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Tag: political violence

  • Commentary: Empathy is the only way forward after Charlie Kirk’s death

    It wasn’t the greeting I was expecting from my dad when I stopped by for lunch Wednesday at his Anaheim home.

    “¿Quién es Charlie Kirk?”

    Papi still has a flip phone, so he hasn’t sunk into an endless stream of YouTube and podcasts like some of his friends. His sources of news are Univisión and the top-of-the-hour bulletins on Mexican oldies stations — far away from Kirk’s conservative supernova.

    “Some political activist,” I replied. “Why?”

    “The news said he got shot.”

    Papi kept watering his roses while I went on my laptop to learn more. My stomach churned and my heart sank as graphic videos of Kirk taking a bullet in the neck while speaking to students at Utah Valley University peppered my social media feeds. What made me even sicker was that everyone online already thought they knew who did it, even though law enforcement hadn’t identified a suspect.

    Conservatives blamed liberalism for demonizing one of their heroes and vowed vengeance. Some progressives argued that Kirk had it coming because of his long history of incendiary statements against issues including affirmative action, trans people and Islam. Both sides predicted an escalation in political violence in the wake of Kirk’s killing — fueled by the other side against innocents, of course.

    It was the internet at its worst, so I closed my laptop and checked on my dad. He had moved on to cleaning the pool.

    “So who was he?” Papi asked again. By then, Donald Trump had announced Kirk’s death. Text messages streamed in from my colleagues. I gave my dad a brief sketch of Kirk’s life, and he frowned when I said the commentator had supported Trump’s mass deportation dreams.

    Hate wasn’t on Papi’s mind, however.

    “It’s sad that he got killed,” Papi said. “May God bless him and his family.”

    “Are politics going to get worse now?” he added.

    It’s a question that friends and family have been asking me ever since Kirk’s assassination. I’m the political animal in their circles, the one who bores everyone at parties as I yap about Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom while they want to talk Dodgers and Raiders. They’re too focused on raising families and trying to prosper in these hard times to post a hot take on social media about political personalities they barely know.

    They’ve long been over this nation’s partisan divide, because they work and play just fine with people they don’t agree with. They’re tired of being told to loathe someone over ideological differences or blindly worship a person or a cause because it’s supposedly in their best interests. They might not have heard of Kirk before his assassination, but they now worry about what’s next — because a killing this prominent is usually a precursor of worse times ahead.

    I wasn’t naive enough to think that the killing of someone as divisive as Kirk would bring Americans together to denounce political terrorism and forge a kinder nation. I knew that each side would embarrass itself with terrible takes and that Trump wouldn’t even pretend to be a unifier.

    But the collective dumpster fire we got was worse than I had imagined.

    President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk, during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, March 22, 2018.

    (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

    Although conservatives brag that no riots have sparked, as happened after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, they’re largely staying silent as the loudest of Kirk’s supporters vow to crush the left once and for all. The Trump administration is already promising a crackdown against the left in Kirk’s name, and no GOP leaders are complaining. People are losing their jobs because of social media posts critical of Kirk, and his fans are cheering the cancel cavalcade.

    Meanwhile, progressives are flummoxed by the right, yet again. They can’t understand why vigils nationwide for someone they long cast as a white nationalist, a fascist and worse are drawing thousands. They’re dismissing those who attend as deluded cultists, hardening hearts on each side even more. They’re posting Kirk’s past statements on social media as proof that they’re correct about him — but that’s like holding up a sheet of paper to dam the Mississippi.

    I hadn’t paid close attention to Kirk, mostly because he didn’t have a direct connection to Southern California politics. I knew he had helped turn young voters toward Trump, and I loathed his noxious comments that occasionally caught my attention. I appreciated that he was willing to argue his views with critics, even if his style was more Cartman from “South Park” (which satirized Kirk’s college tours just weeks ago) than Ronald Reagan versus Walter Mondale.

    I understand why his fans are grieving and why opponents are sickened at his canonization by Trump, who seems to think that only conservatives are the victims of political violence and that liberals can only be perpetrators. I also know that a similar thing would happen if, heaven forbid, a progressive hero suffered Kirk’s tragic end — way too many people on the right would be dancing a jig and cracking inappropriate jokes, while the left would be whitewashing the sins of the deceased.

    We’re witnessing a partisan passion play, with the biggest losers our democracy and the silent majority of Americans like my father who just want to live life. Weep or critique — it’s your right to do either. But don’t drag the whole country into your culture war. Those who have navigated between the Scylla and Charybdis of right and left for too long want to sail to calmer waters. Turning Kirk’s murder into a modern-day Ft. Sumter when we aren’t even certain of his suspected killer’s motives is a guarantee for chaos.

    I never answered my dad’s question about what’s next for us politically. In the days since, I keep rereading what Kirk said about empathy. He derided the concept on a 2022 episode of his eponymous show as “a made-up, new age term that … does a lot of damage.”

    Kirk was wrong about many things, but especially that. Empathy means we try to understand each other’s experiences — not agree, not embrace, but understand. Empathy connects us to others in the hope of creating something bigger and better.

    It’s what allows me to feel for Kirk’s loved ones and not wish his fate on anyone, no matter how much I dislike them or their views. It’s the only thing that ties me to Kirk — he loved this country as much as I do, even if our views about what makes it great were radically different.

    Preaching empathy might be a fool’s errand. But at a time when we’re entrenched deeper in our silos than ever, it’s the only way forward. We need to understand why wishing ill on the other side is wrong and why such talk poisons civic life and dooms everyone.

    Kirk was no saint, but if his assassination makes us take a collective deep breath and figure out how to fix this fractured nation together, he will have truly died a martyr’s death.

    Gustavo Arellano

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  • Trump at first says he is ‘not familiar’ with Minnesota Democrat’s assassination

    In response to a question about why he did not order flags lowered to half-staff to honor Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was assassinated alongside her husband this summer, Donald Trump initially said he was “not familiar” with the case.

    The question came up during a briefing in the Oval Office on Monday, in light of the president’s order last week to lower flags in response to the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.

    Trump was pressed on why he and Republicans continued cast blame the left for a rise in political violence when elected officials and activists from both parties have been targets.

