Jo Cox, a member of the British Parliament, was shot and killed. | AP Clinton condemns attack on British MP as 'a violent act of political intolerance'

The fatal attack on Jo Cox, a member of the British Parliament, reverberated in the United States on Thursday, with current and former officials expressing dismay at what is widely seen in the UK as an act of political violence.

Details of the nature of the attack and the suspect are still emerging, but initial reports said that Cox, an MP for the Labour Party known for her advocacy on behalf of refugees, was shot and stabbed at a constituency meeting in West Yorkshire. Police are investigating reports that suggest the suspect, who shouted "Britain First!" at the scene, is connected to the right-wing anti-immigrant organization "Britain First." The apparent assassination comes at a fraught political time in the UK, which is holding a referendum next week on whether to remain in the European Union.


Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton expressed her condolences in a statement, calling the attack "a violent act of political intolerance."

"It is critical that the United States and Britain, two of the world's oldest and greatest democracies, stand together against hatred and violence. This is how we must honor Jo Cox -- by rejecting bigotry in all its forms, and instead embracing, as she always did, everything that binds us together," Clinton said on Thursday.

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head in a 2011 assassination attempt, said she was “sickened” to receive news of Cox's murder.

“Absolutely sickened to hear of the assassination of Jo Cox. She was young, courageous, and hardworking. A rising star, mother, and wife,” she tweeted.

Giffords, who is now a prominent gun safety advocate, added that the attack on Cox as well as the one she endured "represent the importance of a democracy connected to its citizens."

"Just like January 8, 2011 did not deter America from its founding ideals, the British principle of pluralism and the nation's democratic institutions will endure. However, the assassination of MP Jo Cox at the hands of a man driven by hatred is a manifestation of a coarseness in our politics and hatred toward the other that we must not tolerate," she said in a statement.

"Initial reports of this tragedy bring back horrible memories of what happened to my former colleague Congresswoman Gabby Giffords five years ago in Tucson, Arizona during a ‘Congress on your Corner’ event," Sen. Ben Cardin said in a statement. "As the U.K. prepares for a major referendum on their country’s future in the European Union, the United States joins her country’s leaders and people in pausing to remember her, bringing the perpetrators to justice, and standing united for the shared values and ideals that bolster our respective democracies."

Other lawmakers, including Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, also offered their condolences to Cox’s friends and family.

"What awful news. On behalf of the entire Democratic Party, our condolences to the Cox family and the UK," Wasserman Schultz tweeted. "We must be mindful that incendiary political rhetoric has consequences that we must guard against," she added in a statement.

"Very saddened to learn of the murder of MP Jo Cox. A dedicated public servant needlessly taken. Thoughts are w/ her family & people of UK," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen tweeted.

Matthew Barzun, the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, also shared his grief. "We are heartbroken by the loss to her family and country of MP Jo Cox. My love and our love to them, in this time of unbearable grief," he said on Twitter.

The possibility that it was a shooting attack made the tragedy especially resonant in the United States, which is still reeling from Sunday's massacre in an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.