US mainstream media has been criticised by commentator Lauren Chen for their "violent rhetoric" towards former President Donald Trump, following the assassination attempt on him at his Pennsylvania rally.
The 45th President was delivering a speech to supporters at the event when a 20-year-old gunman shot at him, injuring his ear.
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was then shot dead at the scene by the Secret Service.
Reacting to the assassination attempt, GBNA host Patrick Christys told Lauren Chen that the Secret Service and security at the event "could have done a lot more" to prevent the attack taking place.
Lauren Chen has hit out at those 'blaming the right' for the assassination attempt of Donald Trump
GBNA / Getty
Hitting out at the "massive security failure", Patrick fumed: "After years of violent rhetoric against this guy, essentially someone's tried to kill him and the security forces could have done a huge amount more to stop that.
"There was a massive security failure there. What's to say this won't happen again?"
Agreeing with Patrick, Chen said there is a "paradox at play" when it comes to political violence, particularly on the right.
She told GBNA: "We see that anytime there is violence committed by someone who is right wing or who could be portrayed as being right wing, of course the fault then lies on the right itself for pushing violent rhetoric, for being bigoted and for radicalising their own members.
Donald Trump was struck on his ear after a gunman fired bullets at him during a campaign rally
Getty
"We see that in the media time and time again, however, what we are also seeing now after this assassination attempt is that even when we see the right get attacked, somehow, it is also the right wing's fault."
Discussing the gunman who attempted the assassination of Trump, Chen claimed that although we "don't know much" about the 20-year-old man, it is clear he "presumably hated the right and Trump".
Chen explained: "Now we are still trying to find out more about the shooter, but considering he tried to murder Trump, it's obviously clear that he's not a fan of Trump himself.
"If a left-winger or someone who hates Trump commits violence against Trump because the right is just so terrible, I suppose they invite violence upon themselves."
Condemning the role of the media in their portrayal of Trump in the election campaign so far, Chen also noted that the mainstream media should "consider their own culpability" in the assassination attempt and other violence towards Trump.
Lauren Chen said the mainstream media should 'consider their own culpability' in the Trump assassination attempt
GBNA
Chen told Patrick: "Now we see the media not discussing perhaps their own culpability in this for their very violent rhetoric against Donald Trump. Because after all, if Trump really is a Nazi, a fascist, doesn't that somewhat justify violence against him?
"I don't think any of us would be complaining if Hitler had been assassinated. But, you know, instead of that introspection, they also find a way to still blame the right now, it's also still the right's fault."
Chen continued: "It seems like no matter where the political violence happens nowadays, it's still the right wing's fault.
"We also see that we saw this during BLM and actually that's if the media chooses to cover the violence committed against the right at all - they often just choose not to mention it."