Donald Trump Jr. blames GOP whip’s shooting on Shakespeare production depicting president’s murder

President Donald Trump offered a measured reaction -- at least for now -- to the shooting of Republican whip Steve Scalise and four others, but Donald Trump Jr. quickly tried to score political points.

The president expressed relief that Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, will recover from his wounds, and he offered thoughts and prayers to the lawmaker.

The president's son, however, latched onto reports that the gunman asked whether lawmakers practicing before Thursday's annual inter-party baseball game were Democrats or Republicans before opening fire.

Trump Jr. retweeted a report about those witness claims, and he also approved another tweet by a conservative commentator linking the shootings to a recent production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" that depicted the president's assassination.

Kellyanne Conway, the president's former campaign manager and a White House adviser, also called attention to witness claims about the gunman's suspected political motivations.