    Related: Iowa official defies governor’s order to fly flags at half-staff for Charlie Kirk

    The exchange began when the reporter asked about the tributes paid by the White House to Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA and a close ally of the president and his family.

    “Do you think it would have been fitting to lower the flags to half-staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota house speaker, was gunned down by an assassin as well?” asked Nancy Cordes, the chief White House correspondent for CBS News.

    “I’m not familiar. The who?” Trump replied, leaning in across the Resolute Desk.

    “The Minnesota house speaker, a Democrat, who was assassinated this summer,” she said.

    “Oh,” Trump replied. “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that.”

    Trump did not mention the Minnesota governor Tim Walz – a Democrat and the vice-presidential nominee in 2024 – by name, but suggested that had he made the request, the White House might have obliged.

    “I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I would’ve, if somebody had asked me,” Trump said. “People make requests for the lowering of the flag, and oftentimes you have to say no, because it would be a lot of lowering.”

    At the time, Trump said that speaking to Walz, a close friend of Hortman, would have been a “waste of time”.

    “I could be nice and call, but why waste time?” Trump said then, referring to Walz as “whacked out” and a “mess”.

    Kirk was fatally shot last week while speaking at Utah Valley University. In the wake of his death, Trump and other prominent conservatives have sought to place the blame for political violence squarely on Democrats, vowing to crack down on the left-wing groups and institutions they allege “fund it and support it”.

    As Republicans grieve the loss of Kirk, they have largely ignored the violence against Democrats, including Hortman’s assassination, the arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, the violent assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a thwarted plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

    House Republicans and a handful of Democrats gathered at prayer vigil for Kirk on Capitol Hill on Monday. In brief remarks, Representative Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, reflected on several recent incidents of political violence, including Hortman’s killing by “another evil coward” who also shot a second Democratic state lawmaker that night.

    Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 presidential campaign, denied on Monday that he had blamed just “one side” before accusing the “radical left” of causing “tremendous violence”.

    “The radical left really has caused a lot of problems for this country,” he said. “I really think they hate our country.”

    Earlier on Monday, vice president JD Vance, a close friend of Kirk’s, said he hoped for national “unity” while hosting the slain activist’s podcast. But then he insisted that this was not a “both sides problem” and that Democrats were primarily to blame, despite widespread condemnation of Kirk’s killing by party officials and elected leaders.

    During the lengthy episode, Vance made no reference to Hortman or other acts of political violence, such as the 6 January assault on the US Capitol.

    “Something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe – a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left,” he said, and committed to using the levers of the federal government to “dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”.

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  • Van Hollen, Democrats in Iowa call for end to political violence after Kirk’s killing

    Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) speaks with Iowa state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, who is running for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry in Des Moines on Saturday. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

    Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Iowa congressional candidates took time Saturday at the Polk County Democrats’ Steak Fry to condemn political violence in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing in Utah.

    Van Hollen, gave a keynote address at event, an annual Iowa fundraiser that featured speeches from Democratic candidates for Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, as well as from the 3rd and 4th congressional district races. He spoke about Kirk’s death, saying the shooting is a reminder of “how fragile our democracy can feel,” while criticizing Trump’s response to the issue.

    On Wednesday, Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot while answering a question at an event at Utah Valley University. The suspected gunman was identified and taken into custody Friday.

    Politicians and leaders mourned Kirk’s death and called for a change to prevent future politically motivated violence.

    “The answer cannot be more violence,” Van Hollen said. “The answer cannot be vengeance. And sadly, the president is using this moment not to unite America against political violence, but to engage in finger pointing.

    “But we will not be silenced. We will speak out for what we believe vigorously, courageously and peacefully,” he said.

    Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said it has been a “really hard week” in light of Kirk’s death, and that Democrats, and all Americans, need to take steps to ensure these threats are eliminated.

    “We don’t have to look very far to see other examples of violence that has occurred because of political leanings,” Hart said, in part referring to the fatal shooting of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman in June. “And none of us find that to be acceptable, because it simply isn’t.

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    “We live in a country that was founded on the principle that we could stand up in a place like this and express our feelings, our thoughts, our attitudes, our beliefs and our political leanings, and not get shot because we have an opinion or a thought that’s different than somebody else’s,” she said.

    In Iowa, there has been an outpouring of sympathy for Kirk’s family and calls to stop political violence. Speaking with reporters, Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate called for an end to political violence.

    In recent days, there has been some criticism from Republicans and others of Iowans, including some teachers, who have made controversial social media posts about Kirk’s death.

    Democratic Senate candidate Jackie Norris, the school board president for the Des Moines Public Schools, said political violence was unacceptable, and that teachers — alongside most people — should be more cognizant of what they are publicly posting on social media. However, Norris added, “we have to respect that people have different views,” including teachers.

    “It is important that we tone down the rhetoric, but we also have to respect that (teachers) have strong feelings too,” Norris said. “It’s a balance.”

    Van Hollen calls Democrats ‘spineless’ for not backing Mamdani

    Van Hollen also told Iowans at the event that winning in 2026 will mean Democrats must be outspokenly in support of Democratic candidates running in 2025 races — including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

    The Maryland Democrat said Iowa would play an important role in the 2026 midterms — but that supporting Democrats in 2025 races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as for New York City mayor, will help build “momentum” for 2026.

    Van Hollen criticized New York Democrats for not supporting Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who won the Democratic mayoral primary. He said many Democrats representing New York in the U.S. House and Senate have “stayed on the sidelines” as President Donald Trump and others have mobilized to defeat the Democratic candidate.

    “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of,” Van Hollen said. “They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”

    Van Hollen criticized other aspects of the Democratic Party, saying the Biden administration was “feckless” in holding the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable to U.S. and international law. But he largely focused his remarks on Trump and Republicans in control of Congress.

    In addition to talking about Medicaid cuts and criticizing Trump’s foreign policy decisions, Van Hollen said the Trump administration was violating people’s constitutional rights by pursuing mass deportations. Van Hollen gained a significant national platform earlier in 2025 for his work involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador erroneously and held in prison there before being returned to the U.S. He is currently being held in Virginia by immigration authorities.

