‘We have to tone down the rhetoric’

• Mike Johnson denounced the tenor of political rhetoric in the US following the shooting at Trump’s rally.

• “We need to lower the temperature in this country,” the speaker said Sunday on NBC’s “Today” show.

• Johnson described the attempted assassination of Trump as “a horrific act of political violence.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday strongly condemned the shooting of the former president donald trump‘s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, condemning the “horrific” violence that occurred while urging political leaders to “refuse the rhetoric.”

During an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, the Louisiana Republican addressed the deep political divide in the U.S., which has apparently grown as the expected general election rematch between President Joe Biden and Trump is quickly approaching.

“We have to refuse the rhetoric,” Johnson said. “We need to lower the temperature in this country.”

“We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to denounce this and make sure it happens so we can move forward and maintain our free society that we are all blessed to have,” he added.

The speaker on Sunday also lamented what he described as a “surreal” experience for Americans, as one of the presidential candidates of the country’s main parties, just hours before, was the target of an assassination attempt.

“This is a horrific act of political violence. It should be condemned in its entirety,” he said. “Obviously, we can’t continue like this as a society.”

Trump was speaking to supporters on Saturday when gunshots rang out at his rally, and the former president was later surrounded by members of the Secret Service.

The former president emerged from the assassination attempt with a bloody ear.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social account, wrote that a bullet “pierced the top” of his right ear and thanked the officers who came to his aid during the incident.

Johnson, a political ally of Trump, said hours after the shooting that the House would conduct a “thorough investigation” into the events surrounding Saturday’s shooting. The lawmaker added that officials from the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and FBI would be called to speak before Congress about the incident.

President Joe Biden on Saturday strongly denounced the shooting and later that night I spoke with Trump.

“There is no place in America for this type of violence,” the president said. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We can’t allow this to happen. We can’t be like this. We can’t tolerate this.”

In the 2020 elections, one of the main objectives of Biden’s platform was to unify the country, especially after that year’s tough campaign.

But after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, a 2022 midterm cycle that saw both Democrats and Republicans fight over the issue of defending democracy, and an already tumultuous 2024 presidential campaign, divisions within the US remain raw. .

Read the original article at Business Insider