Jake Tapper’s voice breaks as he speaks on CNN about the Trump assassination

CNN host Jake Tapper delivered an impassioned monologue on Sunday condemning the current era of political violence in the United States, branding it “repulsive and un-American” after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.

“I keep hearing from politicians this morning that political violence has no place in America,” Tapper said on State of the Nationhis voice broke as he spoke. “If only that were true. We live in an era of political violence.”

Tapper reported on the violent attacks on national politicians over the past decade, including the 2011 shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the 2017 attack on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), and the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which was aimed at herself, among other unsuccessful attempts.

“There is something troubling the American psyche,” Tapper said. “Too many Americans right now view those with whom they disagree as enemies to be avoided, banished, marginalized, threatened with violence, or even inflicted upon themselves.”

He also rebuked those who mocked the attack on Trump online, arguing that it only fueled the cycle of political division. “We demand in the strongest possible terms that this election and all of our political differences must be decided by ballots and votes, not bullets, and that this rhetoric of dehumanization must stop,” Tapper said.

“There is no place for political violence in America?” he continued. “I wish that were true.”