Former US President Joe Biden strongly condemned the deadly attack on a Democratic congresswoman and her husband in Minnesota, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"Such a heinous politically motivated attack should never happen in America", Biden said in an article in "Ex".
"We must not give hate and extremism a safe haven, and we must all unite as a nation against political violence", he said, expressing support for "all affected by this senseless tragedy".
In one of the two attacks, Melissa Hortman, a member of the state House of Representatives Minnesota, and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed in the early hours of the morning at their home in Brooklyn Park.
In another attack in Champlin, Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were seriously wounded by the gunman's bullets.
The Trump administration has laid off most of the staff at a program that aims to prevent targeted violence as part of its efforts to downsize the federal government, a move that could come under renewed scrutiny after the deadly shooting of state lawmakers in Minnesota, Reuters noted.
The Center for Preventive Programs and Partnerships, part of the Department of Homeland Security, works to reduce violent extremism through intervention programs in schools, businesses and government offices.
William Braniff, the former director of the agency who resigned in protest in March, said that of the 45 full-time employees time and several dozen contract employees, the agency is down to just a handful of employees. The Trump administration has prioritized combating illegal immigration while slashing other departments at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the center had been supporting liberal groups and that the staff cuts were part of the administration's efforts to combat waste.
"The department has a robust counterterrorism program, and the Center for Preventive Programs and Partnerships (CPPP) plays a small and ineffective role in the broader effort," she said.