House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday “rhetoric” from Democrats has “incited dangerous people to do dangerous things.”
“For years now, the leading Democrats in this country, the … highest elected officials and the current nominee for president, have gone out and said that [former President] Donald Trump is a threat to democracy,” Johnson told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” “That, you know, the republic will end if he’s reelected.”
“It’s absolute nonsense,” the House Speaker added. “And they have incited dangerous people to do dangerous things. The rhetoric has.”
The former president held a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, where he faced an assassination attempt earlier this year. Calls for cooling of tensions in politics arose following the shooting, with President Biden stating at the time that “political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated.”
“It’s time to cool it down,” Biden added in Oval Office remarks.
Stephanopoulos noted comments from Eric Trump at the Pennsylvania rally in which he said “they tried to kill” the former president “because the Democratic party, they can’t do anything right.”
“Do you support those comments or not?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I – I don’t know what Eric was saying ‘cause I only heard just a – a snippet there,” Johnson responded. “I don’t know the context —”
“You just saw it, sir,” the ABC News anchor cut in.
“I saw your clip of it, George,” the House Speaker said. “I didn’t see the full speech. We need to all look at these things in full context. What they’re referring to, though, is the absolute open attacks that have been engaged by Democrats against President Trump since the day he came down that golden escalator in 2016, OK?”
The Hill has reached out to the Democratic National Committee and the Harris campaign.