    Van Hollen was one of the major advocates for returning Abrego Garcia to this country and allowing his case to go through the U.S. court system. At Saturday’s event, he said he was advised not to pursue the issue, as immigration is not a winning topic for Democrats, but said he continued to fight for Abrego Garcia’s due process rights because “our democracy cannot survive on silence or equivocation.”

    “And lo and behold, Americans across the political spectrum do believe in the red, white and blue essential right to due process in the United States of America,” he said. “They do believe in the principle that no one in America — I mean, no one — should be disappeared by the state without having a chance before a court of law.
    “And Americans understand this is not about one man,” Van Hollen said. “It’s about all of us. Because when you strip away the rights from one person, you threaten the rights … of all of us.”

    Abrego Garcia has been returned to the U.S., though the Trump administration has said it intends to deport him again, potentially to the country of Eswatini, previously known as Swaziland.

    Van Hollen said he would “never, ever apologize for standing up for anybody’s constitutional rights,” and said Democrats need to do more to speak out on issues they believe are important, even if polls or pundits say the topics are not politically advantageous. This will be especially important in states like Iowa, he said.

    “We can and we will win here again, if — if — we speak to our core values, if we show people what we will stand up for and we will fight for,” Van Hollen said. “That’s why it’s great to be here to flip steaks and flip seats.”

    – This story originally appeared in Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.

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  • Kirk killing has political leaders from N.J. and beyond confronting security concerns — and fear

    Several uniformed police officers stood side by side along the entrance of a public park where the Democratic candidate for New Jersey governor, Mikie Sherrill, met voters Friday to discuss measures designed to bring transparency to the state budget process.

    The significant security presence was a sharp shift from Sherrill’s recent events.

    Across the nation, it has been much the same for Republican and Democratic officials after another stunning act of political violence, with the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Politicians in both parties and at virtually every level of public service are suddenly being forced to deal with acute security concerns — and feelings of grief, anger and fear — as they move deeper into a fraught election season.

    Some political leaders are canceling public appearances. Others are relying on a large police presence to keep them safe. And still others insist that the fallout from Kirk’s death won’t have any impact on their duties.

    Even before the killing of Kirk, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania was struggling with the emotional toll of political violence.

    In the middle of the night just five months ago, someone broke into his home and set it on fire. Shapiro, who is also a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, was asleep with his wife and children.

    And in the weeks since his family fled the blaze, Shapiro has been forced to confront the vexing questions now consuming elected officials in both parties as they face the impact of Kirk’s assassination on their own public lives.

    “The emotional challenge for me that’s been the hardest to work through is that, as a father, the career I chose, that I find great purpose and meaning in, ended up putting my children’s lives at risk,” Shapiro, a father of four, told The Associated Press. “Make no mistake, the emotional burden of being a father through this has been something that continues to be a challenge for me to this day.”

    Indeed, even as Shapiro offered prayers for Kirk’s widow and children, the Democratic governor said he is undeterred in his duties as a leading figure in his national party and his state.

    “I’m not slowing down,” he said.

    On that, he and President Donald Trump appear to agree.

    The Republican president was asked during a Friday appearance on Fox News if he would cancel any public appearances of his own.

    “You have to go forward,” he said.

    Violent rhetoric surges

    Bellicose rhetoric and even death threats have surged in the days since Kirk was killed.

    “The left is the party of murder,” Elon Musk, the tech titan and CEO of the social media platform X, wrote. “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die.”

    To that, Fox News host Jesse Waters said during a broadcast, “They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. What are we going to do about it?”

    On Friday, a right-wing activist posted online a video outside Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s home, calling on followers to “take action.”

    The charged environment prompted a number of public officials, largely Democrats, to postpone public appearances.

    Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., canceled a Saturday town hall in Las Vegas “out of an abundance of caution for town hall participants, attendees, and members of the media.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also postponed a weekend event in North Carolina due to security concerns.

    Former Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, president of Young America’s Foundation, which works to attract young people to the GOP, said his group canceled a Thursday night event in California featuring conservative commentator Ben Shapiro out of respect for Kirk and his family.

    And while officials in both parties acknowledged that new security precautions would be in place — at least for the short term — cancellations have been rare.

    Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, another potential Democratic presidential prospect who recently announced his 2026 reelection campaign, said he would not change his public schedule because of the increased threat, even as political violence will be on his mind.

    “It’s never something that completely leaves you, but I don’t think it can be something that debilitates you,” Moore told The Associated Press.

    When asked if he expects a retaliatory attack against Democrats, the former Army captain insisted, “We are not at war with one another.”

    “As someone who has seen war, as someone who knows what war looks like, as someone who will live with the realities of war for the rest of my life, I refuse to ever believe that we in the country are at war with one another,” he said. “And I refuse to believe that we as a country are devolving into some just kind of type of retaliatory tit for tat.”

    “Resorting to violence is a remarkable sign of weakness,” Moore added. “It means you can’t win a political argument.”

    And yet political violence is becoming more frequent in the United States.

    Former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot in the head as she met with constituents in 2011. Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at a congressional team baseball practice in 2017. Trump was grazed by a bullet last summer on the stump in Pennsylvania. And barely three months ago, the top Democrat in the Minnesota state house and her husband were gunned down at home.

    What it looks like on the campaign trail.

    In Illinois, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Aaron Del Mar said he and other GOP candidates are discussing new security precautions, such as bringing events indoors, enhanced use of metal detectors and background checks on those who attend their events.

    “There’s a lot of concern right now,” he said.

    In New Jersey, 35-year-old Democrat Maira Barbosa attended Sherrill’s event on Friday with her 16-month-old son. She said she’s never been more resolved to show up to a political event in person, even as she admitted she had second thoughts.

    “We’re seeing so much hate speech and we’re seeing people advocate for violence, so of course it makes me concerned, especially to the point of bringing my son,” she said. “If we don’t participate, if we don’t get involved, who is going to represent us?”

    No Kings protest

    In interviews, governors Shapiro and Moore largely avoided casting blame for the current era of political violence, although they were critical of Trump’s immediate response to Kirk’s shooting.

