Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont said Sunday “politics should be kind of boring” instead of a hyper-charged environment that leads to violence, in response to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Sanders, a hero of the progressive left, said politics should be “a serious discussion of where we are as a nation and how we go forward.”
“What we have got to see is serious discussion of serious issues and not this kind of harsh rhetoric that we have heard for the last couple of years,” Mr. Sanders, an independent, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The FBI said Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire on Mr. Trump from the rooftop of a building less than 150 yards from the event stage while Mr. Trump was speaking in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Crooks was quickly shot and killed by Secret Service agents.
Mr. Trump’s ear was hit — either by a bullet or broken glass — and one rally attendee was killed and two others were critically injured, the Secret Service said.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene of the shooting, a source told The Associated Press.
The assassination attempt is roiling the presidential campaign and leading to finger-pointing.
Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who was shot in 2017 at a congressional baseball practice, bemoaned “hyper-charged rhetoric on the left.”
“It’s been an all-out assault on Donald Trump the person for years now and it adds up,” Mr. Scalise told Fox News on Sunday.
Mr. Sanders famously denounced the baseball practice shooting from the Senate floor after learning the gunman had volunteered for his presidential campaign.
The senator, speaking to NBC, also pointed to a recent incident in which someone set his Burlington, Vermont, office on fire, putting staffers in danger.
“Seven people could have been burned alive,” he said. “So yeah, I am familiar with political violence in all its forms.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.