Reactions continue to pour in from across the country following Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
It also includes reactions from North Texas-based political leaders, who share how they think the tragedy in Butler County will impact the country just months before Election Day.
It was a moment in American history: The attack at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday was the first mass shooting of a sitting or former U.S. president in more than four decades, leaving one bystander dead and two seriously injured.
NBC News reported Monday that investigators found more than a dozen guns in the home of the suspected shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, and that the FBI had access to Crooks’ cell phone, but a motive for the assassination attempt has not been made clear.
“It’s still a shocking, shocking case,” Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said, “Obviously, I think what strikes me the most is the man who lost his life. The devastation is immeasurable.”
O’Hare told NBC5 he plans to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
He believes the attack underscores the need to tone down political rhetoric nationwide, and he expects former President Trump to repeat the same message when he accepts his party’s presidential nomination on Thursday.
“Enough is enough. We are all Americans. Let’s come together,” O’Hare said. “I think people will pick up on that message and I think it will be received very well.”
Democratic Rep. Mark Veasey also condemned the attack and called for de-escalating national political tensions.
“We need to be able to have a republic where people can express different opinions without violence,” said Veasey, who represents TX-33.
On July 4, Veasey told NBC 5 that Democrats are discussing the possibility of nominating someone other than Joe Biden for president.
Today, Veasey said that situation has changed.
“I think he’s going to stay and he’s not going to back down,” Veasey said. “So it’s going to be a repeat of 2020 and it’s going to be Trump versus Biden.”
The Tarrant County judge told NBC 5 he plans to start Tuesday’s commission meeting with a call to refrain from political discussions in upcoming meetings.