    The Republican president highlighted only attacks against Republicans during his Oval Office address on Thursday and blamed “the radical left” for Kirk’s shooting, even before the suspect was arrested.

    Shapiro said Trump “misused the power of an Oval Office address.”

    “To be clear, the political violence has impacted Democrats and Republicans, and the rhetoric of vengeance and the language that has created division has come from both sides of the political divide,” Shapiro said. “No one party has clean hands, and no one party is immune from the threat of political violence.”

    Moore called for everyone to tone down the rhetoric.

    “I just think it’s important for the president and anyone else to understand that your words matter, and leadership is how you lift us up in darkness, not how you use it as a moment for opportunism and to introduce more darkness and finger-pointing into an already horrific situation,” he said.

    “I’m praying for our country,” Moore continued. “I’m praying that the legacy of this moment is we got better — not that we got worse.”

    NJ Advance Media contributed to this report.

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  • Blame game after acts of political violence can lead to further attacks, experts warn

    DENVER — From the moment conservative activist and icon Charlie Kirk was felled by an assassin’s bullet, partisans began fighting over which side was to blame. President Donald Trump became the most prominent to do so, tying the attack to “the radical left” before a suspect was even identified.

    It was part of a new, grim tradition in a polarized country — trying to pin immediate responsibility for an act of public violence on one of two political sides. As the nation reels from a wave of physical attacks against both Republicans and Democrats, experts warn that the rush to blame sometimes ambiguous and irrational acts on political movements could lead to more conflict.

    “What you’re seeing now is exactly how the spiral of violence occurs,” said Robert Pape, a political scientist and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago.

    On Friday, authorities announced they had arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Washington, Utah, in the shooting. While a registered voter, he was not affiliated with any party and had not voted in the last two general elections. Even so, officials said Robinson had recently grown more political and expressed negative views about Kirk.

    There was other initial evidence of Robinson’s potential influences. According to court papers, he carved taunting phrases into his ammunition — including one bullet casing marked with “Hey, fascist! Catch!” — and others from the irony-laden world of memes and online video games.

    Experts say political assassins don’t always fall into neatly sorted partisan categories. In some cases, like that of Thomas Mathew Crooks, who shot Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally last year, there is little record of any political stances whatsoever. The FBI has said Crooks also had researched then-President Joe Biden as a possible attack target.

    Bruce Hoffman, who studies terrorism at Georgetown University, noted that the FBI has created a new category, Nihilistic Violent Extremism, to track the increasing number of attacks that seem to have no clear political motivation.

    “Extremism is becoming a salad bowl of ideologies where you can pick whatever you want,” Hoffman said, adding that the increasing number of lone wolf attacks means violence is increasingly unmoored from organizations with clear political goals.

    What’s more important than the attackers’ state of mind, experts stressed, is the broader political environment. The more heated the atmosphere, the more likely it’ll lead unstable people to commit violence.

    “What they all share is a political ecosystem that’s very permissive about violence towards political rivals,” Arie Perlinger, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, said of recent perpetrators of political violence. “Because politicians are incentivized to use extreme rhetoric and extreme language, that leads to demonization of political rivals.”

    That certainly happened after the Kirk killing. The 31-year-old father of two young children was an icon on the new, populist right, especially among young conservatives, and a key ally of Trump. While some conservatives called for calm, others, such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and podcaster and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, called for “war.”

    In a speech on the House floor on Thursday, Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, said Kirk’s “death was not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a disturbing trend in political violence in our country, encouraged by the radical left and amplified by a corrupt media that has gone from being fake to totally evil.”

    Many prominent Democrats issued statements urging calm on both sides. Among them were California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was gravely injured by a hammer-wielding attacker who broke into their house in 2022 in an assault that Trump, among other Republicans, mocked.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, also called for lowering the temperature across the board.

    Still, the most prominent practitioner of polarized attacks remains Trump. Friday morning, shortly after announcing the arrest on Fox News, he said “the radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. … The radicals on the left are the problem.”

    The Anti-Defamation League found that from 2022 through 2024, all of the 61 political killings in the U.S. were committed by right-wing extremists. That changed on the first day of 2025, when a Texas man flying the flag of the Islamic State group killed 14 people by driving his truck through a crowded New Orleans street before being fatally shot by police.

    Hoffman said that in modern history, the right has been responsible for more political attacks on people than the left. He said that’s because left-wing radicals are more likely to target property rather than people, and because the extreme right boasts organizations such as militias.

    He added that after Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to overturn his election loss, “there’s a belief in certain quarters that, if you engage in violence, the slate can be wiped clean.”

    There’s no question there’s also been political violence from the left. In 2017, a 66-year-old man who had supported leftist causes opened fire at a congressional Republican baseball practice, critically wounding Rep. Steve Scalise, who eventually recovered.

    In 2022, an armed man angry over a leaked ruling from an coming case that would limit abortion rights tried to enter the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The man backed off when he saw U.S. Marshals guarding the justice’s house, called his sister, and was persuaded to call 911 and surrender to police.

    Pape, of the University of Chicago, said those who engage in political violence are often not the same as the partisans who stoke debates online. He said about 40% of those who perpetrate political violence have a mental illness.

    “When there is strong support in the public for political violence, that nudges people over the edge because they think they’re acting in community interest,” he said.

    He said he worried about Trump’s one-sided condemnation of left-wing violence, saying it will only inflame the conflict. He compared it to when some liberals condemn all Trump voters as racists.

    “The constituents of whoever is doing this, it emboldens them,” Pape said. As for the group being tarnished as uniquely violent, “it creates a bigger sense of defiance,” he added. “What we need to do is convince Trump to do more restraining of his side because we’re really in a tinderbox moment.”

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  • California conservatives mourn Charlie Kirk

    Community vigils in California continued through the weekend to memorialize Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was killed by rifle fire during a Utah rally Wednesday.

    In San Francisco’s Noe Valley Park, some 80 people attended a Saturday afternoon memorial hosted by the county Republican Party. The San Francisco Standard reported the event included prayers, eulogies and placards promoting dialogue. At at one point, police officers watched from a distance.

