Post shooting, Republicans fault Biden’s past rhetoric about Trump

(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday said President Joe Biden should be “called out” for political attacks on former President Donald Trump that have contributed to what he described as a “heated political environment.”

He urged political leaders on both sides of the aisle to “turn the rhetoric down” the morning after Trump was injured onstage in a shooting during a Pennsylvania campaign rally.

“We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Today” show. “We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to call that out and make sure that happens so that we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have.”

He then pointed to Democratic criticism of Trump less than four months from this year’s presidential election.

“When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the republic would end, I mean it heats up the environment,” the Louisiana Republican said on NBC. “We cannot do that. It’s simply not true. Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”

The House speaker’s comments echoed those of many other Republicans, including Trump’s campaign, some of his top allies on Capitol Hill and at least one top contender for his vice presidential nomination as the party prepares to gather in Milwaukee this week for its nominating convention.

One rally attendee was killed and two were critically injured, in addition to Trump, in the shooting. The FBI described the shooting as an assassination attempt and identified the gunman, who was shot and killed on the scene, as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks was a registered Republican who had previously made a small contribution to a Democratic-aligned group in 2021, according to public records. So far investigators haven’t found any initial signs or social media or other writings that help provide a motive, law enforcement officials say.

In the moments after the failed assassination attempt at Trump’s rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, Republicans — energized by a bloody Trump’s defiant fist pump as Secret Service agents escorted him off stage — erupted in anger over what they described as years of Democratic persecution of Trump and his supporters.

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a potential Trump vice presidential pick, said on X shortly after the shooting that Biden’s rhetoric was to blame.

“Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” he said. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, another potential VP pick and top Trump ally, said on X: “Let’s be clear: This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse.”

Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita said on X that Biden, Democratic donors and leftist activists for years have made “disgusting” comments targeting Trump and should be held accountable — “the best way is through the ballot box,” he wrote.

Johnson, LaCivita and others pointed to language Biden used in a recent private call with donors during which he urged Democrats to drop their ongoing conversations about whether the 81-year-old president should exit the race in the wake of his poor performance in his June presidential debate with Trump, and shift their focus back to defeating Trump.

“We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye,” Biden said on that call, a recording of which was obtained by CNN.

“President Biden himself said in recent days, ‘It’s time to put a bullseye on Trump.’ I know he didn’t mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language on either side should be called out,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Today” show on Sunday. “We have to make clear that this is part of our system we can have vigorous debate but it needs to end there.”

Some remarks from congressional Republicans were more incendiary.

“Every American should be outraged at Joe Biden for inciting violence against Donald J. Trump,” Texas Rep. Keith Self said on X, highlighting Biden’s “bullseye” remark.

Trump has often used violent imagery himself, including warning that the country faces a “bloodbath” if Biden wins in November. His supporters attacked police officers and broke doors and windows as they stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the 2020 election results amid Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud. The former president has also mocked the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was attacked by an assailant with a hammer at their San Francisco home in 2022.

The former president also has often said Biden is the real threat to democracy, and claims the president would dissolve US borders. In the June debate, repeating a claim that is a staple of Trump’s rallies and speeches, he said if Biden wins in November, “we probably won’t have a country left anymore, that’s how bad it is.”

Biden spoke from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Saturday evening, saying he had been “thoroughly briefed” on the shooting.

“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence – it’s sick. It’s sick,” the president said. “It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

Biden spoke to Trump by phone Saturday night. A source briefed on the call described it as “good” and “short and respectful.” A senior White House official also briefed on the call similarly described it as “brief and respectful.”

The official said Biden repeated his assertion there was no place or tolerance for political violence and assured him he was directing agencies for a full investigation.

The shooting had at least momentarily halted Democrats’ political attacks on Trump, as Biden’s campaign paused all television advertising and communications efforts on Saturday night.

Vice President Kamala Harris postponed her trip to Florida in response to the shooting, according to a campaign official. She had originally planned on traveling to Palm Beach on Tuesday for a moderated conversation alongside Republican women to discuss Trump’s stance on women’s reproductive rights.

The Biden campaign and Democrats across the party were scrambling Sunday to determine how to adjust their counter-messaging plans for the Republican National Convention in the wake of the assassination attempt.

“The big issue is how to campaign against him or attack him,” a senior Democratic adviser told CNN. “Can we even do that this week?”

The adviser said discussions are underway to calibrate attacks and criticism aimed at Trump to focus on policy differences, rather than personal attacks. Plans that had been underway for weeks to respond to the GOP convention are being reviewed and potentially adjusted.

The Biden campaign has yet to decide when to resume its advertising campaign against Trump, which was suspended Saturday night after the shooting. But that, a separate Democratic strategist said, was the easy decision. A harder question is how and when to resume, with 114 days until the election.

While public calls for Biden to step aside have cooled in the aftermath of the attack, the concerns voiced directly to the president in calls on Saturday have hardly gone away.

A White House official said Sunday the president would continue his outreach to lawmakers and supporters, but would turn his immediate focus to his presidential duties of directing the government’s response to the first assassination attempt of a former president and presidential candidate in more than four decades.

Other Democratic leaders similarly condemned the shooting.

“Political violence has no place in our country,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries similarly said in a statement that political violence is “never acceptable.”

GOP South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” he was supposed to play golf with Trump on Sunday and plans to see the former president later in the day.

“I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’ve been worried about this for a very, very long time. You know, if he wins democracy is not going to end. He’s not a fascist. He represents a point of view that millions share. The rhetoric is way too hot, but I was just grateful that he made it,” he said.

Graham praised his Democratic colleagues for their responses, saying “it’s good to see.”

CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Jeff Zeleny, Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.

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