The vast majority of congressional Republicans offered prayers and support for former president Donald Trump in the hours following what the FBI called an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday evening.
About 30 directly blamed President Biden, the Democratic Party, or members of the media for allegedly inciting the attack, even as Biden said “everybody must condemn” political violence in public remarks from Rehoboth Beach, Del.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential Trump running mate, wrote on X. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
More than a dozen lawmakers used their official government social media accounts to cast blame for the shooting on Biden or other Trump critics. All but two Republican members of Congress had released statements about the incident as of Sunday at 1 a.m.
Here is a list of reactions to the incident from Republican members of Congress:
Reps. Cliff Bentz (Ore.) and John Rutherford (Fla.) had not posted a statement as of Sunday at 1 a.m. Eastern.
Michael Scherer contributed to this report.
