Jen Psaki, President Joe Biden’s one-time White House press secretary, is facing harsh criticism after demanding that Republicans tone down the “rhetoric” following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
One day after the horrific incident, Psaki appeared on the NBC program “Meet the Press.” She made comments that angered many Republicans, saying that the onus was on them to stop all the anger and rage in the country.
As she said:
“One thing for all of us to remember is it may not feel paused tomorrow or Tuesday, and part of that is because the [Republican National Convention] is starting and unless the programming changes, the rhetoric and how the programming is set up is not actually calming the tone or restoring civility.
“We’ll see if that programming changes, but if it stays the same, that is escalating it. It is not a civil approach to a convention.”
Immediately, users took to social media to blast Psaki for making those comments. Their response was very similar to that of Trump’s family members, who criticized liberal press outlets for them downplaying the assassination attempt.
One user on the social media platform X wrote:
“Jen Psaki said the Repubs have created a ‘tone,’ but it is Biden & Dems who have called Trump a Nazi, a rapist, a felon, a terrorist. They have called MAGA supporters domestic terrorists & cult members. Biden promised unity but instead incited violence & division.”
Psaki tried to turn the tide on her initial comments by calling for calm and unity. She said:
“For anyone out there who has a platform who thinks the moment right now is to be political and attack the other party — you are feeding into the danger. You are making it more likely there’s retaliation. I’m incredibly scared. I’m scared for journalists. I’m scared for people who have public platforms of all parties.”
Stephen Miller, a conservative commentator, even called her out for those comments, though, saying:
“She just all lives mattered an assassination attempt on the Republican nominee.”
Republicans have lambasted NBC, The New York Times and CNN — all historically liberal news organizations — for how they reacted to the assassination attempt.
The Times, in particular, took a rather distasteful approach, running an op-ed the morning after the assassination attempt called “Donald Trump Is Unfit To Lead.” In it, the author encouraged people to “reject him in November.”
The op-ed itself isn’t particularly outrageous or even unexpected, but the timing of its publication certainly is. It becomes even more so when you take into consideration that the article was printed on a backlit silhouette of the side profile of Trump, with the title page also reading: “He failed the tests of leadership and betrayed America.”
On X, Donald Trump Jr. called out CNN, saying the media outlet is “vile” and “a disgrace” for the coverage they’ve given to the incident, which happened during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
