ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, a lifelong Democrat who worked in the Clinton administration, threw a fit during an interview over the weekend that former President Donald Trump and one of his sons blamed Democrats for the assassination attempts on the former president.
Stephanopoulos had the meltdown during an interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-CA) when asked about the recent remarks.
The man who shot Trump in the ear during an attempted assassination in July had previously donated to a far-left cause while another man who was arrested for an attempted assassination in September had a history of donating to Democrats dozens of times.
“Is it right for the president and his family to suggest that Democrats are behind the effort to assassinate him?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Johnson responded: “I don’t think they’re saying that Democrat Party tried an assassination attempt.”
“I think what they’re alluding to is what we’ve all been saying,” he continued. “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. That the republic will end if he’s re-elected.”
“It’s absolute nonsense,” he continued. “And they have incited dangerous people to do dangerous things. The rhetoric has. I think that is a fact that’s objective that everybody can agree to. We do need to turn the volume down.”
Stephanopoulos became incensed that Johnson blamed the extreme rhetoric of the Democratic Party for the shootings and demanded to know if Johnson supported the remarks from the Trump family.
“What they’re referring to is the absolute open attacks that have been engaged by Democrats against President Trump since the day he came down that golden escalator in 2016, OK?” Johnson said. “The lawfare is unprecedented. They have attacked him in every single way. They try to malign his character every single day. And the people have had enough of it. That’s why you have these massive turnouts at the rallies. People have had enough of this.”
Stephanopoulos then accused Johnson of “repeating the charge” and again demanded to know if Johnson supported the statement.
“George, I’m not going to parse the language what people say at rallies,” Johnson said. “I could give you pages and pages of crazy comments by the leading Democrats in this country. That’s not what this is about. We have to talk about the greatest collection of challenges that this country is facing probably since World War II, maybe the Civil War.”
Stephanopoulos continued to harp on the issue for another few minutes before he eventually changed the subject.
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