<p>Following a third assassination attempt against President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democratic lawmakers for rhetoric that openly invited violence.</p>
<p>“They’ve incited violence, in my view,” he said. “It’s time to turn down the rhetoric. We’ve been seeing this over and over. I hope that this will be a sobering reminder for everybody about that very important cause.&#8221;</p>
<p>Leavitt, who was already supposed to have begun her maternity leave, hosted an impromptu White House Press Briefing and echoed Johnson’s tone.</p>
<p>&#8220;This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,” she said. “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.”</p>
<p>Addressing the gathered reporters, Leavitt asked what separated the rhetoric wielded by Democratic lawmakers from that contained in the would-be assassin’s manifesto.</p>
<p>The shooter who attempted to attack Trump administration officials on Saturday, for example, claimed that he acted because he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”</p>
<p>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has repeatedly claimed that Trump is an authoritarian and a threat to Democracy — and, like shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen, did not hesitate to call the president a “rapist.”</p>
<p>“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” she said in a 2025 X <a href="https://x.com/AOC/status/1943736675877658637">post</a>.</p>
<p>And Ocasio-Cortez was not alone. Even after one assassination attempt on Trump — which left one dead and two others gravely injured at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally — former Vice President Kamala Harris ignored calls to tone down the rhetoric and referred to her opponent as a “fascist.”</p>
<p>President Trump appears to have had enough of the rhetoric as well, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-explains-delay-leaving-ballroom-says-he-wanted-to-personally-assess-scene">pushed back immediately</a> when CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell raised a question from Allen’s manifesto: “I was totally exonerated &#8230; You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that &#8230; You’re a disgrace.”</p>
<p>Since the news broke that yet another would-be assassin had targeted President Trump, a number of Democratic lawmakers have attempted to sidestep the landmines in their own party’s rhetoric and simply issue blanket calls condemning political violence.</p>
<p>Former President Barack Obama sparked backlash when he did so, in part because he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/obama-claims-shooters-motive-is-unknown-despite-manifesto-raging-against-trump">also claimed</a> hours after the manifesto’s release that “we don&#8217;t yet know the details about the motives.”</p>
<p>Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp (D-WA) was one of the few who stood out, <a href="https://x.com/RepMGP/status/2048232340954943936">saying,</a> in spite of her own personal and political opinions, “Please stop trying to murder the President.”</p>

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Republican Leaders Blame Democratic Rhetoric After Third Trump Assassination Attempt