Johnson after Trump rally shooting: ‘Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down’

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) called on the former president’s opposition “to turn the rhetoric down” following the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“When the message goes out constantly that Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and the republic would end, I mean, it heats up the environment,” Mike Johnson told NBC’s “Today” show on Sunday. “Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”

A gunman shot into a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, where the former president said a bullet pierced his ear. The shooter and one rally attendee are dead, according to the FBI, and two other attendees were critically injured.

“I believe God spared him,” Johnson said.

The Speaker called on his colleagues to take the temperature down and maintain statesmanship, referencing his efforts to found the Honor and Civility Caucus.

“We have political opposition and political opponents, but we’re all American. We have to treat one another with dignity and respect,” he said.

Since the shooting Saturday night, several Republicans have attributed the assassination attempt to anti-Trump rhetoric from the Biden campaign.

“The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) wrote on the social platform X.

The motivation behind the shooting is still unknown. Johnson similarly gestured to President Biden as an example of heated rhetoric targeted at the former president.

“President Biden … said himself, in recent days, ‘It’s time to put a bull’s-eye on Trump,’” he said. “That kind of language, on either side, should be called out.”

In a press conference Sunday, Biden called on the nation to avoid speculating on the shooter’s motive.

“We don’t yet have any information on the motive of the shooter,” the president said. “I urge everyone, please, don’t make assumptions about his motive or affiliations. Let the FBI do their job.”

Biden also announced that his administration will launch an independent investigation into the security failings at the Pennsylvania rally, and release the results publicly. 

Speaker Johnson has vowed to launch congressional probes into the security procedures in the coming weeks. He told “Today” that he has already had the opportunity to question Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“We can’t go on like this as a society,” Johnson concluded.