Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Newsmax that the failed assassination attempt against President Donald Trump at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night shows a need for a ballroom at the White House to hold large events.
Stutzman told Newsmax's "Bianca Across the Nation" on Tuesday: "This is about security."
He said he was at a table with other elected leaders when the attack at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner disrupted the event and sent people diving for cover. "I was actually at the same table with Sen. Jackie Rosen, Democrat from Nevada, and she's even mentioning, too, that there should be a process to look at building a ballroom there at the White House."
He said the event and the gunman's attack put security at the Hilton in the spotlight. "The security that we went through getting into the ballroom was as lax as I've ever seen it. It's harder to get into the Cannon Building where I'm at, and the office building on Capitol Hill, than it was to get into that event the other night."
Stutzman said Democrats who oppose spending for a White House ballroom should reconsider. "It's not just about this particular president, which I wish we had something in place now for security for President Trump, but it's about the next president and the president after that."
"Democrats need to remember," said Stutzman, "that there will be a Democrat president again someday, and that they're going to be using that same particular ballroom once it's built. I don't think it should just be a suggestion at this point. It should be a requirement."
The Indiana Republican also blamed left-wing rhetoric for fueling the hatred that prompts some into violence. "The list is getting long on the right, of people that have been shot and attacked. And so, I think that they need to remember, they need to dial it down and not push this rhetoric about a Hitler, a Nazi, a pedophile, a rapist, all these other things that they continue to call President Trump. They're stoking these crazy people into doing something like this."
He said he hopes liberal politicians who want to fight Trump remember what they felt when they too dove to the floor at that dinner. "There was a moment there that everybody was, while we were on the floor, because we didn't know where the shots were exactly going, we were all unified in this vulnerability."
The White House on Tuesday sharply condemned Democrat leaders and rhetoric from the political left following what the administration labeled as another attempted assassination targeting President Donald Trump over the weekend.
Saturday's incident at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner marked the third known attempt against Trump in less than two years, raising alarm inside the White House about what it describes as an increasingly dangerous political climate.
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Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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