Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told Simon Conway of WHO Iowa radio, a Des Moines radio host, that he partly blames former President Barack Obama for the political climate, which, King contended, led to the recent shooting at a congressional baseball team practice in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14.

Victims of the shooting were Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and three other Republican Party members.

“I do want to put some of this at the feet of Barack Obama,” King said in the interview. “He contributed mightily to dividing us. He focused on our differences rather than our things that unify us. And this is some of the fruits of that labor.”

King said leaders are responsible for pulling members of society together.

“Our whole society and culture has to come together on this,” King told Conway. “And those are just not platitudes on my part. I’m saying we’ve got leaders out there that can help pull us together, but in the end, it traces back to our families, to our fathers, to our mothers, to good examples, to the right things being said around the kitchen table, in the living room, in church, and in school. And if the culture is going to be divided, it’s been divided core back to there.”

King has not released any further statements.

–— Madeleine Neal