Source: Politics<\/p>\n
It\u2019s becoming a pattern: A possible threat to President Donald Trump\u2019s life. Calls from both sides to turn down the temperature. And then, a pivot.<\/p>\n
Republicans on Sunday rushed to turn the shooting at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner into a campaign cudgel, accusing Democrats of opening the door to political violence with \u201cdangerous and inflammatory rhetoric\u201d against the president. And they\u2019re leveraging the attempted security breach to try and break the congressional stalemate over Department of Homeland Security funding.<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after calling on Americans to \u201cresolve our differences,\u201d Trump said in an interview with CBS\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d<\/a> that \u201cI do think that the hate speech of the Democrats \u2026 is very dangerous.\u201d Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters cast Saturday\u2019s incident as \u201cthe inevitable result of a radicalized left that has normalized political violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Official GOP social media accounts accused prominent battleground candidates of stoking political tensions. \u201cDemocrats like Abdul El Sayed fuel this hate,\u201d Republicans\u2019 Senate campaign arm wrote of the progressive candidate<\/a> in the Michigan Senate race. In Maine, the group posted that Graham Platner,<\/a> the Democratic primary polling leader, \u201csaid that violence with a gun was a necessary means to achieving social change.\u201d It\u2019s a reference to since-deleted Reddit posts from 2018<\/a>; Platner has disavowed the violent rhetoric in them. And in North Carolina, an RNC account criticized Senate candidate and former Gov. Roy Cooper<\/a> for not publicly condemning the attack while previously calling Trump \u201ca significant threat to our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a playbook Republicans forged in the aftermath of the two assassination attempts against Trump in 2024, when early calls for unity gave way to accusations that Democrats had spent years stoking threats of violence<\/a> against the president by casting him as a threat to democracy. They\u2019ve deployed it amid a surge in high-profile incidents of political violence, including last year\u2019s killing of Charlie Kirk, when top Republicans<\/a> from Trump down blamed the \u201cradical left\u201d<\/a> for inciting political violence.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no evidence Democrats\u2019 rhetoric was behind either of the 2024 assassination attempts on Trump. The motive behind the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024 remains a mystery; the gunman, Thomas Crooks, was killed by federal agents. Ryan Routh, who was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate after he hid in the bushes at one of Trump\u2019s Florida golf courses with a semiautomatic rifle that September, was reportedly concerned about the war in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n Democrats on Sunday broadly condemned political violence. They offered gratitude to the Secret Service, including the agent who took shots to his protective vest<\/a> during the scuffle and was released from the hospital Sunday<\/a>. They rejected Republicans\u2019 attempts to assign blame and reiterated their calls to pass a bill that cleared the Senate last month<\/a> that would fund most of DHS, except for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cHere in America, we can have strong disagreements. But it\u2019s important for us to agree to strongly disagree without being disagreeable with each other,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on \u201cFox News Sunday.\u201d<\/a> \u201cAnd it is certainly the case that violence is never the answer, whether it\u2019s targeted at the right, the left, or the center.\u201d<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear what motivated Saturday\u2019s attack, though the man being held in connection with the incident reportedly criticized Trump administration policies<\/a> in writings sent to family members shortly before he rushed a security checkpoint while armed with guns and knives. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d Sunday morning<\/a> that it appeared the suspect \u201cdid in fact set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president.\u201d<\/p>\n Some battleground Republicans \u2014 including in top races<\/a> for Senate, House<\/a> and governor<\/a> \u2014 moved quickly to fill the void.<\/p>\n In the heated Michigan Senate race, former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers said in a statement that Democrats \u201cknow exactly what they\u2019re doing and continue to inspire violent acts. Why else would they continue to block funding for DHS, the very agency meant to keep us safe?\u201d<\/p>\n He referenced a clip of El-Sayed, one of his Democratic rivals, urging Democrats at a \u201cfighting oligarchy\u201d rally last year to do more to push back against Republicans. \u201cWhen they go low, we don\u2019t go high \u2014 we take them to the ground and choke them out,\u201d El-Sayed said at the time.<\/p>\n Senate Republicans\u2019 campaign arm circulated the clip Sunday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a statement Sunday, El-Sayed criticized Republicans\u2019 attacks, saying there is \u201cnever any excuse for political violence\u201d and calling on everyone, \u201cregardless of party, to bring the rhetoric down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see the NRSC shamelessly politicize this awful act so quickly,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cNeedless to say it strains credulity to believe that these acts had more to do with what a candidate in Michigan said in 2025 than what the MAGA movement has done to normalize violence through Jan 6, endless war, and violent rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans have yet to put any significant cash behind a line of attack that was still taking shape on Sunday and playing out largely on social media and in public statements.<\/p>\n Still, Democrats called for them to back down.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of politicizing the shooting, Republicans should look in the mirror first. If they were actually serious about public safety, they should allow a vote on the bipartisan legislation the Senate passed to re-open DHS,\u201d Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for House Democrats\u2019 campaign arm, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Democratic operatives working on battleground campaigns argued that Republicans were being hypocritical, pointing to Trump and GOP lawmakers who\u2019ve mocked acts of political violence against Democrats<\/a> and worked to rewrite the history of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot<\/a>. They also cited Trump\u2019s suggestion last year that the actions of a half-dozen Democratic lawmakers who encouraged servicemembers not to follow illegal orders were \u201cpunishable by death.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLast time this many top government leaders were in one place and facing [the] threat of violence was [Jan. 6, 2021],\u201d Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said in a text message. \u201cHopefully they don\u2019t give anyone pardons this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Longabaugh, another veteran Democratic strategist working on midterm races, said: \u201cTo any Republican making those accusations, my response is two words: January Sixth.\u201d<\/p>\n But Republicans weren\u2019t letting up.<\/p>\n