(NewsNation) — Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said that the attempt to kill former President Donald Trump is “searing and traumatic” given his own experience with an attempted assassination.
Trump is unharmed after a bullet grazed his ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The incident is being investigated as an assassination attempt after the suspected shooter was killed by the Secret Service. One rally attendee was killed and two were critically injured.
Kucinich who is running for Congress as an independent vying for his old congressional seat told NewsNation on Sunday that political violence “can wreck this nation.”
Kucinich praised Trump for calling for unity, saying the incident “strikes at the heart of our Constitution” and “attacks our religious faith.”
Kucinich served as Cleveland mayor in the late 1970s and then in Congress from 1997-2012, but lost a primary to Rep. Marcy Kaptur after redistricting in the state.
The former mayor who faced an assassination plot emphasized the traumatic nature of such attempts. He urged Americans to “lower the decibel” and “open up our hearts to the potential of America again.”
He invoked President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, suggesting its message of “malice towards none and charity for all” could help lead the nation forward in this time of crisis.
Kucinich also stressed that “violent deeds are the offspring of violent thoughts and violent words,” calling for national restraint in rhetoric.
NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.