    In Ventura County, the local Republican committee is planning a “Light in the Darkness” vigil on Monday night in Moorpark. The event, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., is at Walnut Grove at Tierra Rejada Farms.

    Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point, was shot and killed while giving an address at a Utah university.

    The 31-year-old was popular among conservative groups on college campuses but controversial for his often deliberately provocative attacks against diversity programs and racial, ethnic and sexual minority groups.

    He had called the Civil Rights Act a mistake and recently tweeted that “Islam is not compatible with western civilization.”

    After his death, subsequent social media discourse in some sectors has become so divisive that some Utah officials called for people to log off and “go out and do good in your community.”

    Despite the environment online, politicians and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum denounced the killing.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he “admired [Kirk’s] passion and commitment to debate” and called his murder “sick and reprehensible.”

    A leading Muslim American civil rights organization said “the values that led us to oppose many of Mr. Kirk’s stances are the same values that lead us to condemn his murder and reaffirm that political violence is not the answer to even the most hateful rhetoric.”

    Among the vigils held or scheduled for Kirk locally were ones in Van Nuys, Beverly Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes and Huntington Beach. In addition, the Los Angeles Republican Party promoted an online event for Sunday, “Dignity Over Violence.” It is hosted by the political depolarization nonprofit Braver Angels.

    In Moorpark, organizers were expecting hundreds to attend the Monday vigil at Walnut Grove at Tierra Rejada Farms.

    Richard Lucas III, chair of the Ventura County Republican Party, which is putting on the event, said Kirk plainly spoke the truth on issues, including the 2nd Amendment and when life starts, in the process making himself “near and dear to so many people.”

    He said he expects the vigil to include prayers, the pledge of allegiance and lots of tears.

    “Pray for peace, pray for love,” Lucas said. “We know political parties don’t always see eye to eye, but any result of violence is unequivocally unacceptable, especially political violence.”

    Andrew Khouri, Paige St. John

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  • U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrats call for end to political violence after Charlie Kirk’s death

    U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, spoke to state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, who is running for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in 2026 at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry in Des Moines Sep. 13, 2025. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

    U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, and Iowa congressional candidates took time Saturday at the Polk County Democrats’ Steak Fry to condemn political violence in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing in Utah.

    The Polk County Democrats Steak Fry, an annual fundraiser, featured speeches from Democratic candidates for Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, as well as from the 3rd and 4th congressional district races. Van Hollen, who gave a keynote address at the event, spoke about Kirk’s death, saying the shooting is a reminder of “how fragile our democracy can feel,” while criticizing Trump’s response to the issue.

    On Wednesday, Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot while answering a question at an event at Utah Valley University. The suspected gunman was identified and taken into custody Friday. Politicians and leaders mourned Kirk’s death and called for a change to prevent future politically motivated violence.

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    “The answer cannot be more violence,” Van Hollen said. “The answer cannot be vengeance. And sadly, the president is using this moment not to unite America against political violence, but to engage in finger pointing. But we will not be silenced. We will speak out for what we believe vigorously, courageously and peacefully.”

    Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said it has been a “really hard week” in light of Kirk’s death, and that Democrats, and all Americans, need to take steps to ensure these threats are eliminated.

    “We don’t have to look very far to see other examples of violence that has occurred because of political leanings,” Hart said, in part referring to the fatal shooting of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman in June. “And none of us find that to be acceptable, because it simply isn’t. We live in a country that was founded on the principle that we could stand up in a place like this and express our feelings, our thoughts, our attitudes, our beliefs and our political leanings, and not get shot because we have an opinion or a thought that’s different than somebody else’s.”

    In Iowa, there has been an outpouring of sympathy for Kirk’s family and calls to stop political violence. Speaking with reporters, Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate called for an end to political violence.

    In recent days, there has been some criticism from Republicans and others of Iowans, including some teachers, who have made controversial social media posts about Kirk’s death.

    Democratic Senate candidate Jackie Norris, the school board president for the Des Moines Public Schools, said political violence was unacceptable, and that teachers — alongside most people — should be more cognizant of what their are publicly posting on social media. However, Norris added, “we have to respect that people have different views,” including teachers.

    “It is important that we tone down the rhetoric, but we also have to respect that (teachers) have strong feelings too,” Norris said. “It’s a balance.”

    Van Hollen calls Democrats ‘spineless’ for not backing Mamdani

    Van Hollen also told Iowans at the event winning in 2026 elections will mean Democrats must be outspokenly in support of Democratic candidates running in 2025 races — including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

    The Maryland Democrat said Iowa would play an important role in the 2026 midterms — but that supporting Democrats in 2025 races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as for New York City mayor, will help build “momentum” for 2026.

    Van Hollen criticized New York Democrats for not supporting Mamdani, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He said many Democrats representing New York in the U.S. House and Senate have “stayed on the sidelines” as President Donald Trump and others have mobilized to defeat the Democratic candidate.

    “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of,” Van Hollen said. “They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”

    Van Hollen criticized other aspects of the Democratic Party, saying the Biden administration was “feckless” in holding the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable to U.S. and international law. But he largely focused his remarks on Trump and Republicans in control of Congress.

    In addition to talking about Medicaid cuts and criticizing Trump’s foreign policy decisions, Van Hollen said the Trump administration was violating people’s constitutional rights by pursuing mass deportations. The Maryland Democrat gained a significant national platform earlier in 2025 for his work involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador erroneously and held in the country’s megaprison.

    Van Hollen was one of the major advocates for returning Abrego Garcia to the country and allowing his case to go through the U.S. court system. At the Saturday event, Van Hollen told Iowans he was advised not to pursue the issue as immigration was not a winning topic for Democrats — but he said he continued to fight for Abrego Garcia’s due process rights because “our democracy cannot survive on silence or equivocation.”

    “And lo and behold, Americans across the political spectrum do believe in the red, white and blue essential right to due process in the United States of America,” he said. “They do believe in the principle that no one in America — I mean, no one — should be disappeared by the state without having a chance before a court of law. And Americans understand this is not about one man. It’s about all of us. Because when you strip away the rights from one person, you threaten the rights of all, of all of us.”

    Abrego Garcia has been returned to the U.S., though the Trump administration has stated they intend to deport him again, potentially to the country of Eswatini.

