Steve Scalise: The left's 'hyper-charged,' violent rhetoric 'needs to stop'
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise blamed the left and the media's rhetoric for energizing the suspected Trump shooter, as well as his own gunman during the congressional baseball shooting, on "Fox & Friends Weekend." He called the former president "strong" and commended him for "fighting for a movement."
STEVE SCALISE: Everybody's got to look at the rhetoric. But, you know, it's one side that is going after Donald Trump in a way to demonize him personally. You know, when we talk about the policies of the Democrats and the progressives, it's those policies that need to be front and center. But the left seems to have targeted Donald Trump as a person. They don't talk about how they don't like his tax and border policies. They just go after him personally. They demonize him. It's a weaponization that is dangerous. The mainstream media does it, too. They've got to look in the mirror, and they can't be immune from this because it's been an all-out assault on Donald Trump, the person, for years now. And it adds up. I mean, I saw this myself when the shooter went out on the baseball field to kill all of us as Republicans. The rhetoric from the left was what charged the shooter. And it was very violent rhetoric. It was rhetoric that's not even true about Republicans. And that's what's being said. Now, again, it's got to stop. They do it all the time, and they just kind of act like, well, you know, it's somebody else. It's society. It's not society. All it takes is one unhinged person, but that one unhinged person is acting on things specifically that are said by the left. That's what's got to stop.
TRUMP RALLY SHOOTING: 5 KEY DETAILS SO FAR
An attempted assassination of former President Trump took place on Saturday in Pennsylvania, shocking the world as the presumptive Republican nominee escaped death by what seemed like inches.
Trump was led offstage from the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally with blood pouring from his right ear, but not before raising his fist and gesturing to the crowd in defiance.
Information about the shooting was scarce and highly subject to distortion in the immediate aftermath — but as time passed, key details have been confirmed.
Authorities have identified the suspected gunman as 20-year-old Pennsylvania native Thomas Matthew Crooks, who lived approximately an hour away from the rally site in Bethel Park, according to Reuters.
Fox News' Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.