White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday said the Democratic Party and legacy media’s “systemic demonization” and “crazed rhetoric” of President Donald Trump helped incite the weekend shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Speaking from the briefing room podium, Leavitt framed Saturday’s shooting as the “third major assassination attempt against President Trump in two years.”
“Those 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,” Leavitt said. “The Left–wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend.”
For years and weeks leading up to the correspondent’s dinner shooting, Democrats have ramped up their incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric against the Trump administration.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) described tensions between Democrats and Republicans in stark terms last week.
“We are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere, all the time,” Jeffries said to reporters from Capitol Hill.
Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week: “We are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere, all the time.”
Yesterday, a gunman tried to assassinate the President. pic.twitter.com/wcYwTRUyjj
— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) April 26, 2026
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed echoed a more confrontational tone at a campaign event, telling supporters, “If they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out.”
WATCH 🚨 MI Democrat Senate candidate @AbdulElSayed:
“When they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out.” https://t.co/dMslSkJMjy pic.twitter.com/PiE8XntnHR
— Michigan Forward (@MIForward_Net) August 24, 2025
At a gathering of global leftists in Spain, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) called Trump’s second presidency “the most significant threat to American democracy since the Civil War,” adding, “Donald Trump in our country is trying to end our democracy. We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover, we’re in the middle of it.”
Chris Murphy: President Trump “is the most significant threat to American democracy since the Civil War.”pic.twitter.com/N1zGscc9SB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 27, 2026
During her “Fight Oligarchy” tour, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) described the Trump administration as “fascist,” while Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) urged supporters to “fight against all of that every turn.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “This fascist administration didn’t come from anywhere… We’re gonna fight.”pic.twitter.com/U1vldjPY1w
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 27, 2026
Democrat Squad radical Ayanna Pressley in August:
“Donald Trump is a FASCIST!”
“So we have to fight against all of that in return” pic.twitter.com/u9JUhbhP8L
— NRCC (@NRCC) September 12, 2025
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) has said Trump “is paving the way” to become a leader like Vladimir Putin or Adolf Hitler, while California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said Democrats are “fighting fire with fire” and should “punch these sons of b*tches in the mouth.”
Dan Goldman: President Trump is “paving the way … to become an Adolf Hitler.”pic.twitter.com/6H6p4sUYr4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 27, 2026
Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has called for “mass protests” and “disruption,” saying Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace” and Democrats must “punish” Republicans at the ballot box.
Pritzker calls for mass protests and disruption – “Republicans cannot know a moment of peace,” he says, swaying their portraits will one day be put in museums “reserved for tyrants and traitors” pic.twitter.com/BBBuL1Uz9O
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 28, 2025
Back at the White House, Leavitt accused Democratic officials of inspiring violence.
“These are Democrat elected officials calling for war against the President of the United States and his supporters,” she said. “When you have mentally disturbed individuals across the country who are listening to this crazed rhetoric about the president, day after day after day, it inspires them to do crazy things.”

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