Pro-gun Republican who had shouting match with Jamaal Bowman gloats over Democrat’s defeat

Pro-gun Republican congressman Thomas Massie has given a wry reaction after Democrat Jamaal Bowman was defeated in a New York primary by a rival from his own party.

Bowman lost a House primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer on Tuesday, who won more than 60 per cent of the vote.

It came after Bowman was widely criticized by other Democrats for his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, accusing Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide” and supporting a ceasefire in the conflict that has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians.

His primary challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, received an unprecedented series of donations from pro-Israel groups in the most expensive House primary in history, resulting in Bowman’s defeat.

Following the result, Bowman, who is a member of the self-styled “Squad” of progressive Democrats, received backlash, with one Washington Post columnist describing him as a “Democratic Trump,” while a New York Times columnist said he “deserved to lose.”

Bowman was also mocked by Rep Massie, with whom he got into a shouting match off the House floor last year over potential gun control legislation in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, in which six people were killed.

On Tuesday night, following Bowman’s defeat, Massie joked on X/Twitter: “I’m going to miss our informal chitchats in the hallways,” accompanied by a video of the incident.

“They’re cowards. They’re all cowards! They won’t do anything to save the lives of our children,” Bowman, a former school principal, can be heard yelling in the video.

Kentucky representative Massie then tries to interrupt, claiming that there have been no school shootings in schools where teachers are allowed to carry weapons,