Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called on both Democrats and Republicans to turn the rhetoric down after the assassination attempt on former President Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
“This is a horrific act of political violence. It ought to be roundly condemned. Obviously, we can’t go on this way as a society,” he told NBC News on Sunday. “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 are all blessed to have.”
Rally attendee and former fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed and two others were injured after a shooter opened fire at the former president’s campaign rally, the Secret Service said. The shooter was also killed.
Johnson offered condolences for the victims’ families and called the fact that Trump survived the attempt on his life a “miracle.”
LIVE UPDATES ON DEADLY SHOOTING AT TRUMP RALLY
Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by Secret Service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“We all saw what seemed to be a miracle. I believe that God’s spirit — and that bullet went just, apparently a millimeter from doing real and permanent damage to him or perhaps taking his life. It’s just kind of a surreal thing,” he said in the interview.
Johnson praised Trump’s “show of strength” immediately following the incident before condemning the vitriol directed toward the GOP candidate from the left and the media.
“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 media, Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system,” he said.
“When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a ‘threat to Democracy,’ and that the Republic would end, it heats up the environment. We cannot do that. It’s simply not true. Everyone must turn the rhetoric down,” he continued, arguing political discourse shouldn’t be “personal.”
BIDEN SPOKE WITH TRUMP FOLLOWING SHOOTING AT PENNSYLVANIA RALLY
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from western Pennsylvania. Crooks reportedly shot Trump from a rooftop perch some 130 yards away during a rally in the small town, striking the upper part of Trump’s right ear while the former president was speaking to rallygoers.
Former law enforcement officials have raised questions about the security breakdown at the event, with one rallygoer claiming the security measures were “extremely lax.”
Johnson said he had questioned Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas following the incident about how the shooter was able to access the rooftop.
The GOP leader pledged that he and his colleagues in Congress would be launching a full investigation into the matter to determine where security measures failed and other concerns stemming from the shocking event.
Fox News’ Scott McDonald contributed to this report.