Pearl Jam criticized for poster featuring dead Trump, burning White House

Rock group Pearl Jam and Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) found themselves the targets of Republican criticism on Wednesday after the band tweeted a design for a poster featuring the senator jumping a tractor over a burning White House.

RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other Republicans called on Tester and the band to apologize to Montanans and President Trump for the poster, which depicted Tester, a fan of the band, jumping a tractor Evel Knievel-style over a burning Washington, D.C., including the corpse of Trump.

“This is disgusting and Democrat Jon Tester seems perfectly OK with it. Tester should apologize to @realDonaldTrump & the people of Montana,” McDaniel tweeted.

This is disgusting and Democrat Jon Tester seems perfectly OK with it. Tester should apologize to @realDonaldTrump & the people of Montana. #MTSen https://t.co/as3PURKoWp

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) August 15, 2018

Matt Rosendale, Tester’s GOP opponent in the November midterm election, added that the poster was “disgusting and reprehensible.”

“It depicts a dead President Trump and a burning White House,” Rosendale said. “It’s time for @JonTester to denounce this act of violence and blatant display of extremism!”

This poster from Pearl Jam is disgusting and reprehensible. It depicts a dead President Trump and a burning White House. It’s time for @JonTester to denounce this act of violence and blatant display of extremism! https://t.co/nIKTNPOFxX #MontanaFirst #MAGA #mtsen #mtpol

— Matt Rosendale (@MattForMontana) August 14, 2018

{mosads}Tester is known to be a fan of the band, which was co-founded by Montana native Jeff Ament. The Montana Democrat faces reelection this fall in a state that voted heavily for the president in 2016 and is considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators in a year when Democrats are hoping to pick up a net gain of two Senate seats to flip the upper chamber.

Republicans have hammered Tester for months over his votes against Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and his vote against the GOP tax reform bill.

Ament endorsed Tester in a message accompanying the poster’s release on Tuesday, calling the senator “the real deal.”

“Nobody cares more about our country and especially Montana,” Ament wrote in the note.

Official artwork by Jeff Ament and Bobby Brown from last night’s show in Missoula. #TheAwayShows #Rock2Vote pic.twitter.com/CQI4chGEjs

— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) August 14, 2018