White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats and liberal media personalities for radicalizing the gunman who is accused of trying to storm through security at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, saying “there is no difference at all” between their rhetoric and the written manifesto allegedly circulated by the suspect.

The comments were a marked contrast to those made by President Donald Trump in the hours after the attack. At a White House press conference Saturday night, he said the event had unified members of both parties and the press.

“It was in one way a very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see,” he said.

When it was announced at the dinner that no administration officials had been injured, the room erupted in applause.

But Leavitt on Monday struck a different tone. She read out quotes attributed to multiple Democratic officials — including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said Trump was making the country look like a “fascist state” after Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference; Sen. Adam Schiff, who said last month Trump was using a “dictator” playbook; and Sen. Ed Markey, who called the administration “authoritarianism on steroids” in response to its decision to send troops to Los Angeles last year.

“When you have mentally disturbed individuals across the country who are listening to this crazed rhetoric about the president day after day after day, it inspires them to do crazy things,” Leavitt said. “These are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years, and so many mentally perturbed individuals are led to believe these words are truth, and then are inspired to act on it.”

She said that a manifesto Cole Tomas Allen, 31, allegedly sent to his family prior to the incident was indistinguishable from the language found on social media and various forums.

This is the third apparent assassination attempt on Trump in three years, and one of many politically motivated shootings in recent years, which experts say have increased in frequency and prevalence.

Though the White House and Trump administration rail against Democratic rhetoric, especially in the wake of politically motivated violence against conservatives, they have defended Trump’s own inflammatory statements, including his suggestion that Democratic lawmakers should face the death penalty.

“The president and the vice president for that matter have accused the other side of encouraging political violence,” a reporter asked on Nov. 20, after Trump’s comments. “Isn’t that exactly what the president is doing when he says that members of Congress should be killed?”

Leavitt at the time said that Trump was responding to members of Congress who were encouraging and inciting violence by telling military service members not to follow orders.

It remains to be seen what action the Trump administration will take in response to this latest apparent assassination attempt, which Trump said was a testament to his impact as a politician.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year, Trump issued a directive to crack down on “domestic terrorism and organized political violence,” which experts warned could lead to surveillance on individuals who disagree with the president. The White House at the time denied that possibility.

Both the president and first lady Melania Trump have singled out the statements of ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who in the days before the attack called Melania Trump an “expectant widow.”

“A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

Leavitt said that in the coming days, the administration will be reviewing safety protocols and potentially making changes in response to the incident.

Authorities said that Allen rushed past security at the hotel where the dinner was being hosted and was stopped by officers before he could reach the ballroom. One Secret Service agent suffered minor injuries when he was struck in his bulletproof vest, but he has since been released from the hospital, officials said.

Allen spent the night at an area hospital before being moved to a prison. He was arraigned Monday on multiple charges.