While America tries to process what happened at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the chaotic images of what could have been a mass casualty event will be impossible to forget. The horror-stricken faces of men and women huddling under tables, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sprinting down the hallway with his security detail, the sound of trays clattering to the ground as SWAT teams leapt over tables and drew their rifles are etched on all of our minds. But as grateful as everyone is that a massacre of some of the country’s highest-ranking leaders was thwarted, incredibly serious questions remain — not the least of which is how we got here in the first place.

To everyone’s relief, the 31-year-old gunman who raced through the magnetometers was tackled and subdued before he could kill anyone. Still, the harsh reality remains: this is the third serious attempt on the president’s life in less than two years. We are officially, as National Review’s editors warn, in the grip of a deadly insanity as a nation. “The feverish opposition to Trump — who is another Hitler, according to the left, and might be the Antichrist … provides a permission slip for sundry fanatics and losers to resort to political violence.”

Meanwhile, throwaway posts about lowering the temperature and “ending the hostility” abound from Democrats, who have yet to acknowledge the lethal environment their government shutdown created. Instead, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) took to Fox News to try to paint the violence as a bipartisan problem. “Listen,” Jeffries told Shannon Bream Sunday, “I think that here in America we can have strong disagreements, but it’s important for us to agree to strongly disagree without being disagreeable with each other. And it is certainly the case that violence is never the answer, whether it’s targeted at the Right, the Left, or the center.”

It’s a convenient soundbite for the leader of a party who’s decided to roll the dice with American security for the last 70 days. As RNC Chairman Joe Gruters fired back, “Democrats can issue all the hollow calls for ‘unity’ they want, but their actions tell the truth — they’ve repeatedly blocked funding for DHS and the very law enforcement agencies tasked with protecting Americans. You cannot inflame division, undermine public safety, and then pretend to stand for peace. Until Democrats fully fund our security, their words are worthless.”

Thanks to Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the very Secret Service agents who stopped Saturday’s bloodbath are working without paychecks. “It’s really important that law enforcement did their job,” former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf agreed before adding, pointedly, “And I’ll just reiterate, Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which remains unfunded at this day and time. And so, these agents and officers are doing their job despite the Democrats in Congress refusing to fund them.”

“It’s outrageous,” Scott Jennings argued on CNN Sunday. “We’re not paying these guys. The [Democrats] who’ve got [Homeland Security] shut down need to think long and hard about last night … [and] what that means to [an officer] who has to show up and take a bullet. Every American ought to be outraged by it.”

Fury continued to pour in from GOP leaders, who’ve tried for weeks — and failed — to reopen the agency tasked with U.S. security. Now, Republicans can’t help but wonder if a shortage of resources might have led to the opening that madman Cole Allen exploited. “Democrats have caused THE LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN HISTORY,” the speaker fumed. “Democrats REFUSE to pay law enforcement for over TWO MONTHS because they want to reopen the border for criminal illegal aliens. Democrats’ shutdown is not just DISTURBING — it’s DANGEROUS. Protect American citizens. Fully fund DHS.”

To all the “anti-American Democrats,” Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) declared, “it’s time to get your head out of you’re a** and fund our national law enforcement. ALL Americans deserve to live in safety and without fearing for their lives.”

One thing that should come of this nightmare, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stressed, is the Democrats’ cooperation in reopening the department. “I hope this is a wake-up call to Congress,” he emphasized on Fox News Sunday. “I hope this is a wake-up call that the games that they’ve been playing, really with the lives of the men and women protecting them, should end.”

Even the president, reflecting on the heroism of the night before, could only shake his head at the situation Schumer’s party has created. “The Secret Service and all law enforcement was … outstanding. … They stopped him cold. … And you just look at them. They were these strong, solid people who’ve got to get paid. You know, this is a group that is not being paid. If you think about it, you know, the Democrats are holding up their pay.”

After Saturday’s incredibly close call, Schumer’s party may be forced to the negotiating table on optics alone. Tired of waiting, Republicans had teed up a reconciliation bill to muscle the funding through on their own two days before the attack at the Washington Hilton happened. It was a last-ditch effort to break through the wall Democrats had built to protest ICE, despite how vulnerable it made the country.

Johnson had expressed optimism on Saturday’s “This Week on Capitol Hill” that his caucus was “finally on the path to get [it] done.” But frankly, he argued, “it’s rather shocking that we’re in this situation. … “The Department of Homeland Security is the third largest department of the federal government — with 10 agencies beneath it. And all of them are tasked with keeping America safe. It’s gone unfunded because the Democrats are playing political games. So we’re going to have to do this on our own. It’s shameful … but that’s where we are.”

Almost prophetically, the speaker pointed out what a “scary and dangerous” situation the country was in. “And the Democrats want to play political games. I just don’t know what else to say about it.”

Now, unfortunately, there’s plenty.