    Van Hollen said he would “never, ever apologize for standing up for anybody’s constitutional rights,” and said Democrats need to do more to speak out on issues they believe are important, even if polls or pundits say the topics are not politically advantageous. This will be especially important in states like Iowa, he said.

    “We can and we will win here again, if — if — we speak to our core values, if we show people what we will stand up for and we will fight for,” Van Hollen said. “That’s why it’s great to be here to flip steaks and flip seats.”

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  • From Charlie Kirk to Supreme Court backlash, Civil War historians see modern parallels

    Professor Kevin Waite had just finished a seminar on the run-up to the American Civil War on Friday morning when a student cautiously raised her hand.

    “Can I ask about the Charlie Kirk situation?” she said in Waite’s classroom at the University of Texas at Dallas.

    The student, he said, wondered whether recent events carried any echoes of the past. Hyperbolic comparisons between modern political conflict and the horrific bloodshed of past centuries have previously been the stuff of doomsday prepper threads on Reddit, but this week’s shooting made it a mainstream topic of conversation.

    While cautioning that the country is nowhere near as fractured as it was when the Civil War erupted, Waite and other scholars of the period say they do increasingly see parallels.

    “Our current political moment is really resonating with the 1850s,” the historian said.

    He and other scholars note similarities between the deployment of troops to American cities, widespread disillusionment with the Supreme Court, and spasms of political violence — especially from disaffected young men.

    “What we call polarization, they called sectionalism, and in the 1850s there was a growing sense that the sections of the country were pulling apart,” said Matthew Pinsker of Dickinson University.

    Even before Kirk’s alleged assassin was publicly identified as a 22-year-old who left antifascist messages, President Trump blamed the shooting on “radical left political violence.”

    Conservative influencers amplified the rhetoric, with Trump ally Laura Loomer posting on X, “More people will be murdered if the Left isn’t crushed with the power of the state.”

    Violence was far more organized and widespread in the late 1850s, historians caution. Congressmen regularly pulled knives and pistols on one another. Mobs brawled in the streets over the Fugitive Slave Law. Radical abolitionist John Brown and his sons hacked five men to death with swords.

    But some aspects of modern politics are worryingly similar, scholars said.

    “What almost scares me more than the violence itself is the reaction to it,” Waite said. “It was paranoia, the perception that this violence was unstoppable, that really sent the nation spiraling toward Civil War in 1860 and ’61.”

    Top of mind for Waite was the paramilitary political movement known as the Wide Awakes, hundreds of thousands of of torch-toting, black-capped abolitionist youths who took to the street out of frustration with their Republican representatives.

    “There was this perception that antislavery Republicans hadn’t been sufficiently aggressive,” Waite said. Wide Awakes, he said, believed “that it was the slaveholders that were really pushing their agenda much more forcefully, much more violently, and antislavery [politicians] couldn’t just sit down and take it anymore.”

    Most Democratic politicians of the era were fighting to expand slavery to the Western territories, extend federal power to claw back people who’d escaped it, and enshrine slaveholders rights to travel freely with those they held in bondage.

    The Wide Awakes struck terror in their hearts.

    “For their political opponents, it was a really scary spectacle,” Waite said. “Any time a cotton gin burned down in the South, they pointed to the Wide Awakes and other more radical antislavery Northerners and said, ‘This is arson.’”

    For Waite, the Wide Awakes can be compared to an antebellum antifa, while the paramilitaries of the South were more like modern Proud Boys.

    “The South was highly militarized,” he said. “Every adult white man was part of a local militia. It was like a social club, so it was easy to take these local militias and turn them into anti-abolitionist defense units.”

    Still, incursions by abolitionists into the South were rare. Incursions by slave powers into the North were common, and routinely enforced by armed soldiers.

    Legal scholars have already noted striking similarities between Trump’s use of the military to aid his mass deportation effort. The Trump administration has leaned on constitutional maneuvers used to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act — a divisive law that empowered slave catchers from the South to make arrests in Northern states — in legal arguments to justify the use of troops in immigration enforcement.

    “I argue it was the fugitive crisis, more than the territorial crisis, that drove the coming of the Civil War,” Pinsker said. “The resistance in the North essentially made the Fugitive Slave Law dead-letter. They broke the enforcement of that law through legal, political and sometimes protest resistance.”

    Many Northern states had passed “personal liberty laws” to prevent Black people from being snatched off the streets and returned to slavery in the South — a move Waite and others compare to sanctuary laws across the country today.

    “The attempt to uphold these personal liberty laws and simultaneously the government’s attempts to take these Black fugitives led to violence, and to perceptions that the so-called slave-power was the aggressor,” Waite said.

    By the late 1850s, Northerners were equally fed up with the Supreme Court, which under Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was seen as a rubber stamp for slaveholders’ goals.

    “The Supreme Court in the 1850s was dominated by Southerners, mostly Southern Democrats, and they were pro-slavery,” said Michael J. Birkner of Gettysburg University. “I think the Dred Scott case and the court being on one side is absolutely a parallel with today.”

    The Dred Scott decision, which ruled Black people ineligible for American citizenship, is widely taught in schools.

    But far fewer Americans know about the Lemmon case, a New York legal battle that could have effectively legalized slavery in all 50 states had the Taney court heard it before the war broke out in 1861.

    “Slaveholders were eager to get that case before Taney, because that would have nationalized slavery,” Waite said.

    Despite the similarities, scholars say that there is nothing inevitable about armed conflict, and that the imperative now is to bring the political temperature down.

    “Donald Trump has not been offering that message with the clarity it needs,” Pinsker said. “He says he’s a big fan of Lincoln, but now is the moment for him to remember what Lincoln stood for.”

    When it comes to parallels with America’s deadliest conflict, “there’s only one lesson,” the historian said.

    “We do not want another civil war,” Pinsker said. “That’s the only message that matters.”

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

    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.

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  • Why We’re Not Doomed to a Cycle of Violence After Charlie Kirk

    A vigil for Charlie Kirk was held in Orem, Utah, on Thursday.
    Photo: Loren Elliott/The New York Times/Redux

    It took only a few hours after the shooting of Charlie Kirk for President Donald Trump to go from urging retribution against the “radical far left” to flogging his new White House ballroom on national TV.

