Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on the growing risks of political violence

[0:00] To discuss the fallout from the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting and another [0:04] state's push for mid-decade redistricting, we turn now to our Politics Monday duo. [0:09] That is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. [0:14] It's great to see you both. [0:15] Hello. [0:15] Good to be here. [0:16] We covered at the top of the show Saturday night's events. [0:18] And I know, Tam, you were there as well. [0:20] We saw President Trump in that press conference after the attack, call for unity. [0:25] The press secretary today started to talk about a call for unity, toning down the rhetoric, [0:29] and then blamed a number of Democrats for their rhetoric and leading to the violence. [0:34] I want to point out, too, the president had joked his speech that he was going to deliver [0:38] at the dinner was going to go after the press very hard. [0:42] I just want to get your reaction to all of this, especially as someone who, as the former [0:45] president of the White House Correspondents Association, had to arrange this dinner. [0:48] Yeah, and not this one. [0:50] Yeah. [0:50] A past dinner. [0:51] And I'm very grateful that this was not my year because this has been so challenging. [0:58] You know, I went into the dinner Saturday night with a feeling of dread, but it was about [1:04] it was it was a fear of what the president might say about the press, about the potential [1:08] reputational damage for an organization that stands up for the First Amendment and a free [1:13] press and a free and independent press to then have the president just tear into us, as [1:18] he has done repeatedly through his presidency, punishing reporters for asking questions. [1:24] He doesn't like news organizations for publishing stories. [1:27] He doesn't like the lawsuits. [1:28] All of this. [1:29] So that was what I was afraid of. [1:32] And and we didn't ever get to that point because of this attempted act of political violence. [1:38] And it was just a real time reminder that this is a very real and present problem in the [1:46] country right now. [1:47] Amy, what do you make of this? [1:48] Yeah, and it is to me, the most surprising thing was learning about this. [1:54] I was at a different event and not being surprised. [1:58] Right. [1:58] That we now have become almost numbed to the fact that it's not simply that it's political [2:03] violence, as Tam points out, but you can't go a day in this country without getting some [2:08] sort of alert that there has been a mass shooting or an attempt at a shooting in a public [2:14] place at a school. [2:16] The other thing I'll note that this isn't just something that is happening to the president. [2:22] Obviously, he was a target of this attempt, but we've seen in the last year Capitol Hill [2:28] police saying more than 15,000 credible reports of violence against members of Congress or their [2:34] staff. [2:35] The DHS, Homeland Security, recently put a briefing out saying that the harassment of federal judges [2:43] has been surging. [2:44] So this is something that if you are engaged in politics at all. [2:51] Now, it's always been a business where there was a risk to you in deciding to be a public [2:59] figure in politics. [3:01] Today, and I've talked to people who have said, I would like to run, but I will not do [3:10] that to my family and put myself at that risk. [3:14] I would just, what Amy's saying makes me think about one of the things that just isn't on [3:21] my mind permanently, which is as I was underneath the tables, as we all were waiting to see if [3:28] it was safe. [3:29] If I looked up and I saw majority whip Steve Scalise being escorted out the center aisle of the room, [3:35] and, you know, he walks with a little bit of a limb because he survived a politically motivated [3:41] shooting in 2017 at the congressional baseball game. [3:44] And so that's just seared into my mind, seeing him going through another scare. [3:51] Meanwhile, Tam, you know, the president's calling for this dinner to be scheduled within 30 days. [3:55] Do you see that happening? [3:56] It causes me great stress even thinking about the possibility of it happening because I'm just [4:01] thinking about all of the logistics that went into planning the dinner that I planned. [4:05] Finding a date on the calendar at the Hilton or another ballroom in Washington, D.C. is very [4:11] challenging, plus all of these security considerations, the after actions that are still happening. [4:16] Although the deputy attorney general or acting attorney general Todd Blanche said the security [4:22] worked the way it was supposed to, I think it exposed all of the vulnerabilities that exist [4:28] when you have a really large event, whether the president is there or not. [4:32] Meanwhile, we need to ask you both about what we reported earlier on Florida entering this [4:36] mid-decade redistricting fight today. [4:39] Governor Ron DeSantis has shared proposed maps, Amy, as you saw, that could potentially help [4:43] Republicans gain four seats. [4:46] He says it's necessary due to population changes. [4:48] And, of course, we also know that the Virginia map that voters passed just last week is now [4:52] being challenged in court. [4:54] What do you make of all this, especially the fact that it doesn't sound like Republican state [4:57] legislatures are particularly behind this? [4:59] Well, I think the worry among some of the state legislators is that it would impact their [5:03] districts. [5:04] This is just a federal map. [5:05] There is also concern from federal Republicans that in order to create four new districts for [5:13] Republicans, it would put their own districts at risk. [5:18] At this point, if you look at the 2024 numbers, how Trump did in those districts and compare them [5:24] to this new map, there's not one district in this that is a Republican district in which [5:31] Trump did not get at least 10 points or more, win that district by 10 points or more. [5:36] And the Democratic districts are just overwhelmingly Democratic. [5:40] So they basically packed all the Democrats into these four spots and the rest, they spread [5:45] their conservative voters, Republican-leaning voters into these districts. [5:50] Look, it's the tit-for-tat we've been talking about for a while now. [5:54] Virginia's map, that nets Democrats four seats. [5:58] This potentially nets, potentially, we still haven't had an election, but potentially nets [6:02] Democrats four seats in Virginia. [6:03] Potentially Republicans net four seats in Florida. [6:07] You have the Texas map, which was a plus 5R. [6:10] Then we went to California, which is plus 5D. [6:13] And we are going to, at the end of the day, look at basically a wash on all of this. [6:18] However, we do know that this is not the end of the story. [6:22] We know that the Supreme Court is going to come out probably this summer with a ruling on [6:29] the Voting Rights Act, which could then lead to more redistricting in the South. [6:34] And then I suspect if that happens, we are going to have conversations in states like [6:38] Colorado and New York, who do also have ballot initiatives that put redistricting on the [6:43] ballot, to go back and potentially undo those. [6:47] And yet, when you have more and more extremely safe seats, you have more races that are basically [6:53] decided by the primary. [6:55] You have lawmakers who are less accountable to their entire electorate because they basically [7:02] just have to make it through the primary. [7:04] And generally, in a primary, it is not, you know, the more extreme voice is the one that [7:11] wins in a primary. [7:13] And so you move away, you move further and further and further polarized in the country. [7:19] At some point, people are going to get sick of this, you would think. [7:23] They are sick of it, but it keeps happening. [7:26] But it keeps happening, yes. [7:26] Yes. [7:27] Yes. [7:27] People do say they hate how divided the country is. [7:29] I feel like we're going to be talking about this in more. [7:31] It's so great. [7:32] Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, thank you so much. [7:35] You're welcome. [7:49] Support journalism you trust. [7:51] Support PBS News. 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