A political scientist at Dalhousie University says the attempt on former US President Donald Trump’s life on Saturday appears to be polarizing American politics even further.

Trump suffered an injury to his ear, narrowly escaping even more catastrophic injuries after a sniper shot at him at a political rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The 20-year-old shooter was killed by the US Secret Service, but not before a member of the audience was killed, and two more people were critically injured.

Lori Turnbull says the already heated rhetoric is ramping up even further in the wake of the shocking event—in the midst of a presidential election campaign.

“This doesn’t seem to be a unity moment,” says Turnbull. “Everybody can say ‘this is awful, violence is never acceptable’…and you see a lot of that in the response (online), but at the same time you can see this kind of blaming….and a mobilizing on either side.” She saw some people posting that the Democrats can’t say anything about January 6th, because of the shooting, “so there’s a sense of sides.”

The motive of the shooter—described as a loner—is not yet clear. His family is said to be cooperating with the FBI in their investigation.