Last weekend's attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner reignited the liberal media's political rhetoric/violence blame game, as they looked to pin it all on Donald Trump and the right, of course. That M.O. was in full swing on the opening segment of CNN's The Arena Saturday.
Host Kasie Hunt and her panel presented a totally one-sided 10-minute segment that began with a question designed to attack Donald Trump.
HUNT: Is rhetoric to blame for political violence? And if so, whose fault is it? The attack on the White House Correspondents Dinner has kicked off this same debate.... And once again, the blame game is on.
It was on all right, with a predetermined winner. Next came some short clips from the New Yorkers.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: There is a level of rhetoric that is too far, right. We would never say someone should commit an act of violence.
HOUSE MINORITY LEADER HAKEEM JEFFRIES: And this so-called White House Press Secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. Get lost. Clean up your own house, before you have anything to say to us.
A most interesting choice of Democrats for Hunt to highlight on the issue of violent rhetoric. Back in January of 2025, Jeffries declared that Democrats will 'fight' the Trump agenda 'in the streets', which many called a 'Maxine Waters moment', a reference to the Congresswoman's 2018 urging of people to go after members of the first Trump administration. They were just spinning him out of suggesting "maximum warfare all the time" on gerrymandering.
As for AOC, back in 2019, she told a New York radio show that marginalized communities "have no choice but to riot." Of course Hunt made no mention of any of this, and soon CNN's Jamal Simmons (former comms director for Vice President Kamala Harris) weighed in, and the attacks on Trump began.
SIMMONS: We've got to tamp down the rhetoric. The rhetoric has gotten too hot. And the President, United States, made excuses after he made jokes about Paul Pelosi being hit by a hammer, who was Nancy Pelosi's husband.
Simmons made no mention of the fact that two days after the attack on Pelosi, Trump called the attack a "terrible thing." Simmons went on to cite Trump's pardoning of those convicted for January 6th, and his early support of ICE Agents involved in the Minneapolis shootings, as examples of promoting violence. And then, when it was Republican Shermichael Singleton's turn, who tried to exit the blame game, although he said it was easy.
SINGLETON: Look, there's also violence and rhetoric that's been legitimized on the other side. Now, I don't want to do the both sides thing because I can easily just do what Jamal just did.
SIMMONS: Name the times that Democrats-
SINGLETON: Folks on the left have done X, Y, and Z. I'm not going to use this moment to do that, because that's a part of the problem.
Simmons then attacked Trump again, before Hunt took over, bringing up Pelosi again.
SIMMONS: I do not believe that broad brush most Republicans excuse violence that when it occurs, there's a particular Republican who does it. That is the problem.
HUNT: As far as the President of the United States is concerned, he said, quote, we'll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco, how's her husband doing, anybody know? And then, of course, there was the incident where there were horrible attacks on state legislators in Minnesota and the message from the President was not sympathy.
In fact, after the June 2025 shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers, where one was killed, Trump posted on Truth Social, "“Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America.”
Hunt would then bring up Trump's questionable attempt to show how strong his supporters backed him in the 2016 race.
HUNT: It's also worth also reflecting on what the President said when he was first running for this office, which was that the people who supported him did so, so fervently that he could walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot someone. This is the imagery he brings into the conversation, and they would still be with him.
Hunt did not mention that when Barack Obama was running for President in 2008, while speaking at a fundraiser, he reportedly said, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."
She did not mention Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who in 2019 proclaimed that his testosterone sometimes makes him want to punch Trump. Nor did she mention the aforementioned comments from Maxine Waters, or Joe Biden twice saying that he wished he could take Trump out beyond the school gym and beat the hell out of him.
This segment was designed to be bash and blame Donald Trump alone for all violent political rhetoric and actions, and so it was a normal Saturday on CNN, assassination attempts be damned.
