CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer got called out by a colleague on the network for talking about how “both sides” should cool their political rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of a shooting at Saturday’s Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
Footage of the incident showed former President Donald Trump ducking behind his podium before being escorted away by Secret Service with blood on his ear. He raised his fist in the air several times as he left.
The Trump campaign released a statement shortly after the shooting saying the former president was “fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.” Trump himself later released a statement saying he was shot in the ear.
A suspected shooter was “neutralized” by U.S. Secret Service personnel, according to the Secret Service. The Secret Service added that one spectator was killed and two others were “critically injured.”
Later in the evening, Blitzer went back and forth with CNN pundit Scott Jennings, who was a special assistant to former President George W. Bush.
“We have people in this country who are dedicated to telling half the country that if Donald Trump wins an election the country will end, the Constitution will go away, and so on and so forth,” Jennings said.
“What I want to hear from all elected officials is, this kind of hyperbolic extremism has consequences and it must end,” he continued. “Yes, we’re all shocked, and yes, political violence has no place. Where does it come from? It’s got to stop.”
Blitzer countered that Trump has also spoken “very strongly” against President Joe Biden.
“But we’re also hearing from Trump very, very strong statements of condemnation of Biden, ‘the worst president,’ ‘the most dangerous president,’ and all of that,” Blitzer responded. “He’s speaking very, very strongly against President Biden.”
“Who’s in the hospital?” Jennings shot back.
“You say calm things down,” Blitzer said. “I agree both sides should calm down.”
Later in the evening, Blitzer repeated his call saying, “Clearly the rhetoric on both sides has to calm down.”
On CBS, anchor Margaret Brennan questioned why Trump had not asked his supporters not to retaliate after the shooting.
“He is recovering from these injuries now. This was a traumatic event no doubt for him,” Brennan said.
“But I did notice there was no call for lowering the temperature, condemning all political violence, and really trying to signal to his supporters as well not to retaliate or to have any kind of escalation here,” she said.
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