WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers said all the right things after the shooting of a Republican lawmaker and four others, but many leftists became unhinged in cyberspace, with numerous tweets ghoulishly celebrating the assassination attempts.

“I am sickened by this despicable act,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The dead gunman who shot and wounded U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., two Capitol Police officers and two GOP staffers at a softball practice Wednesday morning, then was killed by police, was a Sanders supporter who volunteered for his 2016 presidential campaign. At last word, Scalise was in critical condition after surgery on his hip.

Sanders condemned forcefully the shootings, saying: "Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms."

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., didn't just offer "our thoughts and prayers to our colleague, Steve Scalise."

She offered an olive branch to the man whose election touched off a wave of leftist violence across the country ever since the November presidential election.

"I pray for Donald Trump, that his presidency will be successful and that his family will be safe,” she said.

Pelosi even pledged to try to bridge the gap with her political opponents,

"For this person to take this action was so cowardly, so cowardly, we cannot let that be a victory for the assailant or anyone who would think that way," she reflected. "We will use this occasion as one that brings us together and not separates us further."

What do YOU think? What's the most important lesson of Wednesday's shooting attack? Sound off in today's WND poll!

Pelosi tweeted: "On days like today, there are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans united in our thoughts for the wounded."

Sen. Minority Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "I join with the majority leader in offering our prayers for those who were injured and I was absolutely shaken by the news of a shooting earlier this morning at the baseball field in Alexandria, where many of my friends and colleagues were practicing for the annual congressional baseball game — an event that brings us together each year."

After it was announced the game would be played Thursday, Hillary Clinton tweeted: "2 sides take the field tomorrow, but we're all ultimately on one team. My thoughts are with the members of Congress, staff & heroic police."

But, as WND is reporting, a chorus of GOP critics blasted Democrats, saying their previous inflammatory rhetoric had come home to roost.

A primary example of that was reported by WND on March 8, when Clinton's former running mate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va, told MSNBC, "What we’ve got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there’s the momentum to be able to do this."

He said that in support of his 24-year-old son who actually was fighting in the streets.

Linwood Kaine had been arrested that weekend for participating in a protest of Trump’s appearance in Minnesota, and had to be wrestled to the ground when officers arrested him.

Police said Kaine fought back and resisted arrest. He had to be sprayed with a chemical irritant and struck by an officer’s knee before being apprehended.

In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's shootings, numerous leftists were similarly combative online. Some were shockingly remorseless in taking to social media to actually celebrate the attempted assassinations of GOP lawmakers.

Left-wing writer Malcolm Harris, who has a book contract with Little, Brown of New York, tweeted: "Hearing 'David Duke without the baggage' Steve Scalise is stable, but a lot of Americans dies from hospital errors so keep crossing your fing [sic]."

And: "If the shooter has a serious health condition then is taking potshots at the GOP house leadership considered self defense?"

And: "Nope nope nope you can't use 'respect for human life' to defend GOP house leadership. That's just bad math."

A former prosecutor from Scalise's home state of Louisiana, Sonia Gupta, tweeted: "Before you start dropping to your knees to pray for @SteveScalise, remember that' he's a racist piece of s--t and hateful bigot."

Daily Kos founder and Vox Media co-founder Markos Moulitsas tweeted, “Republicans are getting what they want.” (That was in response to a 2016 tweet from Judge Andrew Napolitano: “Why do we have a Second Amendment? It's not to shoot deer. It's to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!”)

Activist and media personality, Tariq Nasheed, appeared to support the shooting on Twitter: "So Rep. Steve Scalise, who once spoke at a white supremacist event sponsored by David Duke (google it) was SHOT today in Alexandria."

Technology writer WaltIsFrozen tweeted, "Maybe if it's Republican politics being targeted now today's attack may have a silver lining."

Someone calling himself Leon Trotsky tweeted: "Alexandria is the direct result of Scalise's votes and teabagging karma. This is what you vote for trumpsters. No whining."

Charles Oakley tweeted, "Well that KKK f--ker deserved it."

CT tweeted, "If Sandy Hook didn't make those NRA whores aka Republicans do anything, this won't either."

And Resistance zone tweeted, "Good thing Rep. Steve Scalise works in gov't, otherwise that bullet would wouldn't be covered under mean #AHCH/#TrumoCare bill!"

