Political Rhetoric Under Scrutiny After DC Dinner Shooting
NASHVILLE — Calls to lower the temperature of political rhetoric renewed after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night that left one officer injured.
President Donald Trump and other cabinet members were whisked from the ballroom of the Washington Hilton by Secret Service personnel shortly after shots were fired at approximately 8:36 p.m. Guests had just finished their salads. The president and First Lady Melania Trump were seated at their table on the dais, being shown a trick by the night’s slated entertainment, mentalist Oz Pearlman.
An impromptu news briefing held later provided an unusual look, with the president speaking in a tuxedo and journalists still gathered in their formal wear. Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he was “really going to let it rip” in his original speech. In the White House briefing room, though, he struck a more conciliatory tone.
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“In light of this evening’s events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully,” Trump said. “… We had Republicans, Democrats, Independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives … in that room … and there was a tremendous amount of love [afterwards]. I watched, and I was very, very impressed by that.”
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Interim President Gary Hollingsworth described the “latest instance of political violence” as “deeply disturbing.”
“We are grateful for the swift response of the Secret Service and other law enforcement to ensure that no one was seriously injured,” he said. “Please join me in praying that our nation’s leaders would have a unified burden to call our country to a better way of relating to one another, even amidst our political differences.”
Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., traveled across the country by train before checking into the Washington Hilton. As a guest, he received access others would not and placed him in closer proximity to the ballroom. Family members who received a manifesto from him shortly before the shootings alerted law enforcement.
The writings pointed at Trump and his cabinet, stating intentions to kill as many of them as possible.
This was the third attempt on the president’s life. Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pa., while on the campaign trail in July 2024.
Two months later, the Secret Service identified, shot at and later apprehended a man holding a firearm in shrubbery along a West Palm Beach golf course, where the president was playing.
But there have been other close calls. At a campaign rally in June 2016, Trump was speaking in Las Vegas when a man attempted to grab a police officer’s service pistol in an attempt to shoot Trump.
Two months ago, Secret Service officers shot a man at the president’s private residence, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., when he entered a gate on the property carrying a gas can and shotgun. Agents shot the man when he pointed the shotgun at them.
Denny Burk, professor of Biblical studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the level of hatred for the president at “an irrational and undemocratic boiling point” that is “activating fringe elements on the left to political violence.”
“What is going on in our nation right now that political violence is becoming more and more common – and that more and more people seem to think it justified? Or at least plausible?” he asked.
“… Politics matter, but they are not ultimate,” Burk added. “Nor can they fix what is fundamentally broken about the human condition.”
Burk’s boss at Southern, SBTS President Albert Mohler, echoed Trump’s observations in today’s episode of The Briefing.
“When life and death were hanging in the balance, it is interesting how many other issues, at least for a time, lost in terms of their ranking of significance. And there were some amazingly candid statements made by very liberal journalists and very conservative members of the Trump administration about how much they appreciated each other at that moment, and how they basically looked out for each other at that moment.
“And that’s exactly how we should expect human beings to act.”
Hollingsworth urged others to make the event something that points others to the Gospel.
“As believers, we know that none of this catches the Lord by surprise,” he said. “He uses even the worst circumstances to draw people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and to growth in Christlikeness.
“Join me in praying to this end. As Southern Baptists, may the way we behave in the public square be set apart and serve as an open door to share the reason for the hope we have in Jesus.”
This article was originally published by Baptist Press.
Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.