Washington (CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday the he believes the two horrific shooting incidents last week at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and a Kroger's in Louisville were "hate crimes" and the two accused gunmen should face the death penalty.

McConnell also said the heightened political rhetoric of the day is "terrible" and blamed it on contributions from "both sides" of the aisle.

"We witnessed, all of us, two horrendous shootings this weekend. One in a synagogue in Pittsburgh and one in a Kroger's store in Louisville. If these aren't definitions of hate crimes, I don't know what a hate crime is," McConnell said while speaking to the Federalist Society in the state Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky.

"I'm also somebody who still embraces the death penalty. I know that's kind of out of fashion in our country. But I think there are times in which it seems to me that's an appropriate response," he said. "And these two occasions, in my view, would be appropriate for the death penalty.

African Americans and Jews were allegedly targeted by the shooters because of their race and religion.

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