Trump officials blame Democrats, the media for political violence in wake of correspondents’ dinner
President Donald Trump’s calming tone following Saturday night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has since given way to accusations and accusations from senior administration officials who say Democrats and the media are largely to blame for the state of political violence in the United States.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized reporters and congressional Democrats on Monday for what they called divisive rhetoric.
“The political violence and rhetoric must stop,” Blanche said, while suggesting that many members of the media were complicit.
“A lot of people in this room, if we’re going to be honest about it, have done it,” Blanche told a room full of reporters. “They’re just as guilty as a lot of people on
Cheung said in a statement to NBC News about Trump’s future campaign travel plans that the president “continues to have a busy schedule and nothing will ever stop him from achieving historic victories for the American people. The violent rhetoric from deranged liberals and biased media against the president was on display Saturday night.”
And Leavitt said at the daily press briefing that “this political violence stems from a systemic demonization of [Trump] and its supporters by commentators, yes, by elected officials of the Democratic Party and even by certain media. »
“This constant, violent, hateful rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day for 11 years has helped legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,” she added.
Their remarks stood in stark contrast to the way Trump addressed reporters in the White House briefing room shortly after the shooting, when he called on “all Americans to recommit wholeheartedly to resolving our differences peacefully. We must resolve our differences.”
“I will say there were Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives. Maybe those words are interchangeable, but maybe they’re not. But yet, everyone in that room, a big crowd, a record crowd, there was a record group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and bonding. I looked and I was very, very impressed by that,” Trump said.
He added that he had initially planned to attack the press during his planned speech at the dinner, but that things changed after the shooting.
“I don’t know if I can ever be as tough as I would have been tonight. I think I’ll probably be very nice. I’ll be very annoying next time, but we’re going to have a great event. And you’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters.
This unifying message didn’t even extend until Monday. The president blasted Democrats during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcast Sunday night, saying “the hate speech from Democrats, even more so, is very dangerous.”
The next day, Trump also blamed ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, condemning the comedian for a joke he made last week in which he said first lady Melania Trump had “the glow of a future widow.”
“I understand that so many people are angered by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence and would normally not respond to anything he says, but this is something far beyond normal. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Melania Trump also blasted Kimmel for his “hateful and violent rhetoric” which she said “aims to divide our country.”
“Her monologue about my family is not an act; her words are corrosive and worsen the political evil in America,” the first lady wrote on X.
ABC, The Walt Disney Co. and Kimmel’s publicist did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kimmel was briefly taken off the air last year following pressure from Trump and his allies, after criticizing Republicans following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Several accounts associated with Republican groups also sought to blame Democrats.
An
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who also came under fire from Leavitt on Monday, said later in the day that he didn’t care about criticism over an X-rated post from last week when he said, “Maximum war, everywhere, all the time,” when describing Virginia voters who embraced the Democrats’ redistricting plan.
“Political violence in any form, directed against anyone, whether right, left or center, is unacceptable. Period, period. The idea that any of us are concerned about the so-called criticism of these fake Republicans with respect to anything that has been said, certainly, with respect to the comment about ‘maximum war everywhere, all the time’ in relation to the redistricting battle that the Republicans have started, I stand by. You can continue to criticize me for I don’t care about your criticism,” Jeffries told reporters.
Trump has often engaged in fiery rhetoric. NBC News previously reported that nearly two dozen elected officials were subjected to actual threats after Trump publicly criticized them. Last year, Trump called for the execution of some members of Congress, saying they were committing “seditious behavior” “punishable by death.” He then returned to these remarks.
Democrats widely condemned the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, thanking law enforcement and highlighting their attempts to defund most of the Department of Homeland Security, where the Secret Service is housed. Democrats have floated a plan to fund all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
The suspect in Saturday night’s shooting — Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of California — faces charges including attempting to assassinate the president.
Trump’s allies leveled similar criticism at Democrats after the first two assassination attempts against Trump, in 2024, with some Republicans blaming Democrats for the violence, citing Democratic arguments that Trump was a threat to democracy.
There is no evidence that these arguments led to the assassination attempts against Trump.
