Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) blamed President Donald Trump for the shootings that took place in Minnesota, apparently targeting Democratic lawmakers in politically motivated attacks — and CNN anchor John Berman gave him no pushback.

Merkley joined Berman on Monday morning, just hours after it was announced that the suspect in the case had been apprehended, and he immediately pivoted to attack Trump when asked about the political climate in the country.

WATCH:

In an unbelievable moment just now on CNN, Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley just blamed President Trump for the weekend shootings of Minnesota lawmakers.

“I feel like Trump has really popped the lid off of the rhetoric and the the sense of hate and violence, and promoted this type… pic.twitter.com/v58LSfTyZ5

— DeVory Darkins (@devorydarkins) June 16, 2025

Berman set Merkley up for the attack, framing his question about the Minnesota shootings in such a way as to suggest that the political climate was responsible for driving the shooter to act.

“There was a state representative, Democratic leader, of the state legislature in Minnesota killed over the weekend, a state senator shot,” Berman began. “How would you describe the political atmosphere in this country this morning?”

“I feel like Trump has really popped the lid off of the rhetoric and the sense of hate and violence, and promoted this type of environment,” Merkley said, suggesting several times that the threats were only coming from the right. “It’s profoundly disturbing for all of us. We have seen increased threats across the country, you’re probably familiar with the pizza threats, we’ve seen more of that where pizzas or other food is delivered to people’s families that they haven’t ordered just to say from the right-wing, we know who you are, we know where you live.”

“I can tell you all of our families feel a greatly heightened sense — let me just say my heart goes out to the families in Minnesota. How horrific — horrific for the whole country, but particularly we’re holding the folks in Minnesota in our hearts,” he added.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered New York courts to reconsider a case in which the state forced Catholic and Anglican nuns, Catholic dioceses, Christian churches, and faith-based social ministries to pay for their employees’ abortions.

The case, Diocese of Albany v. Harris, involved the nuns and their fellow plaintiffs suing over the New York requirement in 2017. “When the New York State Department of Financial Services initially proposed the abortion mandate for health care plans, it promised to exempt all employers with religious objections. But after facing pressure from abortion activists, New York narrowed the exemption to cover only religious groups that primarily teach religion and primarily serve and hire those who share their faith,” the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit law firm, noted.

But New York courts upheld the mandate, at which point the firms Becket and Jones Day appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. In 2021, the Supreme Court reversed the state courts’ decision and told them to reconsider it after Becket won the case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, but the state courts stated that Fulton was inapplicable to the Diocese case.

Then, last week, Becket won a unanimous victory in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. That case involved the court ruling in favor of a Catholic charity that sued the state of Wisconsin after it was forced to pay certain unemployment taxes while other religious organizations were exempted. That ruling led to the court’s decision to remand the Diocese decision back to the New York Court of Appeals.

“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted,” the Supreme Court wrote. “The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for New York for further consideration in light of Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Comm’n.”

“New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need,” Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, stated. “For the second time in four years, the Supreme Court has made clear that bully tactics like these have no place in our nation or our law. We are confident that these religious groups will finally be able to care for the most vulnerable consistent with their beliefs.”

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