought of as a way to one up the other side. That’s what we do all the time here … we’ve got one side trying to one up the other side or vice-versa all the time."