President Donald Trump’s calm tone after Saturday night’s mass shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has since been replaced by accusations and accusations from senior administration officials who hold Democrats and the media primarily responsible for the current state of political violence in the United States.
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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Communications Director Stephen Chan and Presidential Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt on Monday accused journalists and congressional Democrats of divisive statements.
“Political violence and rhetoric must stop,” Blanche said, suggesting that many members of the media were complicit.
“To be honest, a lot of people in this room have done it,” Blanche told a room full of reporters. “When you have reporters, when you have media, they’re just as guilty as a lot of people in X. It’s just the media being overly critical and calling the president really bad names for no reason, no evidence, no proof.”
In a statement to NBC News, Chan said of President Trump’s upcoming campaign travel plans: “The President continues to have a solid schedule and nothing will stop him from delivering a historic victory for the American people. The violent rhetoric against the President by deranged liberals and a biased media outlet was on display Saturday night.”
“This political violence stems from the systematic demonization of (Trump) and his supporters by commentators, yes, Democratic elected officials, and even some parts of the media,” Levitt said at his daily press briefing.
“This hateful and relentlessly violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day in and day out for 11 years has served to justify this violence and lead us to this dark moment,” she added.
Their remarks were in sharp contrast to President Trump’s call to reporters in the White House briefing room shortly after the shooting, calling on all Americans to “recommit in our hearts to peacefully resolving our differences. We must resolve our differences.”
“I think there were Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, progressives. Those words are probably interchangeable, maybe not. But still, everyone in that room, a huge crowd, a record-setting crowd, a record-setting group of people, there was a tremendous amount of love and unity. I saw that and I was very impressed by it,” Trump said.
He added that he had originally intended to barge into the press during his scheduled dinner remarks, but that the situation changed after the shooting.
“I don’t know if we can be as rowdy as we were tonight. I think we can probably be very nice. Next time it’s going to be very boring, but it’s going to be a great event. And you’ve done a great job,” Trump told reporters.
That unifying message didn’t get through until Monday. The president criticized Democrats in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday night, saying, “Democratic hate speech is even more dangerous.”
The next day, Trump also criticized ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel for joking last week that first lady Melania Trump had a “widow-in-waiting glow.”
President Trump told Truth Social: “I appreciate that so many people are outraged by Mr. Kimmel’s vile calls for violence. Normally I would not react to Mr. Kimmel’s comments, but this is outrageous. Jimmy Kimmel should be fired by Disney and ABC immediately.”
President Melania Trump also condemned Kimmel’s “hateful and violent statements” that were “aimed at dividing our country.”
“His monologue about my family is not comedy. His words are corrosive and deepen political ills within America,” the first lady wrote to X.
Spokespeople for ABC, Walt Disney and Kimmel did not respond to requests for comment.
Kimmel briefly stepped down last year under pressure from Trump and his allies after criticizing the Republican Party following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Several accounts associated with Republican groups also tried to blame Democrats.
On Monday, the Republican National Committee-controlled
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D.N.Y.), who was also criticized by Mr. Levitt on Monday, said later in the day that Virginia voters who passed the Democratic redistricting plan were “the biggest battle going on everywhere, all the time,” and that he was “not concerned” about the criticism of last week’s X post.
“Political violence in any form, directed at anyone, whether on the right, left or center, is unacceptable. Period, full stop. This is in reference to comments related to ‘maximum war, anytime, anywhere’ in connection with the redistricting battles initiated by the Republican Party. , I certainly support the idea that all of us are concerned about the so-called criticism from this bogus Republican related to what has been said. You can continue to criticize, ‘I don’t care about your criticism,”’ Jeffries told reporters.
Trump has often used fiery rhetoric. NBC News previously reported that nearly 20 elected officials are facing real-world threats after President Trump publicly criticized them. President Trump called for the death penalty last year, saying some members of Congress had engaged in “seditious acts” that “deserve the death penalty.” He later recanted that statement.
Democrats largely condemned the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, thanked law enforcement and pointed to efforts to defund much of the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Secret Service. Democrats have proposed a plan to fund everything in DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
The suspect in Saturday night’s shooting, Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of California, is charged with attempted assassination of the president and other crimes.
After the first two assassination attempts against Trump in 2024, Trump allies leveled similar criticism at Democrats, with some Republicans blaming Democrats for the violence, citing Democrats’ claims that Trump is a threat to democracy.
There is no evidence that these discussions led to the assassination attempt on President Trump.
