Post shooting, Republicans fault Biden’s past rhetoric about Trump

CNN —

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday said President Joe Biden should be “called out” for political attacks on former President Donald Trump that have contributed to what he described as a “heated political environment.”

He urged political leaders on both sides of the aisle to “turn the rhetoric down” the morning after Trump was injured onstage in a shooting during a Pennsylvania campaign rally.

“We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Today” show. “We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to call that out and make sure that happens so that we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have.”

He then pointed to Democratic criticism of Trump less than four months from this year’s presidential election.

“When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the republic would end, I mean it heats up the environment,” the Louisiana Republican said on NBC. “We cannot do that. It’s simply not true. Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”

The House speaker’s comments echoed those of many other Republicans, including Trump’s campaign, some of his top allies on Capitol Hill and at least one top contender for his vice presidential nomination as the party prepares to gather in Milwaukee this week for its nominating convention.

One rally attendee was killed and two were critically injured, in addition to Trump, in the shooting. The FBI described the shooting as an assassination attempt and identified the gunman, who was shot and killed on the scene, as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks was a registered Republican who had previously made a small