Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Today” that the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump showed “everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”
Johnson said, “America awakens to a rather surreal morning. This is a horrific act of political violence. It ought to be roundly condemned. Obviously we can’t go on like this as a society. Our prayers are with President Trump, all the rally attendees, certainly the family of the individual that lost their life and those that were injured. We’ve gotten briefings from law enforcement. I’ve spoken to Secretary Mayorkas last night and asked him some pointed questions with regard to homeland security and what happened there. I’ve already announced that Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know.”
He continued, “In the meantime we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country. We need leaders of all parties on both sides to call that out and make sure that happens so we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have.”
Johnson added, “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 can not do that.”
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