House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has called on all sides to “turn the rhetoric down” in the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
“And we must make clear that this is part of our system.
“We can have vigorous debate, but it needs to end there.”
The Louisiana Republican also pointed to the public criticism that former President Trump has received about the prospect of his reelection.
“There’s no figure in American history, at least in the modern era, maybe since Lincoln, who’s been so vilified and really persecuted by the media, Hollywood elites, political figures, you know, even the legal system,” Mr. Johnson said.
“When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy, that the republic would end, I mean it, it heats up the environment. We cannot do that.”
Mr. Johnson said he had spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in regard to the shooting and said Congress will fully investigate any security lapses.
Mr. Johnson called it a “miracle” that former President Trump survived the shooting.
“I believe that God spared him, and that bullet went just, apparently, a millimeter from doing real and permanent damage to him or perhaps taking his life. And it’s just kind of a surreal thing,” he said.
Former President Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was injured in the shooting. Video footage of the incident shows the former president speaking at the rally and then turning his head slightly before he was struck in the right ear.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions,” the president said in an Oval Office address.
