Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Wednesday blamed violence from “the Left” for the baseball practice shooting in Alexandria, Virginia.
“America has been divided,” King said at the scene of the crime Wednesday morning, according to the Washington Post. “And the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the Left.”
The shooter was identified as James T. Hodgkinson, who was a campaign volunteer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and appeared to be politically opposed to President Trump.
Republican lawmakers said Hodgkinson asked whether Republicans or Democrats were practicing on the field early Wednesday morning, and opened fire a few minutes after being told they were Republicans.
Other Republican lawmakers agreed that Hodgkinson appeared to be motivated by the desire to kill Republicans.
Other conservatives accused the media of playing down Hodgkinson’s apparent political motives. Rush Limbaugh, for example, accused CNN of not being interested in his possible motives.
