U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued a rare joint statement Friday, calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to stop her "irresponsible rhetoric" aimed at former President Donald Trump.
The two GOP Congressional leaders added that Harris' comments help to escalate "the threat environment" around Trump, who has been the victim of two failed assassination attempts in recent months.
Harris, during a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, said she agreed with Trump's former chief of staff, John Kelly, that the Republican presidential nominee met the definition of a fascist.
"Vice President Harris may want the American people to entrust her with the sacred duty of executive authority. But first, she must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions," Johnson and McConnell said in their statement.
"We have both been briefed on the ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump by adversaries to the United States, and we call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats."
The House speaker and Senate minority leader cited that President Joe Biden, after the attack on Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, insisted that "we can't allow this violence to be normalized," and Harris acknowledged that "we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence."
"These words have proven hollow," Johnson and McConnell said. "In the weeks since that second sobering reminder, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States has only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus. Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President's words more closely resemble those of President Trump's second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.
"The man who was caught waiting in ambush in Florida left others with a chilling call to arms: 'It is up to you now to finish the job'. Labeling a political opponent as a ‘fascist,’ risks inviting yet another would-be assassin to try robbing voters of their choice before Election Day."