Violence casts cloud week before midterms

A string of violent incidents has cast a pall over the final weeks of a midterm season already marked by months of bitter partisan fighting, vitriolic rhetoric and angry protests.

A week that began with President Trump spreading unfounded claims at a rally in Houston about Democrats and a caravan of migrants ended with arrests in a spate of attempted bombings against prominent Democrats and the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the country’s history.

Both episodes were met with calls for unity from Democrats and Republicans alike, but neither party indicated they would cede an inch in the debate over responsibility for the attacks.

Marc Hetherington, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, expressed skepticism that the rhetoric will cool in the last full week of the campaign, even as the country remains on edge.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/413567-violence-casts-cloud-week-before-midterms?userid=229233