Johnson and McConnell urge Harris to stop using rhetoric that could lead to assassination attempts

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday issued a joint statement that urged Vice President Kamala Harris to stop using rhetoric that could lead to additional assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.

Trump has already survived two assassination plots so far. The first occurred at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer, where the former president was shot in the ear. The second was thwarted by Secret Service at a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, near Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. No shots went off in Florida, but the alleged attacker was onsite with a weapon.

The warning comes after Harris made an inflammatory speech at the Naval Observatory on Wednesday, where she claimed Trump would "invoke" Adolf Hitler if he returns to the White House. 

“This summer, after the first attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in more than a century, President Biden insisted that ‘we can’t allow this violence to be normalized,'" the lawmakers said. "In September, after President Trump escaped yet another close call, Vice President Harris acknowledged that ‘we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.'

“These words have proven hollow," they continued. "In the weeks since that second sobering reminder, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States has only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus. Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over."

Harris' address was in response to a recent interview with former White House chief of staff John Kelly, in which he claimed Trump had said he wanted generals who were loyal to him like Hitler had. Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and other allies have denied that the former president made the comment.

The GOP leaders urged Harris to scale back the rhetoric if she hoped to become the leader of the country, and noted that Trump was still facing threats from foreign actors overseas.

“Vice President Harris may want the American people to entrust her with the sacred duty of executive authority,"  the lawmakers said. "But first, she must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions.

"We have both been briefed on the ongoing and persistent threats to Trump by adversaries to the United States, and we call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats," they added.

Harris responded to the statement in a comment to The Hill, by observing that she does not condone violence, including political violence, but said Americans need to be aware of the "dangers" Trump poses to the country if elected.

"The American people deserve to be presented with facts and the truth," Harris said. "The fact and the truth is that some of the people closest to Donald Trump when he was president, generals, including, most recently, John Kelly, a four star marine general, have been very clear about the danger and the threat that Donald Trump poses to America and the fact that he is unfit to serve."

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.