    And it might be the best thing he’s ever done for this country, even if accidentally, according to experts on political violence.

    They unanimously agree that the livestream killing of the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder in Utah on Wednesday has the potential to unleash a wave of further violence — especially if the White House essentially gives the green light for reprisals. A lack of focused attention, though, might inadvertently serve to lower the temperature in the country.

    “If you would’ve asked me six months ago, I would’ve been much more optimistic about the risk of political violence to our country. Today, I think we are at an inflection point, potentially, where we can come together or we can further divide,” says Sean Westwood, an associate professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College and the director of the Polarization Research Lab. “Unfortunately, because of a lot of the messaging that’s coming through social media, and from leaders like Trump … we’re being nudged toward greater division.”

    Contrary to the assertion of Trump and some Republicans — particularly those seeking to create a committee to “uncover the force” behind the “radical left” by probing a slew of “entities driving this coordinated attack” — Westwood says there’s no evidence the shooting was “coordinated” at all or even that there’s a “national appetite” for coordinated political violence.

    The Kirk killing, he says, is part of a trend of “lone wolf” violence that lacks any organizational backing and often plays out with an “isolated individual” struggling with mental-health issues and “without a coherent ideology.” The suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is said to have scrawled messages on bullet casings that express anti-fascist sentiments but may double as references to video games and online trolling culture.

    “The worst thing that we can imagine is our political leaders inflaming rhetoric and then giving mentally unstable individuals justification to commit additional acts of violence,” Westwood says, warning of a “false sense of mandate” to carry out attacks.

    “I think President Trump was correct in his diagnosis that incendiary rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing, but I think he needs to turn that diagnosis on his own house,” he adds.

    The typically short attention span of the media and those driven by the news cycle, according to West, might ultimately help to ease tensions.

    “I think if we can get through the next few weeks, the risk dramatically decreases until a major event happens,” Westwood says, but “it’s going to be much harder to stop” a downward spiral if there is an act of retaliation over Kirk in the near future.

    “It’s really concerning to see that kind of rhetoric” coming from the White House, says Dalya Berkowitz, a senior research analyst in the Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Calls for retaliation tend to lead to “regular people getting pulled into this violence” because it is somehow portrayed as “righteous.” That is especially true, she says, “in the context of National Guard deployment,” when many people are already “fearful.”

    While Trump himself has created an “us vs. them” mentality — declaring on Fox & Friends early Friday that the “radicals on the left are the problem” while the “radicals on the right” are not — Berkowitz says the best thing for ordinary people to do is ignore messages like that and instead “focus on where we have agency.”

    The most dangerous thing to do, she says, is “giving violence a direction.”

    So if Trump wants to rant about tariffs and his White House ballroom, perhaps the country should welcome that and, in the meantime, heed the advice of Utah governor Spencer Cox, who urged Americans to “choose a different path” in the wake of Kirk’s killing, even if “it feels like rage is the only option.”


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  • Gov. Cox: Utah can lead the nation in addressing political polarization after the Kirk assassination

    The nation’s spotlight shined on Utah this week when it became the site of one of the most public political assassinations in U.S. history.

    On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk, a well-known conservative youth organizer, was shot to death in front of a crowd of 3,000 at Utah Valley University, with videos quickly circulating across the country and around the globe.

    The horrific murder of Kirk, who left behind his wife, Erika, and two children under 4, embodied the spiraling political polarization that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has used his platform to call out and condemn for the past four years.

    “My whole hope is that this is a catalyst to help us find that off-ramp that we desperately need,” Cox said in an interview with the Deseret News on Friday. “And I think Utah is showing the way.”

    What did Gov. Cox say about Charlie Kirk?

    As chair of the National Governors Association from 2023 to 2024, Cox led a “Disagree Better” initiative modeling healthy dialogue between members of opposing political parties. If the nation did not turn down the rhetorical temperature, Cox warned, political violence would increase.

    With the eyes and ears of the nation focused on him at multiple press conferences this week where he took center stage, Cox highlighted Kirk’s focus on the free exchange of ideas and forgiving enemies, while also urging Americans to avoid the “cancer” of social media, to engage in debates with respect and to “stop hating our fellow Americans.”

    Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a press conference while joined by FBI Director Kash Patel and other local and federal law enforcement and government officials in the Pope Science Building on the campus of UVU in Orem on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

    The 2nd-term governor, who received praise from across the political spectrum for his messages, framed the tragic episode as a “watershed” moment for the country’s political system that would determine whether the U.S. would reach “the end of a dark chapter” or start “the beginning of a darker” one.

    “All eyes are on Utah. This is also an opportunity to show the country a way through this,” Cox told the Deseret News. “And that way is through kindness and service to our neighbors and building our communities, and I think honoring the things that (Kirk) stood for — which are passionate debate, free speech, a competition of ideas — that go back to the very founding of our nation.”

    What is Disagree Better doing now?

    On Friday, the newly formed Disagree Better nonprofit group, with Cox as its chair, made its debut by directing an event at the Utah Capitol Building to show that Utah’s response to the assassination of Kirk has the potential to help prevent future political violence.

    Disagree Better executive director Marianne Viray gathered with representatives from Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute, and other national bridge-building initiatives like Braver Angels, the Dignity Index and Living Room Conversations, whose leadership reside in Utah.

    Bridge Builder Conf_tc_02.JPG

    Marianne Viray, of Disagree Better, speaks at a Utah Bridge Builders press conference where local and national leaders respond to the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

    At the press conference, which was sponsored by Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Viray announced the launch of a new website, TurnToward.us, that Disagree Better’s coalition of partners put together in response to the assassination of Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA.

    “Disagree better was absolutely made to be able to respond to this moment,” Viray told the Deseret News. “This tragic event of this week in Utah has elevated this message and reaching more people than it had previously.”

    The new website features one dozen resources intended to help people navigate the vitriolic political environment, including lessons on building relationships with those with whom they disagree and workshops on how to find common ground with others.

