Just days before a shooting took place at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, in which accused gunman Cole Allen sought to take out Trump administration officials, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared that “we are in an era of maximum warfare.”

“We are in an era of maximum warfare. Everywhere, all the time,” Jeffries said at a House Democrat leadership press conference, standing along a side that expressed a similar sentiment. The press conference was over the successful vote in Virginia to pass a redistricting effort that would see all but one seat in the House from the state being held by Democrats. 

Jeffries said that the Democrats were battling Republicans over a number of issues, such as immigration and healthcare, and said that Trump and the Republicans had launched a “gerrymandering war.” He added, “and we made it clear, as Democrats, that we are going to finish it.”

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, Jeffries wrote, “America will not be lectured about civility by far right extremists in Congress. Particularly those who provide aid and comfort to hundreds of violent rioters who brutally beat police officers on January 6. There will be ample time to vigorously debate the issues of the day. Now is a time to unify.”

The same day, however, he said, “violence is never the answer.”

“Violence is never the answer, whether it’s targeted at the right, the left, or the center. We have issues that we have to work out amongst each other. That’s embedded in the First Amendment that was being celebrated last night. But what is also embedded in the First Amendment is the right to peacefully protest and to petition the government peacefully,” he said.

Cole Allen was arrested for the shooting, with authorities claiming he rushed past security and opened fire. He had traveled from California to DC by train, and checked into the Washington Hilton hotel prior to the dinner. In a manifesto left behind by Allen, he said his targets were the Trump administration, and claimed that the security situation at the hotel for the event was focused on those outside of the building coming in, not those who had already been staying inside the building at the time.