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Tag: political polarization

  • Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Humbly, I’m Sorry For Taking Part In The Toxic Politics”

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    GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene commented on President Trump denouncing her as a “wacky” complainer and the role she played in coarsening political discourse, during an interview Sunday morning with CNN:

    DANA BASH, CNN: You posted on X that President Trump, with his comments, is fueling a hotbed of threats against you. Obviously, any threats to your safety are completely unacceptable, but we have seen these kinds of attacks or criticism from the president against other people. It’s not new, and with respect, I haven’t heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you.

    REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Dana, I think that’s fair criticism, and I would like to say humbly I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.

    It’s very bad for our country, and it’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

    I’m only responsible for myself and my own words and actions, and I am going—I’m committed, and I’ve been working on this a lot lately—to put down the knives in politics. I really just want to see people be kind to one another.

    And we need to figure out a new path forward that is focused on the American people, because as Americans, no matter what side of the aisle we’re on, we have far more in common than we have differences. And we need to be able to respect each other with our disagreements.

    And we need to be able to respect each other with our disagreements.

    BASH: So, just to put a button on this, you regret the things that you have said and posted in the past, the Facebook post that was taken down of you in 2020 holding a gun alongside the Squad, encouraging people to go on the offense against the socialists, liking a tweet of somebody calling for the execution of Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama, just examples?

    GREENE: Well, Dana, as you know and many people know, I addressed that back in 2021.

    And, of course, I never want to cause any harm or anything bad for anyone. So that was addressed back then. And I very much stand by my words I said then.

    And I stand by my words today. I think America needs to come together and end all the toxic, dangerous rhetoric and divide. And I’m leading the way with my own example, and I hope that President Trump can do the same.

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    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, CNN

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  • Former US Capitol Police chief talks about political violence and assessing threats – WTOP News

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    In the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, experts and public figures are taking a closer look at balancing safety and accessibility.

    In the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, safety experts and public figures are taking a closer look at balancing safety and accessibility.

    WTOP spoke with former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger about the issue.

    Manger said he’d advise politicians — whether members of Congress, mayors or school board members — to have security assessments if there are any concerns about a given venue.

    “Typically, their local police department will have a security expert, a lot of times it is the SWAT team,” he said.

    Manger said whether an event is outdoors or at an arena or auditorium, increasing security comes at a price.

    “It is staffing intensive, it is resource intensive. You’ve got to have enough people, you’ve got to have the right equipment, folks have to have the right training, and all of that costs money,” he said.

    Securing indoor facilities is also labor intensive, Manger noted, saying it’s not just a matter of having attendees walk through metal detectors.

    “What happened an hour before the event started? Who was in there, and what were they doing?” he asked.

    Manger explained that someone could have placed something in a venue that could present a threat and that’s why security sweeps are often performed ahead of an event.

    Touching on the Kirk probe, Manger said the investigation into the suspect’s motives were still in the early stages, adding that toughening gun laws — when mental health issues are a concern — was unlikely to prevent similar acts in the future.

    “I will tell you that I have seen shooting incidents throughout my career, and I think back to Newtown, Connecticut,” he said, referring to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. “That was not enough of a catalyst to make any changes to our gun laws.”

    Manger added that he doesn’t know what could result in “meaningful” changes to “keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.”

    As concern about young people turning to political violence rises, Manger said, “I would say 99% of all parents don’t do a very good job of monitoring what their kids are looking at online. We think we do, but most kids can be in their own room with their own device.”

    And parents can’t be certain what they’re looking at and what they’re starting to pay attention to, he said.

    However, Manger said that doesn’t mean parents should give up on monitoring their children’s social media and news diet.

    “What you can pay attention to is what your child says and what your child does,” he said. “That’s every parents’ responsibility because, oftentimes, they’re the only ones that would see those changes.”

    There’s also the question of a larger civic responsibility. “Who’s going to step up?” he said.

    Currently, according to Manger, there’s a lot of hesitation to step forward.

    “These people come out of nowhere,” he said, citing the suspect in Kirk’s shooting death.

    Manger does not put the blame just on social media, but also on the overheated political discourse — on both sides of the political aisle — that suggests things are so bad, and that the opposing side is to blame.

    “What they have in common is they are extremists. They have been radicalized and they believe that political violence is justified,” he said.

    Manger noted there’s been a sudden spike in swatting, the practice of filing false reports about threats on college campuses and other public spaces. On Thursday alone, there were reported threats to Maryland’s House speaker and Senate president, and the report of an active shooter at the U.S. Naval Academy that ended with a Midshipman being shot and wounded.

    He said in his own experience as U.S. Capitol Police chief, similar threats that targeted members of Congress were often based overseas.

