Watch: MSNBC host blames GOP for divisive rhetoric, denies Democrats are even partly to blame

Just one day after she criticized House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) for many of his conservative policy positions, MSNBC host Joy Reid took aim at the Republican Party and placed blame on them for the divisive political rhetoric plaguing the nation.

That divisive rhetoric nearly became deadly last week when a devout Democrat attacked a group of congressional Republicans practicing for the annual congressional baseball game. Scalise remains hospitalized in serious condition  as a result of a gunshot wound he sustained during that attack.

But on “AM Joy” Sunday, Reid devoted more than 14 minutes of her show to magnify what she believes is hypocrisy from Republicans, who called for “toned down rhetoric” after they were targeted by 66-year-old James Hodgkinson last Wednesday.

Reid said the leader of the Republican Party, President Donald Trump, exemplifies egregious political rhetoric.

"The GOP’s leader is a president who, just a day after the shooting, was back to attacking Democrats on Twitter,” Reid said, calling Trump one of the “chief architects” of the divisive political tone in America.

Republican strategist Evan Siegfried, who was on Reid’s four-person panel Sunday, challenged Reid over her assertion that Republicans are solely at fault for the destructive political rhetoric.

Seigfried said that Democrats often contribute to the problem, citing many of the nasty comments Democrats made about former President George W. Bush during his eight years in office and even referred to the time former Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.) called the GOP “the Taliban” during a speech on the House floor.

“I think the tone has been very bad on both sides of the aisle going back to the '90s and [former President Bill] Clinton,” Seigfried said.

After going back-and-forth with Seigfried, Reid appeared to imply that Democrats have been justified in using divisive rhetoric against Republicans since the GOP regularly advocates cutting government spending.

Reid cited the GOP's proposed cuts to Medicaid and other government programs like Meals on Wheels and Sesame Street as reason enough that Democrats are OK in their use of divisive political rhetoric.

Later, Reid said that Republicans are “trying to make themselves the victim” because they “crave the idea of being the victims of hate."