Trump officials point finger at Democrats and the media for political violence in wake of correspondents' dinner shooting

Trump administrationTrump officials point finger at Democrats and the media for political violence in wake of correspondents' dinner shootingThe president struck a conciliatory tone Saturday night, but officials in his administration later accused news outlets and Democrats of fueling divisive rhetoric.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Trump administration officials on Monday went after Democrats and the media.Tasos Katopodis / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 27, 2026, 8:28 PM EDTBy Raquel Coronell UribePresident Donald Trump’s mollifying tone following Saturday night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has since given way to accusations and finger-pointing from top administration officials who say Democrats and the media are largely to blame for the state of political violence in the U.S.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, White House communications director Steven Cheung and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday bashed journalists and congressional Democrats for what they called divisive rhetoric.“The political violence and rhetoric has got to stop,” Blanche said, while suggesting that many members of the media had been complicit.“Many people in this room, if we’re going to be honest about it, have done it,” Blanche said to a room full of reporters. “They’re just as guilty as a lot of people on X when you have reporters, when you have media, media just being overly critical and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, without proof.”Cheung said in a statement to NBC News about Trump's future campaign travel plans that the president "continues to have a robust schedule and nothing will ever deter him from delivering historic wins for the American people. The violent rhetoric from deranged liberals and biased media outlets against the President manifested itself on Saturday night.”And Leavitt said during the daily press briefing that “this political violence stems from a systemic demonization of [Trump] and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat party and even some in the media.""This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,” she added.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during the daily press briefing at the White House on Monday.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesTheir remarks stood in sharp contrast to how Trump spoke to reporters in the White House briefing room shortly after the shooting, when he called on “all Americans to recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully. We have to resolve our differences.”“I will say you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, and progressives. Those words are interchangeable, perhaps, but maybe they’re not. But yet everybody in that room, big crowd, record-setting crowd, there was a record-setting group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched and I was very, very impressed by that,” Trump said.He added that he had initially planned on tearing into the press during his planned dinner remarks, but that things changed after the shooting incident."I don’t know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight.…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at NBC News Politics.