(The Center Square) – Violence doesn’t have a place in politics, said North Carolina’s leaders of both major parties in Raleigh and Washington in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Democrats and Republicans posting messages to social media, through words or video, were in agreement against violence. Most encouraged prayers and offered gratitude that Trump survived the attempt on his life.
Trump was at a rally in western Pennsylvania on Saturday. A 20-year-old fired shots from an adjacent building estimated a mere 160 yards away, one of which struck the former president. A father protecting his children was killed, and two others were critically injured.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper wrote on social media, “Violence has no place in our politics or communities. I am grateful for the quick response by law enforcement today and hope former President Trump is not seriously injured.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s video message noted “passions are inflamed on both sides of the aisle” and asked for unity “in the fact that violence has no place in political discourse.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Budd said “hysterical and incendiary rhetoric directed at President Trump is fueling this un-American political violence. It must stop.”
In the 24 hours after the shooting, Democratic U.S. Reps. Don Davis, Deborah Ross, Valerie Foushee, Kathy Manning, Alma Adams and Wiley Nickel each posted messages denouncing the violence. There were messages of thankfulness Trump was OK and recovering.
“Political violence is beneath us as a democracy,” Adams said in her statement.
Republican U.S. Reps. Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, David Rouzer, Dan Bishop, Richard Hudson, Patrick McHenry and Chuck Edwards requested prayers for the nation, those at the rally and Trump. Murphy called it a “grave day in American history.”
The winds of politics and responsibility were also in the GOP messages.
Bishop and Hudson had reposts of references to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, and “other appropriate officials” from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to appear before the Oversight Committee of his chamber; and the Sunday letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from ranking member Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., of the Homeland Security Committee.
