“The View” hosts react to Donald Trump shooting: Real threat 'wasn’t a drag queen, it wasn’t an immigrant'

Ana Navarro spoke out against a "20-year-old, lone wolf, white whackjob with easy access to a gun," while Joy Behar said the suspect's ammunition purchase should've been reported.

Days after a suspected shooter attempted Saturday to assassinate former United States President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, the ladies of The View have weighed in on what stands to be one an impactful moment in recent political history.

"Thank God that the former president is okay," said Alyssa Farah Griffin — who previously worked for Trump's communications team — at the top of Monday's live show. "I think it's a moment for reflection on the tone and tenor of our politics. One thing that's fundamentally American is our right to criticize policies and the character of our politicians, but the way in which we do it matters. We live in an era where escalatory rhetoric and saying the most damning and inciting thing often is what's rewarded. It's incumbent on all of us to check how we engage."

Griffin, 35, a frequent Trump critic, also told her cohosts that information warfare online and, in particular, on social media can "validate the worst" feelings in us all regarding politicians and policies, and that "it's tearing us apart from within."

Ana Navarro, The View's second Republican seat-holder who also regularly criticizes Trump on the air, said that she's "very happy Donald Trump is safe" and that, as someone who previously fled Nicaragua over political turmoil, she condemns "all forms of political violence" around the world.

"To me, this is not something that's supposed to happen in America. I felt the same way I did watching Jan. 6," the 52-year-old said, adding that "we can't just react when it's our side" that's victimized.

"It was a 20-year-old, lone wolf, white whackjob with easy access to a gun, and we have to have a conversation about that," Navarro speculated, outlining other vulnerable groups that she feels conservatives target through policy and rhetoric. "It wasn't a drag queen, it wasn't an immigrant, it wasn't a pissed off liberal woman. This keeps happening. We need to react, not as left or right, as Republicans or Democrats, we need to react as Americans and we need to ask better."

Echoing Navarro's sentiment, Joy Behar questioned the suspected shooter's reported actions before Saturday's rally. "Shouldn't that be reported? A 20-year-old white guy? We've seen that many times now, young white men with guns, and nobody reported that he bought 50 rounds of ammunition?"

Related: Joy Behar slams George Clooney for calling for Joe Biden to step down: 'I'm mad at George Clooney right now'

Griffin previously expressed her disdain for the attempted assassination, writing on X: "I feel sick that someone would do this. Political violence is NEVER the answer," and additionally thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement "for intervening" in the situation.

At around 6:11 p.m. ET Saturday, the ex-president's rally just outside Pittsburgh became the focus of global headlines, after the suspected shooter opened fire, leaving two people dead — including the reported gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa.

A "suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue" where the presumptive Republican nominee was speaking in Butler, Pa., on Saturday evening, according to the Secret Service. The agency reported that Trump is "safe and being evaluated," while one spectator was killed, and two more were critically injured.

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Trump later said that he was "shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear" and that "much bleeding took place."

The incident rocked the 2024 presidential election cycle, four months before Trump will face off against Joe Biden at the polls in November. Trump and Biden's matchup is already fraught with tension on both sides of the political aisle, over both Trump's controversial ideologies and Biden's fitness to remain in office. Many top Democrats, celebrities, and influential figures have called for Biden to bow out of the race following his performance at the June 27 debate — including View cohosts Griffin and Sara Haines, as well as George Clooney, who last week wrote a New York Times op-ed calling for Biden to step down.

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.