Political leaders from both major parties nationwide are urging calm and condemning political violence after the killing of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and the serious wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman in a pair of shootings state officials say were politically motivated, Politico reported.

Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday confirmed the deaths of Hortman and her husband, along with serious injuries sustained by Hoffman and his wife in separate attacks. Walz labeled the incidents “politically motivated assassinations.”

“This violence is a stain on our state and on our democracy,” Walz said. “We are not a country that settles our differences at gunpoint. We have demonstrated again and again in our state that it is possible to peacefully disagree, that our state is strengthened by civil public debate.”

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