Speaker Mike Johnson Calls on Leaders of Both Parties to Turn Down Violent Rhetoric: ‘We Can’t Go On Like This as a Society’

Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on NBC’s TODAY Show Sunday morning and condemned the political violence of the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and called on leaders of both parties to ‘turn the rhetoric down”

MSNBC pre-empted regular programming Sunday morning taking live the NBC weekend morning show, which featured the House Speaker calling for a lowering of the temperature from leaders of both parties.

Speaker Johnson said:

America awakens to a rather surreal morning. This is a horrific act of political violence that ought to be roundly condemned. Obviously, we can’t go on like this as a society. You know, our prayers are with President Trump, all the rally attendees, certainly the family of the individual that lost their life and those who were injured. We have gotten briefings from, law enforcement. I spoke to Secretary Mayorkas last night and asked him some pointed questions with regard to Homeland Security and what happened there. I’ve already announced that Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know. But in the meantime, 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 that we can go forward and and maintain our free society that we all were blessed to have.

Trump was shot in the ear in the opening moments of hosting a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but appears to be in remarkably good health despite the shooting. A spectator was killed, and two were critically injured in the shooting, the Secret Service said, although spokespersons did not provide further details about the victims.

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