Scalise Tells Pritzker to Check Own Rhetoric After Blaming Trump for Political Violence

House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., urged Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to examine his own rhetoric after Pritzker blamed President Donald Trump for creating a climate that tolerates political violence.

"Governor Pritzker needs to look at the man in the mirror, and that's where it needs to start," Scalise told "Hannity" on Tuesday. "Stop the inciteful rhetoric that he and others like him are using deliberately. They know what they're doing – it needs to stop."

Scalise, who survived a shooting attack himself, delivered the message following Pritzker's comments in a Politico interview.

"Our leaders set the tone in this country, and I think that the President of the United States has set a tone where political violence is okay. He’s advocated it himself before," Pritzker told the outlet.

In 2017, Scalise was shot in the hip during an attack on Republican lawmakers practicing in Virginia for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. The injuries left him without blood pressure or a pulse when he arrived in Washington by helicopter.

Scalise criticized Pritzker's inflammatory descriptions of Trump, noting that the president has faced multiple assassination attempts.

"Literally days into Donald Trump's second term, he was comparing the president to Hitler and to Nazis, and he does this over and over again. He said, Republicans, remember that, Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. What does he mean by that?" Scalise said.

Pritzker's remarks followed a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. The shooter listed Trump administration officials as targets in his manifesto, excluding FBI Director Kash Patel.

"He wants to try to blame Republicans when it's the right that is being attacked by the left over and again," Scalise said.

The Illinois governor has repeatedly likened Trump's governance to that of Nazis and Adolf Hitler in Germany during World War II.

"Many of those attempted assassins on Donald Trump have regurgitated those very same words — ‘Nazi, threat to democracy’—that people like Governor Pritzker used when they tried to kill the president. So they need to stop doing it," Scalise told host Sean Hannity.

Scalise argued that Democratic rhetoric increasingly targets Republicans. He warned that the party's far-left wing has taken control and called for voters to act in November.

"People need to vote this November because that is the kind of methodology and ideology that wants to take back over. We can't let it happen," he said.