Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday that the fatal shooting of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and the shooting of a second lawmaker “was clearly politically motivated” and that elected leaders in her home state have been given added security.

Ms. Klobuchar said a massive manhunt is underway for the suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, and the deadly events underscore the need for elected leaders on both sides of the aisle to tone down the political rhetoric.

“People need to call out people,” Ms. Klobuchar, a Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union. “Some people need to look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, I have 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 need to stand up when people do bad things,” she said.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Ms. Klobuchar said Ms. Boelter is still believed to be in the Midwest.

Mr. Boelter is alleged to have impersonated a police officer and driven a fake police car before assassinating former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home in the Minneapolis suburbs. Mr. Boelter is also alleged to have then shot and wounded Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their home roughly nine miles away. Ms. Hortman and Mr. Hoffman are Democrats.

A manifesto reportedly found in the suspect’s car included a target list of the entire Minnesota congressional delegation, most of whom are Democrats. It included pro-choice leaders and Planned Parenthood locations.

Ms. Klobuchar said the suspect could have been motivated by his views on the life issue.

“There clearly was some throughline with abortion because of the groups that were on the list,” she said on “Meet the Press.” “So that was one of his motivations. But again, they’re also checking out, did he have interaction somehow with these without legislators? Is there more to this?”

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to Mr. Boelter’s arrest and conviction.

The shooting rattled the state of Minnesota and was the latest reminder of the rise in political violence across the nation.

Ms. Klobuchar and the rest of Minnesota’s congressional delegation on Saturday issued a joint statement condemning this “horrible attack on public servants.”

“There is no place in our democracy for politically motivated violence,” the statement read.

On Sunday, Ms. Klobuchar said security has been beefed up around every member of the congressional delegation.

She signaled an interest in creating new rules to crack down on online activity that stokes political violence and incentivizes copycat crimes.

“So, more has to be done on that front and, of course, more has to be done to protect elected officials, regardless of party,” she said.

Ms. Klobuchar said threats against elected officials have spiked, jumping from 1,700 in 2016 to 9,000 last year.

The shooting sparked immediate finger-pointing between hardcore partisans across social media over Mr. Boelter’s politics and the motivation behind the shootings.

Mr. Boelter and his wife run a private security company, according to the Praetorian Guard Security Services website.

He was appointed to the governor’s Workforce Development Board by Mark Dayton in 2016, and more recently by Gov. Tim Walz, both Democrats.

The New York Times reported that state reports from 2016 and 2020 showed Mr. Boelter’s political affiliation was “none or other” and “no party preference.”

The suspect’s roommate and lifelong friend, David Carlson, said Mr. Boelter voted for President Trump in November.

Videos have circulated online that appear to show Mr. Boelter delivering sermons at a Christian church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They included him railing agaisnt transgenderrism and gay marriage in the United States.

The FBI released photos of Mr. Boelter, including one taken from a Ring camera outside one of the shooting victims’ homes, showing him wearing what appears to be a latex mask.

Ms. Klobuchar said the image is “chilling.”

“He is very smart. He is very evil,” she said. “We want to get this guy.”

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.