The Republican National Committee (RNC) is condemning the silence of the Democratic candidates for Arizona's 1st congressional district in the wake of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and other White House officials at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend.
The shooter has been confirmed as Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. He allegedly stormed a security checkpoint with a shotgun, handgun, and several knives before being apprehended by the Secret Service, although Allen reportedly struck an agent's bulletproof vest.
Among the Democrats primarying to fill Representative David Schweikert's (R-AZ) seat as he runs for Governor, Amish Shah, Marlene Galan-Woods, and Jonathan Treble are being targeted by the RNC due to their silence about the shooting.
RNC spokesman Nick Poche suggested that their silence is not surprising, as Shah, Galan-Woods, and Treble are each accused of using inflammatory rhetoric against President Donald Trump and Republicans in the past.
In December, Shah posted footage from a town hall event on social media with the caption, "Every week, I hear the same thing from folks across our community: the cost of living is squeezing families, and the extreme turn toward autocracy and fascism has no place in Arizona."
In February, after the State of the Union address, Treble quoted Trump as saying, "the state of the union is strong," and replying, "This is not strength, it's fascism."
Galan-Woods, meanwhile, had called for Trump's arrest in 2022, claimed "women will not be safe with Trump or his extremist cronies" in 2024, and in 2021 called Wendy Rogers "horrifying" and that "we need to stop people like this."
"After spewing hateful rhetoric against President Trump and Republicans, Amish Shah, Marlene-Galan Woods, and Jonathan Treble's silence on yet another assassination attempt against the president is disgusting," said Poche in a statement. "They need to take a look in the mirror, own up to dangerously raising the temperature and condemn left-wing political violence."
