By Aldgra Fredly
Contributing Writer
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, 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 Saturday.
“We’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country,” Johnson said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday. “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, that this is part of our system,” Johnson said. “We can have vigorous debate, but it needs to end there,” he added.
The Louisiana Republican also pointed to the public criticism Trump had received about his presidential election.
“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.
“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,” he said.
Johnson said he had spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with regard to the shooting and said Congress will fully investigate any security lapses.
Johnson called it a “miracle” that 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.
Video 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.
Trump said he believes God shielded him from assassination. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness,” he said 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 the village of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The FBI has not yet identified a motive but has not ruled out domestic terrorism.
The Secret Service has refuted claims that a member of Trump’s security team had requested additional security resources but was denied.
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,” he said in an Oval Office address.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