    “We weren’t able to pinpoint who made the call and who originated the threat, but we were able to determine that it came from overseas,” he said. “So this wasn’t just some neighborhood kid trying to get out of taking a test.”

    Referring to the current political climate, Manger said, “I don’t remember politics being like this.”

    “How we combat this? God, I wish I had the answer,” he said.

    But Manger said the country needs to reject political violence as a possible solution to any issue.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Kate Ryan

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  • Conservative activist Charlie Kirk assassinated at Utah university; shooter still at large

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    Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed at a Utah college event in what the governor called a political assassination.Authorities say Kirk was killed with a single shot from a rooftop on Wednesday. Whoever fired the gun then slipped away amid the chaos of screams and students fleeing the Utah Valley University campus. Federal, state and local authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter early Thursday and working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.”Two people were detained Wednesday but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, Utah public safety officials said.Authorities did not immediately identify a motive, but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.” A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.Kirk was taking questions about gun violenceKirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.Then a single shot rang out.The shooter, who Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.Madison Lattin was watching only a few dozen feet from Kirk’s left when she said she heard the bullet hit Kirk.“Blood is falling and dripping down and you’re just like so scared, not just for him but your own safety,” she said.She said she saw people drop to the ground in an eerie silence pierced immediately by cries. Lattin ran while others splashed through decorative pools to get away. Some fell and were trampled in the stampede. People lost their shoes, backpacks, folding chairs and water bottles in the frenzy.When Lattin later learned that Kirk had died, she said she wept, describing him as a role model who had showed her how to be determined and fight for the truth.Trump calls Kirk ‘martyr for truth’Some 3,000 people were in attendance, according to a statement from the Utah Department of Public Safety. The university police department had six officers working the event, along with Kirk’s own security detail, authorities said.Trump announced the death on social media and praised the 31-year-old Kirk who was co-founder and CEO of Turning Point as “Great, and even Legendary.” Later Wednesday, he released a recorded video from the White House in which he called Kirk a “martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for the killing.Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated after the shooting, with officers escorting people to safety. It will be closed until Monday.Meanwhile, armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for any information residents might have on the shooting. Helicopters buzzed overhead.Wednesday’s event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”Condemnation from across the political spectrumThe shooting drew swift condemnation across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.“The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.The shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major parties. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at Wednesday’s event, told the Fox News Channel that he didn’t believe Kirk had enough security.“Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

    OREM, Utah —

    Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed at a Utah college event in what the governor called a political assassination.

    Authorities say Kirk was killed with a single shot from a rooftop on Wednesday. Whoever fired the gun then slipped away amid the chaos of screams and students fleeing the Utah Valley University campus. Federal, state and local authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter early Thursday and working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”

    “This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.”

    Two people were detained Wednesday but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, Utah public safety officials said.

    Authorities did not immediately identify a motive, but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.

    Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.” A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.

    Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images

    Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah. Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking at his “American Comeback Tour” when he was shot in the neck and killed.

    Kirk was taking questions about gun violence

    Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

    “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”

    The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”

    “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.

    Then a single shot rang out.

    The shooter, who Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.

    Madison Lattin was watching only a few dozen feet from Kirk’s left when she said she heard the bullet hit Kirk.

    “Blood is falling and dripping down and you’re just like so scared, not just for him but your own safety,” she said.

    She said she saw people drop to the ground in an eerie silence pierced immediately by cries. Lattin ran while others splashed through decorative pools to get away. Some fell and were trampled in the stampede. People lost their shoes, backpacks, folding chairs and water bottles in the frenzy.

    When Lattin later learned that Kirk had died, she said she wept, describing him as a role model who had showed her how to be determined and fight for the truth.

    Trump calls Kirk ‘martyr for truth’

    Some 3,000 people were in attendance, according to a statement from the Utah Department of Public Safety. The university police department had six officers working the event, along with Kirk’s own security detail, authorities said.

    Trump announced the death on social media and praised the 31-year-old Kirk who was co-founder and CEO of Turning Point as “Great, and even Legendary.” Later Wednesday, he released a recorded video from the White House in which he called Kirk a “martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for the killing.

    Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated after the shooting, with officers escorting people to safety. It will be closed until Monday.

    Meanwhile, armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for any information residents might have on the shooting. Helicopters buzzed overhead.

    Wednesday’s event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”

    Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”

    Condemnation from across the political spectrum

    The shooting drew swift condemnation across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.

    “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.

    “The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.

    The shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major parties. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

    Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at Wednesday’s event, told the Fox News Channel that he didn’t believe Kirk had enough security.

    “Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”

    Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

    But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

    Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.

    Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

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