THE BUZZ: San Francisco is watching the fallout from the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump with an all-too-familiar understanding of how political violence can test a democracy. The attack at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday that injured Trump, killed a supporter and critically injured two others sent shockwaves across the nation, and had particularly painful echoes in a city that has endured some of the most traumatic attacks in modern American political history. SF politicians over the weekend were quick to empathize with Trump, their arch rival, over a shared experience with political violence — most recently, the attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, when a conspiracy-driven man broke into their home, looking for the speaker, and repeatedly bludgeoned his skull with a hammer. “As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society,” Pelosi wrote on X following the shooting. “I thank God that former President Trump is safe.” San Francisco was also the site of the double assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone that rattled the city in 1978 and helped to shape the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s storied political career. The experience of finding her slain colleagues — and in the case of Milk, putting her finger through a bullet hole while trying to find a pulse — launched her decades-long crusade against the gun lobby, propelling her into the annals of American history. Feinstein guided the city through the immediate aftermath of the assassinations as mayor, and during her first term in the Senate 16 years later, she championed a nationwide ban on assault weapons that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton (though the law is now defunct). The murders at City Hall have long colored the psychology of San Francisco politicians, making them all the more sensitive to attacks like the one on Saturday. “It's part of our city's DNA,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who has repeatedly faced death threats over his work on pro-LGBTQ legislation, told Playbook in an interview. “San Francisco understands what happens when politics veer into violence.” Jeffrey Kwong, president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, said the assassination attempt evoked painful memories for many of the club’s members. He said many still remember the night of the Milk and Moscone murders, when thousands marched from the Castro neighborhood to City Hall carrying candles and flowers. “Left or right, people should not get hurt because of what they advocate,” Kwong said. “It’s not about Donald Trump, but it’s really about the threat to democracy.” The Trump rally shooting also reignited Democrats’ resentment over how the GOP responded to the attack that fractured Paul Pelosi’s skull and left him lying in a pool of blood. At that time, some prominent Republicans took the opportunity to poke fun at the Pelosis — a far cry from Democrats’ somber condemnation of the Trump shooting. Some, like Donald Trump Jr., had promoted a false rumor about the brutal assault being a love affair gone wrong and shared memes involving a hammer and a pair of underwear. Even the president himself mocked the violence as recently as September, making jokes to a crowd of supporters at the California GOP convention in Anaheim. “We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco — how’s her husband doing, anybody know?” Trump said at the convention to uproarious laughter. “And she’s against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house — which obviously didn’t do a very good job.” That contrast is visceral for Tom Ammiano, a close friend of Milk’s and a former state legislator and SF city supervisor. Ammiano said Saturday’s shooting was horrific and a product of the political maelstrom Trump has allowed with his hyperbolic and violent rhetoric, at the same time he opposed gun-safety legislation. “The way he has talked in the past few years, he always brings up violence,” Ammiano told Playbook. “There’s a responsibility with fanning those flames.” Meanwhile, some Republicans are hanging responsibility on those who have compared the former president to a radical dictator. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California), on a call following the gunfire, urged colleagues to lower the temperature on political attacks. On Sunday morning, Swalwell lashed out at Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance for suggesting that the Biden campaign was to blame. “You called Trump “American Hitler”,” Swalwell wrote on X, referencing reports where Vance was previously critical of the former president. “Show your self back to the kids’ table.” National political tensions were already at a fever pitch before the shooting. Republicans today kick off their nominating convention in Milwaukee while Democrats continue to fret over the fate of their own expected nominee. President Joe Biden, for his part, has canceled some of his campaign events and pulled ads in light of the attack. In remarks to the nation Sunday evening, the president again condemned the violence, and encouraged Americans to get out of their silos and unite for democracy. “Nothing is more important for us right now than standing together,” he said. GOOD MORNING. It is Monday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced. | 
