WASHINGTON, July 15: Within hours of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, his Republican supporters in Congress claimed they knew exactly who was responsible: Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
Bidens campaign "rhetoric led directly to President Trumps attempted assassination," Senator J.D. Vance, on Trumps shortlist for vice president, alleged shortly after Saturdays shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, in which the former US leader was wounded and one bystander killed.
Vances comments were part of an escalating chorus of Republicans who have pinned the blame on Democrats -- even as the FBI says it has yet to identify the shooters ideology.
They also heap more fuel onto the fire in a political atmosphere that has long been tense and fiercely polarized.
"Heated rhetoric has come from both sides" in recent years, Michael Bailey, a political science professor at Georgetown University, told AFP.
Republicans, for whom gun rights and a rejection of alleged government overreach are key themes, "have been more prone to marry such rhetoric with imagery related to guns," Bailey noted.
"And some of them (including Trump) did not cover themselves in glory when they made light of the violent attack on Nancy Pelosis husband," he said, referring to the 2022 attack by a conspiracy theorist on the high-profile Democrats spouse.
Trump later mocked the Pelosis, and stoked further conspiracy theories around the assault. —AFP
