"There are people in society that are just going to do these things, unfortunately. And then, what happens is, you know, in this case, people trying to use it to create further divisions between the right and the left. I think it's irresponsible, in my opinion...what it does is polarize people even further."
Miller said she hoped opponents of the tea party won't use the Giffords shooting to try to score political points against the movement.
"Well, I don't know what will happen, but I can only hope that will have the responsibility that they do not try to make this, you know, to cause more problems or to create more division. Because there's enough division in this country."
Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, condemned the shooting as a "terrorist attack" and wrote on the TPN site this afternoon (at the time he believed the erroneous reports that Giffords had been killed. The post has since been updated): "Congressman Giffords was a liberal, but that does not matter now. No one should be the victim of violence because of their political beliefs and certainly a member of Congress should not be shot and killed on a street corner."
But Phillips added that "no matter what the shooter's motivations where, the left is going to blame this on the Tea Party Movement. Already on liberal websites, the far left is trying to accuse the Tea Party of being involved."