House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged Sunday a thorough investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and urged all sides to “turn the temperature down in this country.”
“You have political opposition and political opponents, but we’re all Americans and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told NBC News’ “Today.” “We can have heated political discourse and debates, but it shouldn’t be personal, and we shouldn’t be targeting people.”
Mr. Trump was struck on the right ear after shots rang out at his Saturday rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. He survived and is reported by aides to be “fine.”
One rally attendee was killed and two others were critically injured, the Secret Service said.
Mr. Johnson said he spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas late Saturday to ask “pointed questions” about “what happened there” and repeated his pledge to investigate potential security lapses.
Some rally attendees said they saw the shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, crawling on a roof near the venue. Agents killed the shooter.
Mr. Johnson said it was a miracle that Mr. Trump survived the attempt.
“I believe that God spared him, and that bullet went just apparently a millimeter from doing real and permanent damage to him or perhaps taking his life. And it’s just kind of a surreal thing,” Mr. Johnson said. “I know him well. He has an inexhaustible reservoir of energy and strength that’s almost inexplicable to us sometimes. But he’ll keep fighting and he should.”
The assassination attempt will roil the presidential campaign and lead to finger-pointing over charged rhetoric.
Mr. Trump is known for his strident rhetoric and faces a criminal trial for actions after his 2020 election loss, though Mr. Johnson said Democrats should do some soul-searching.
“President Biden himself said in recent days, it’s time to put a bullseye on President Trump,” Mr. Johnson said. “I know that he didn’t mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language on either side should be called out. And, and we must make clear that, that this is part of our system. We can have vigorous debate, but it needs to end there.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.