House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sparred with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday after the ABC host pressed him on comments Eric Trump made at former President Donald Trump‘s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Speaking at the site of the first assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday, Eric Trump said, “They tried to smear us. They came after us. They impeached him twice, and then, guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because of the Democratic Party. They can’t do anything right.”
Stephanopoulos asked Johnson on ABC’s This Week if it is “right for Trump and his family to suggest that Democrats are behind the effort to assassinate him” after calls to tone down the rhetoric came from both sides in the wake of the first assassination attempt on Trump.
“I don’t think they’re saying that the Democratic Party tried an assassination attempt. I think what they’re alluding to is what we’ve all been saying. They have got to turn the rhetoric down 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 Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. … It’s absolute nonsense, and they have incited dangerous people to do dangerous things. The rhetoric has,” Johnson said.
Stephanopoulos pushed against Johnson’s response, saying “we all just saw what former President Trump and his son Eric said,” adding that Eric Trump specifically mentioned Democrats as inciting the violence against his father. He then asked Johnson if he supports those comments.
He and Stephanopoulos then engaged in a brief back-and-forth when Johnson said he didn’t know the context in which Eric Trump’s comments were said, to which the ABC host exclaimed, “You just saw it [the clip], sir.”
Johnson emphasized that there needs to be more of a focus on the policies of the candidates instead of the “personalities,” before the ABC host pressed him again, reading Eric Trump’s comments and asking, “What more context do you need? Do you support that statement or not?”
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“I’m not going to parse the language of what people say at rallies. I could give you pages and pages of crazy comments by the leading Democrats in this country. That’s not what this is about. … Let’s put all of this political nonsense behind us and talk about how we get out of this mess,” Johnson said.
The House speaker also appeared on Fox News on Sunday and discussed how the public is “frustrated” with FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, particularly how the government agency has previously allocated money to its Shelter and Services Program to help states deal with the migrant crisis.