Rep. Peter King said Friday that President Donald Trump must work to diffuse the bitterly partisan divide across the country that led an Illinois man to fire gunshots at Republican lawmakers in a Virginia ballpark on Wednesday.
"It is important for the president to help turn this around, all of us in the public eye, those of us who are on television, radio – namely, our nation's leaders," the New York Republican told Martha MacCallum on Fox News.
"The president have to find a way to make your points forcefully, articulately, but within reason."
King said that the attack in Alexandria, Va., was even more frightening after news reports Friday that James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill., who died from wounds sustained in a gun battle with authorities, had a list targeting certain House Republicans.
The shooting early Wednesday during a GOP practice for a charity baseball game left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana in critical condition, while wounding three others.
"It makes it more terrifying to realize how specific it was," King said told MacCallum. "There are people who are carrying things to extremes – and it doesn't set off a psychopaths like this.
"When you disrupt meetings, when you start fires on campus – that goes beyond legitimate political debate," he added. "That's what sets off people off like this."
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