House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and three others were shot Wednesday morning, while they practiced for their annual congressional Republican vs. Democrat baseball game — an event that raises a half million dollars for charity. The assault occurred in a “gun-free zone” in Alexandria, Virginia. Though Rep. Scalise remains in critical condition, Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner, congressional aide Zack Barth, and bystander Matt Mika are recovering. The assailant was killed by Scalise’s security detail.

According to Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), he spoke with the man later identified as the assailant, just prior to the attack: “A guy approaches me when I’m right there at [my] car and says, ‘Excuse me, sir, who’s practicing today, Democrats or Republicans?’ I said, ‘This is a Republican team,’ and he said ‘K, thanks.’” In the assessment of Rep. Mike Walker (R-NC), the assailant was “there to kill as many Republican members as possible.” My friend and district Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, who was also on the field, concurred.

After almost six minutes, two Capitol Police officers, David Bailey and Crystal Griner, who were assigned to the security detail for Rep. Scalise, were able to get into position and fatally shoot the assailant. Had Rep. Scalise not been there, the security detail would not have been there, and this assault would have ended with many congressional fatalities. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), an Army Reserve combat physician who served in Iraq, provided immediate assistance to Rep. Scalise in the aftermath of the assault. “I’m glad I was there,” said Wenstrup, “but it’s a sad day in America, that’s for sure.”

The assailant was identified as James Hodgkinson of Illinois. He was an unhinged leftist — like a growing number of that ilk. His social media cover page features a photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Hodgkinson was a campaign worker for Sanders and one of Barack Obama’s “99%"ers. His profile touts the "virtues” of Democratic Socialism.

Sanders issued a statement condemning the assault: “[Hodgkinson] volunteered on my presidential campaign. I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.”

Sanders did not mention the 2011 fundraising appeal he issued after Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in Tucson — 12 others were also shot and six killed. Then, according to Sanders: “This horrendous act of violence is not some kind of strange aberration for this area where, it appears, threats and acts of violence are part of the political climate. Nobody can honestly express surprise that such a tragedy finally occurred. …Sarah Palin, on her website, placed [Giffords’] district in the cross-hairs of a rifle — and identified her by name below the image — as an encouragement to Palin supporters to eliminate her from Congress.”

In other words, Sanders was fundraising on the blood of innocents by blaming Palin for inspiring the assault — before the blood had dried — because she had a website post targeting certain Democrat districts for Republican victories… As a reminder, the assailant in that assault was actually another unhinged leftists who was psychiatrically deranged. That notwithstanding, before the blood had dried in Alexandria, the fake news propagators at The New York Times editorialized that “the link to political incitement was clear” in the Giffords assault but not in the Alexandria assault. That assertion was recycled from a thoroughly debunked Times fake news report from 2011 making the same claim.

For the record, the Alexandria assailant posted this social media message: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.” The Demo/MSM will dance around it, but Hodgkinson’s motives were abundantly clear — and their incessant inflammatory rhetoric has already led to violence against conservatives nationwide. While Hodgkinson pulled the trigger, there was, arguably, “collusion” by way of inspiration from Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and their angry Leftmedia outlets. This was not “gun violence.” This was inspired political violence.

Soon after the first media reports of the assault, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), received an email threat parroting the same socialist rhetoric that inspired Hodgkinson: “One down, 216 [Republicans] to go. Did you NOT expect this? When you take away ordinary peoples [sic] very lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forfeit. Certainly, your souls and morality were lost long before. Good riddance.” We note that in New York City this week, there is a Central Park play promoting the assassination of Donald Trump…

Typical of some of the East Coast media echo-chambers after the Alexandria assault, was this assertion from National Review’s otherwise erudite blogger, Jim Geraghty: “Impassioned Political Speech Doesn’t Turn Anyone Into a Killer.” To that assumption I would respond that Geraghty and likeminded commentators who insist that words can’t inspire violence are in denial about the power of words for psychological indoctrination. I would refer them to Islamic radicalization via words and videos on the Internet, which have been directly linked to jihadi attacks in the U.S. and around the world.

Of course, most mainstream “impassioned political speech” in the U.S. does not advocate murder. Most. But the increasing instance of political violence in the U.S. is commensurate with the increasing tenor of hateful political rhetoric. Obviously I’m not advocating a “commissar of commentary” to censor political speech — leftists are already demonstrating their mastery of censorship across the nation by rioting and other acts of violence to shut down speech that does not comport with their political views. But for any commentator to suggest people are not influenced by words leads me to question, “Then why do you keep writing them…?” (I should add here, that because words DO matter, Donald Trump does his agenda no favors by posting inane and inflammatory social media posts – feeding the leftmedia feeds their leftist cadres.)

The indisputable fact is, that Democrats and their Leftmedia loudspeakers have inspired the “rule or ruin” tactics we are now witnessing with greater — and greater violence. It is no small irony that Hillary Clinton and her billionaire socialist benefactor George Soros are behind the so-called “resistance movement” opposing any and all conservatives — ironic because the Resistance in WWII was fighting the National Socialist German Workers’ Party — the fascist NAZIs. Today, Clinton’s leftist minions look and act much more like fascists than freedom fighters.

Finally and predictably, the Demo-gogues and their Demo/MSM propaganda machine will attempt to blame-shift the inspiration for this attack from their rhetoric to the need for more “gun control,” a key part of their perennial efforts to undermine the Second Amendment assurance of Liberty.

Indeed, within an hour of the assault, Demo Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared, “There are too many guns on the street.” Notably, McAuliffe repeatedly declared that 93 million people are murdered with guns every day. I’m not sure what data he’s been reading…

(This article was revised and updated.)