Tragedy struck Minnesota at the end of last week when a gunman, apparently disguised as a police officer, opened fire on two different state lawmakers and their spouses. Two of the four were killed, and the other two were hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds.
As the horrific news broke, however, Democrats and media talking heads were quick to point the finger at increasingly “heated rhetoric” — almost always using President Donald Trump as the prime example of that — and the availability and accessibility of firearms.
For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
On CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) — fresh off his dramatic ouster from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference — immediately blamed President Donald Trump for ratcheting up the temperature in political discourse.
Padilla praised the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police for their attention to the increased threats against lawmakers and for how hard they were working to keep everyone safe.
“I think it’s more than appropriate to step back and say, why are tensions so high?… and I can’t help but point to the beginning of not just the first Trump term, but the beginning of the campaign, the tone with which the president had launched his first campaign for president, served throughout his first term, and continues in this term,” Padilla said.
The U.S. Capitol Police and the Senate Sergeant at Arms are “doing what they need to do to ensure the safety of members of Congress,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) says in the wake of Saturday’s attack on two Minnesota state lawmakers.
He adds, “I think it’s more than appropriate to… pic.twitter.com/mm9w8RxBa3
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 15, 2025
Senator Adam Schiff took a similar tone on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” telling anchor Kristen Welker that Trump’s rhetoric was an “encouragement” to use violence. Schiff conceded that there was an increase in violent rhetoric on both sides of the political aisle, but only mentioned Trump by name.
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) says that increasingly violent rhetoric from politicians, including President Trump, are an “encouragement” of political violence after the shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers. https://t.co/ZmKU2W0k8m pic.twitter.com/99zh7Oaeoy
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 15, 2025
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) also called for politicians and pundits alike to tone down the political rhetoric, as she joined CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss the tragic shooting.
“This has gotten totally out of hand… We actually put out a joint statement that said we speak with one voice in condemning political violence. I think we need to see more of this across our country. People need to call people out. Some people need to look in the mirror and say, hey, I have got to stop this or stop my colleagues from doing this, because it makes it much worse. We need to bring the tone down, and we also need to stand up when people do bad things,” she said.
.@SenAmyKlobuchar on rising political violence in the US:
“This has gotten totally out of hand… We actually put out a joint statement that said we speak with one voice in condemning political violence. I think we need to see more of this across our country. People need to call… pic.twitter.com/KM1pBb6dZx
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) June 15, 2025
During a panel discussion later on in the broadcast, former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) and Democratic strategist Karen Finney attempted to blame the situation on the fact that firearms were easily accessible in the United States.
“My God, we’ve got to stop thinking we can solve our problems or we can get attention for ourselves or our point of view or whatever that person thought they were doing with firearms,” Levin said. “It’s an epidemic in this country. We used to worry so much about school shootings, all the time, all the time, now people — the president himself was, you know, the target of two assassination attempts. This is something we’ve got to take on as a policy matter in this country.”
“Look, I’m a gun guy. I wouldn’t necessarily place the blame on guns,” Shermichael Singleton added, saying that he did agree that too many people believed violence was the best way to get a point across. Singleton noted that far too many people were “unstable” and apparently unwilling to engage in debate or simply vote out the people with whom they disagreed.
Levin pushed back then, claiming that mental health in the United States was not dramatically worse than in other nations, once again arguing that access to firearms was the problem. “We have a problem of firearms being accessible – sub-machine guns, all kinds of guns, and it’s — we’re not going to solve the problem until we step up to the plate and take on this epidemic —”
Singleton interrupted, saying, “By the way, you can’t buy a sub-machine gun anymore, Congressman, that was outlawed decades ago.”
“In the 30s,” another person on the panel chimed in from off camera.
TODD: “We have a ‘No Kings Day’ every year. It’s July the 4th. We celebrate our independence from the king of Great Britain.”
LEVIN: “Well, you know what? In America, you can come out on any dang day of the year and express your opinion. And that’s the most American thing of… pic.twitter.com/Dmofsa5RU1
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) June 15, 2025