Actress Patricia Heaton is urging her “friends on the left” to turn down the temperature on political rhetoric after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, the New York Post reported.
The Everybody Loves Raymond star, now 68, posted on X that although she didn’t like former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or Joe Biden, she didn’t wish for their deaths.
“I wasn’t happy when Clinton, Obama or Biden won, but I didn’t call them fascist/dangerous/threat to democracy. I didn’t hope someone would assassinate them. I went on with my life with gratitude. Friends on the left, please try this. Your life and our country will be better,” she wrote.
On Saturday night, U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, First Lady Melania Trump and other administration officials were evacuated from the dinner at the Washington Hilton after an exchange of gunfire from the gunman and Secret Service agents. Cole Allen, 31, is facing several charges in the incident and was due in court on Monday.
A Voice Against Leftist Extremism
Heaton has long been an outspoken voice against the left’s violent rhetoric, posting on X last September, “The most violent rhetoric is always from people who have phrases like ‘choose kindness’ in their bios.”
After the 2024 presidential election, Heaton went after political pundits for “fear-mongering” by telling Americans Trump’s election was a threat to their way of life.
“To all these extremists that are allowed television time, who told women that this is what is going to happen to them, shame on you! Shame on you!” she said in a video posted to X in November 2024.
“Apparently, there are some really vulnerable people here who you targeted, and you fear-mongered to and you need to go back on the air and tell them things are going to be okay, tell them that they’re fine.”
“Also, stop saying people who voted differently from you are ‘uneducated,’” she continued. “Learn your f-ing lesson about smearing people who vote differently from you, who have different needs from you, who have legitimate complaints. Quit dismissing them as uneducated. When are you going to learn?”
