Days after an armed man stormed the White House Correspondents Dinner, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed a finger at Democrats, including some prominent Massachusetts lawmakers, and alleged without evidence that they incited violence against President Trump.
The comments she alluded to described Trump as “a wannabe dictator” and a fascist, and encouraged people to protest, but did not call for acts of violence.
During a press briefing on Monday, Leavitt said that “crazed rhetoric about the president” from members of the Democratic Party inspire violence like what was seen on Saturday, when a man tried to storm the correspondents dinner. Authorities have charged the suspect with the attempted assassination of Trump.
Leavitt’s examples included comments by Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. Leavitt also quoted Representative Ayanna Pressley of Boston.
“These are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years, and so many mentally perturbed individuals are led to believe these words are truth and then are inspired to act on it,” Leavitt said.
Markey responded to Leavitt’s criticism on Instagram, saying that his statement calling Trump a “wannabe dictator” and that his administration was “authoritarianism on steroids” was not a “call for violence, it’s a statement of fact.”
“The only one calling for violence in the United States is Donald Trump as he sends his ICE agents in to terrorize our communities,” Markey added in the post.
Trump, who after Saturday’s shooting called for unity, has a long history of using violent rhetoric against his opponents. Earlier this month, Trump faced criticism from both Democrats and conservatives for threatening to kill a “whole civilization” in a social media post directed at Iran.
During his third campaign, he warned there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost the election. He has also continued to describe migrants in derogatory terms, including claims that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
In November, Trump suggested several Democrats deserved to be put to death for a video in which they urged service members and intelligence officials to refrain from following orders if they broke the law.
“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand - We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET.”
Warren’s statement quoted by Leavitt — “Trump is making this nation look more and more like a fascist state” — was from a speech the senator gave last June, after Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was forcefully removed from a press conference held by former Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem.
Leavitt quoted Pressley on Monday with saying, “We’ll see you in the streets.” In a press release on Tuesday, the White House also noted Pressley’s past statements calling Trump a “dictator.”
“When you have people in positions of power that are saying things like this, every single day for years, you are inspiring violence by people who are already mentally ill,” Leavitt added.
In a statement to the Globe Thursday, a spokesperson for Pressley noted Trump’s past comments that “called for the execution of Democratic lawmakers” and “emboldened ICE agents to kill our neighbors in the street.”
“Republicans should stop pearl-clutching and building ballrooms and focus on the problem, which is the crisis of gun violence that they’ve done nothing to address,” the spokesperson added.
On Sunday, Pressley posted on X that she was “relieved” that no one seriously harmed in the shooting that “Violence in any form is unacceptable & I condemn it fully.”
Kaitlin Lewis can be reached at Kaitlin.Lewis@globe.com. Follow her on X @kblewey.