"It looked like a bomb had gone off": Shapiro recounts arson attack
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) recounted in a Wednesday essay the chilling moment earlier this month when he realized an arsonist had set fire to the governor's residence while he and his family were asleep.
The big picture: A suspect in the attack was arrested earlier this month. He allegedly told police he would've beaten Shapiro with a hammer if he encountered him.
Driving the news: In a New York Times op-ed out Wednesday, Shapiro described the destruction of the state dining room in the Pennsylvania Governor's residence.
"The devastation was shocking, and to me, it did not appear to be an accident," he wrote of the moment the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire chief took him back inside the building. "The damage was too extreme. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle of our home."
While assessing the damage, he said he pictured where his loved ones had gathered just hours earlier for a Passover celebration.
In the aftermath,"people began to ascribe their own beliefs onto what they thought happened — and why," Shapiro wrote.
He added, "It is not my job to opine on what the motive was or what the charges should be."
"Ultimately, prosecutors will determine what motivated this act of violence, and we trust them to do their important work," Shapiro wrote.
Zoom out: Shapiro called for an end to political violence, pointing to the attempted assassination of then-presidential-candidate Trump — which Shapiro quickly condemned at the time — as well as the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
"I believe our political divide can be repaired," he wrote. "But our leaders must act with moral clarity and take their cues from the good people of this nation, who in times of tragedy always seem to find our better angels."
Shapiro told reporters Tuesday at a Pennsylvania Easter egg hunt that Trump called him Saturday morning to discuss the attack — nearly a week after it happened.
"I appreciated that the president called me," Shapiro said, NBC reported.
Members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, condemned the incident. Trump said last week that the attacker "was not a fan of Trump" and was "probably just a whack job."
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