\n<\/p>\n
Following a third assassination attempt against President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democratic lawmakers for rhetoric that openly invited violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve incited violence, in my view,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to turn down the rhetoric. We\u2019ve been seeing this over and over. I hope that this will be a sobering reminder for everybody about that very important cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leavitt, who was already supposed to have begun her maternity leave, hosted an impromptu White House Press Briefing and echoed Johnson\u2019s tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,\u201d she said. \u201cThose who constantly, falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy and compare him to Hitler, to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the gathered reporters, Leavitt asked what separated the rhetoric wielded by Democratic lawmakers from that contained in the would-be assassin\u2019s manifesto.<\/p>\n
The shooter who attempted to attack Trump administration officials on Saturday, for example, claimed that he acted because he was \u201cno longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has repeatedly claimed that Trump is an authoritarian and a threat to Democracy \u2014 and, like shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen, did not hesitate to call the president a \u201crapist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?\u201d she said in a 2025 X post<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Ocasio-Cortez was not alone. Even after one assassination attempt on Trump \u2014 which left one dead and two others gravely injured at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally \u2014 former Vice President Kamala Harris ignored calls to tone down the rhetoric and referred to her opponent as a \u201cfascist.\u201d<\/p>\n President Trump appears to have had enough of the rhetoric as well, and pushed back immediately<\/a> when CBS News anchor Norah O\u2019Donnell raised a question from Allen\u2019s manifesto: \u201cI was totally exonerated \u2026 You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that \u2026 You\u2019re a disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the news broke that yet another would-be assassin had targeted President Trump, a number of Democratic lawmakers have attempted to sidestep the landmines in their own party\u2019s rhetoric and simply issue blanket calls condemning political violence.<\/p>\n Former President Barack Obama sparked backlash when he did so, in part because he also claimed<\/a> hours after the manifesto\u2019s release that \u201cwe don\u2019t yet know the details about the motives.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp (D-WA) was one of the few who stood out, saying,<\/a> in spite of her own personal and political opinions, \u201cPlease stop trying to murder the President.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n