Eric Trump said Saturday at the scene of Trump’s first assassination attempt: “They tried to smear us. They came after us. They dropped him off twice, and then, guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because of the Democratic Party. They can’t do anything right.”

Stephanopoulos asked Johnson on ABC’s This week whether it is “okay that Trump and his family are suggesting that Democrats are behind the attempt to assassinate him” after calls to tone down the rhetoric came from both sides in the wake of Trump’s first assassination attempt.

“I don’t think they’re saying the Democratic Party attempted an assassination. I think they mean what we all said. They have had to reject the rhetoric for years. This country’s leading Democrats, its highest elected officials and the current candidate for president, have said that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. … It’s absolute nonsense, and they’ve pushed dangerous people to do dangerous things. The rhetoric is,” Johnson said.

Stephanopoulos pushed back against Johnson’s response, saying “we all just saw what former President Trump and his son Eric said,” adding that Eric Trump specifically named Democrats as inciting violence against his father. He then asked Johnson if he supported these comments.

He and Stephanopoulos then had a brief back-and-forth when Johnson said he didn’t know the context in which Eric Trump’s comments were said, prompting the ABC host to exclaim, “You just saw it (the clip), sir.” ”

Johnson emphasized that there should be more focus on the candidates’ policies rather than the “personalities,” before the ABC host pressed him again, reading Eric Trump’s comments and asking: “What else do you need ? Do you support this statement or not?”

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“I’m not going to parse the language of what people say during meetings. I could give you pages and pages of crazy comments from the leading Democrats in this country. That’s not what this is about. …Let’s put all this political nonsense behind us and talk about how we can get out of this mess,” Johnson said.

The House speaker also appeared on Fox News on Sunday and discussed how the public is “frustrated” with FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, specifically how the government agency has previously allocated money for its Shelter and Services Program to help states tackle the migrant crisis.