On top of all that, someone sent a chilling email to Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., with the subject line: "One down, 216 to go …"

"Did you NOT expect this? When you take away ordinary peoples very lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forfeit. Certainly, your souls and morality were lost long before. Good riddance,” the email said.

Sadly and disturbingly, Tenney spokeswoman Hannah said their office regularly receives similar emails.

"The level of discourse in politics today is truly unfortunate. Our nation was founded on the principle of free speech, and it’s vitally important that we have a robust debate on the issues. However, protections under the First Amendment do not extend to violence," said Andrews in a statement.

Unsurprisingly, the now-deceased shooter himself, 66-year-James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, engaged regularly engaged in volatile rhetoric.

As WND is reporting, his local paper, the Belleville News-Democrat, reported Wednesday that Hodgkinson was a well-known political activist who frequently sent scathing anti-Republican letters to the editor.

"Trump is a Traitor," he posted on Facebook on May 22.

Hodgkinson also posted: “Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co”

Related stories:

Trump assassination 'jokes' put America on the brink

Who was anti-GOP shooter? Everything you need to know

Congressman in tears: 'This is a result of political rhetorical terrorism'

Gunman at GOP ballgame: 'Are you Democrats or Republicans?'

7 things to do to survive when facing domestic terror

20 times violence threatened, used, in wake of Dems' political collapse

'Proof positive of Trump derangement syndrome'

Michael Savage predicted 'violence' by 'marginals' day before attack

'The game will go on': Attack won't stop charity event

Scalise shooter 'liked' left-wing smear group linked to Chick-fil-A attack

Related columns:

Gun control? How about Democrat zealot control? by Joseph Farah

The 'Resistance' goes live-fire, by Ann Coulter

Normalizing beheadings and violence, by James Zumwalt

Putting all this hate and blood lust in perspective, WND Managing Editor David Kupelian observed, "The fact that this guy even posts such sentiments on social media shows he is neither ashamed of, nor fearful of repercussions from, posting applause to attempted mass murder."

The best-selling author of WND Books, "The Snapping of the American Mind,” also commented, "It's important to note that approving of murdering Republicans is not a sentiment unique to today’s shooter."

(To really understand the war zone America is becoming, read the June issue of WND's acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, "RAGE AND VIOLENCE: Why the Left has gone insane in the Age of Trump.")

Kupelian has described the premise of that book as: “Not only is the left irrational, but it is leading America – good Americans – over the edge.”

And that is what he believes we see unfolding, most dramatically with Wednesday's shooting.

"I predicted precisely this sort of attack in the article I did earlier this week for WND, "Understanding Trump Derangement Syndrome."

Noting that five Washington Post writers have compared Trump to Hitler, Kupelian wrote:

"[C]onstantly likening Trump to Hitler (and his supporters, administration, policies and political party to Nazis, Klansmen and slave-holders) is not merely totally insane. It’s also extremely dangerous to American society. Not only does it further polarize and divide a once-unified nation, but worse, it gives implicit permission to members of 'the resistance' to commit whatever lawless and/or violent acts might occur to their enraged minds in hopes of overturning, at all costs, what they see as America’s new Nazi regime."

"In reality – and I wish I didn’t have to keep pointing this out – Hitler murdered 11 million innocent people, while Trump, a billionaire New York real estate developer who wrote one of the best-selling business books of all time and got himself elected president, has never killed anyone," he lamented.

Kupelian concluded, "If the intended recipients of your truthful message ... are not open to hearing it, they will feel compelled to do the same thing to you that they have tried to do to their own conscience. That is, to shut you up."

That comports with what former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann told WND earlier in the day, that, "The assassination plot directed at Republican members of congress this morning is proof positive of Trump Derangement Syndrome."

"The political left is more than unhinged, they have fallen into a dangerous delusion of their own making," she warned.

"It's part of a pattern," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News, adding, "An increasing intensity of hostility on the left."

"Look, I talk to college students regularly," he continued, "who say that if they are openly for Trump, they get threatened."

"I've had college students tell me they get threatened with being beaten up, some of them get death threats," said Ginrich.

"The intensity is very real, whether it's a so-called comedian holding up the president's head covered in blood, or right here in New York City, a play that shows the president being assassinated, or it's Democratic leading national politicians using vulgarity because they can't find any common language to talk," he concluded.