Speaker Johnson Calls on All Sides to Turn Rhetoric Down

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) addresses reporters outside of Manhattan Criminal Court on behalf of former President Donald Trump in New York City on May 14, 2024. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

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.

“We’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview with NBC News on July 14. “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.

“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.

Former President Donald Trump with blood on his face as he is taken off the stage by Secret Service agents following an assassination attempt at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images

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.

The former president said he believes that God shielded him from assassination. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

One of the attendees at the rally, 50-year-old volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed. Two rally attendees—identified as David Dutch and James Copenhaver—were injured.

Authorities identified the suspect as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The FBI has not yet identified a motive but has not ruled out domestic terrorism.

President Joe Biden has also condemned the attempted assassination of his political rival and called on everyone to “lower the temperature” in the country’s politics.

“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.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.