The attempted assassination of Donald Trump by a gunman at his Pennsylvania rally has confirmed the worst fears of public figures warning that an escalation in incendiary political rhetoric on all sides could lead to bloodshed.

US lawmakers and analysts have been voicing concern since the 2021 US Capitol riot that increasingly bellicose campaign language was becoming a worrying contusion on the US body politic ahead of November's presidential election.

The danger was vividly illustrated in 2022, when then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked with a hammer by a far-right conspiracy theorist who wanted to hold the Democratic leader hostage and "break her kneecaps."

The political affiliations of Saturday's shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, were not immediately clear -- but analysts and politicians immediately pointed the finger at extreme political discourse.

"For weeks Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America," House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was seriously wounded in a mass shooting at a........

© International Business Times