Alex Padilla blames first Trump campaign for igniting political tensions in wake of Minnesota shootings
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., suggested on Sunday that President Donald Trump's original campaign was responsible for raising political tensions to the point of the weekend shooting of two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses.
On CBS' "Face the Nation," host Margaret Brennan asked Padilla, who is a ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, if there have been any new discussions on security measures for lawmakers.
Padilla said there were "a lot of concerns" in the wake of the shooting, but he was more interested in discussing how they got to this point.
"I think it's more than appropriate to step back and say, why are tensions so high? Not just in Los Angeles but throughout the country," Padilla said. "And I can't help but point to the beginning of not just the first Trump term, but the beginning of the campaign, the tone with which the president had launched his first campaign for president, served throughout his first term, and continues in this term."
Monday marks the 10-year anniversary of Trump announcing his run for president on June 16, 2015.
Padilla went on to use himself being forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference in Los Angeles last week as an example of the Trump administration's escalating political tensions in plain sight.
"For a cabinet secretary during a press conference to not be able or be willing to deescalate a situation when I was trying to ask a question, that's just indicative of the tone of the administration," Padilla said.
State Rep. Melissa Hortman, a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), and her husband, Mark Hortman, were fatally shot in Brooklyn Park on Saturday. In a related shooting, DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot in Champlin. They are expected to survive and are out of surgery.
At a press briefing, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Hortman and her husband's shooting was a "politically motivated assassination."
"This was an act of targeted political violence," Walz said. "Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle their differences with violence or at gunpoint in the state of Minnesota."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
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