    Rising acceptance of political violence

    Much of the reaction to Kirk’s death on social media does not point to decreasing partisan animosity. Hundreds of posts from apparently left-leaning accounts have been found celebrating the assassination of Kirk as a perceived political enemy.

    Others from the right have declared that what happened to Kirk should lead to greater aggression against their ideological foes. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who considered Kirk a close political ally, said on Thursday “we just have to beat the hell” out of “radical left lunatics.”

    In his interview with the Deseret News, Cox called Trump’s response “very normal” and “how most people are feeling.” The alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Washington County, did, in fact, appear to have been motivated by “a radical left ideology” that had “engulfed” him, Cox said.

    These two mugshots released by the FBI show Tyler Robinson. | FBI

    These two mugshots released by the FBI show Tyler Robinson. | FBI

    But the president has also indicated his desire to deescalate the nation’s recent streak of political violence, Cox said. Cox pointed out that Trump was the first person to call him after his Friday press conference to thank him for his words and to reemphasize Kirk’s message of nonviolence

    However, at least portions of the country appear to becoming less interested in the message Cox has to offer.

    A FIRE poll released on Tuesday found that a record one-third of college students now say that resorting to violence to stop a campus speech is acceptable — even if only rarely.

    On Thursday, a YouGov poll found an astonishing partisan disparity in response to whether individuals thought it was acceptable for a person “to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose.”

    Of the nearly 4,000 respondents, 77% of Republicans said it is “always unacceptable” to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose, compared to just 38% of Democrats who felt the same way.

    At Friday’s event, the former leader of Utah Young Republicans, Zac Wilson, and current leader of Utah Young Democrats, Jack Davis, led by example in showing their peers how to cross partisan divides.

    Bridge Builder Conf_tc_06.JPG

    Jack Davis, of Young Democrats, center, looks at Zac Wilson, of Young Republicans, right, at a Utah Bridge Builders press conference where local and national leaders respond to the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

    The duo, who met as BYU students, committed to get lunch together and invest in a real friendship, despite disagreeing on almost all issues, because they agreed on one important issue: ensuring that political violence does not “take root here” and erode the “fundamental right” of free expression in Utah.

    A UVU student, who was a member of Braver Angels, and two BYU students, who started the “Peacemaker Project,” joined other college students at the event, saying that Wednesday’s assassination had convinced them to redouble their efforts to make campuses a place where peaceful debate can thrive.

    Is Utah prepared to respond?

    Each speaker at the event, including Governing Group PAC founder Becky Edwards, and Dignity Index co-founder Tami Pyfer, said Utah was uniquely position to lead the nation after tragedy struck the Beehive State.

    Bridge Builder Conf_tc_13.JPG

    Marianne Viray, of Disagree Better, right, embraces Byron Russell, a founding investor and board member of Redemption Bank, left, at a Utah Bridge Builders press conference where local and national leaders respond to the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

    In his remarks on Friday, Cox said he had prayed that Kirk’s murderer was not a member of the Utah community, known for its unparalleled levels of social capital, charitable giving, volunteer service and religious attendance.

    “I thought it would make it easier on us, if we could just say, hey, we don’t do that here,” Cox told the nation. “But it did happen here, and it was one of us.”

    The fact that Kirk’s murder at the hands of a fellow Utahn felt so personal for so many Utahns is actually evidence of how strong the perception of Utah community is, according to Paul Edwards, the director of BYU’s Wheatley Institute.

    Utah is unique in preserving its sense of community into the 21st century, Edwards said, and now is a time for introspection into how the state can encourage young people to see political opponents as “a person to be engaged” instead of “an object to be eradicated.”

    Patrick Mason, who holds the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, also attended the event, after joining other attendees in penning a Deseret News op-ed.

    He said Utah’s unique heritage as a place settled by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bound together by their love of faith, family and freedom is well-suited to respond to the events of Wednesday that rocked Utah communities.

    Orem City Kirk Vigil_tc_10.JPG

    People listen as Jason Preston, of We Are The People Utah, speaks at a vigil for Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA who was fatally shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at City Center Park in Orem on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

    “No community anywhere in the United States is immune from the forces of polarization,” Mason told the Deseret News. “The question is not immunity, but resilience. Can we actually respond to when the virus of hate … comes in to our community? Can we produce enough antibodies in order to overtake it?”

    The political assassination that occurred in Orem, Utah is the sad fulfillment of what experts said was coming if the nation’s political discourse continued to worsen, Cox told the Deseret News.

    According to Cox, polarization must be addressed at the individual level. It will take more than one group, or one leader to initiate a lasting shift, and concerned citizens should not wait for an indication from a certain elected official to change their behavior, Cox said.

    “As we’re celebrating 250 years, I think there really is this opportunity to remind us who we are,” Cox said. “It’s certainly an opportunity for all peacemakers in this country.”

    Orem City Kirk Vigil_tc_20.JPG

    People leave candles beneath a photo of Charlie Kirk at a vigil for Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA who was fatally shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at City Center Park in Orem on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

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  • Cox calls for end to political violence, says younger generation has opportunity to ‘embrace our differences’ for the better

    Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called for an end to political violence while sharing news about an apprehended suspect in the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

    “I don’t want to get too preachy, but I think it’s important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what’s happening in our country today,” Cox said Friday morning at a press conference.

    “I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, why are we so invested in this?’” he said of Kirk’s assassination. “There’s political violence happening all across our country, and violence is tragic everywhere, and every life taken is a child of God who deserves our love and respect and dignity.”

    Cox announced Friday that the suspect accused of killing Kirk had been apprehended and booked into Utah County Jail. He was named as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a resident of Washington County.

    Kirk’s death and the fallout in the days since has reignited a conversation about the increase of political violence across the country. Many have pointed to the June murder of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hoffman, a Democrat, and her husband, as well as the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump while on the campaign trail last year.

    While the investigation is still in its early stages and the suspect’s motive remains largely unknown to the public, discourse online has highlighted partisan differences in the reaction to Kirk’s death.

    FBI Director Kash Patel, center, arrives at the scene of the shooting death of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Sept. 11, 2025. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

    Cox’s message to end political violence, change the course of history

    “This is certainly about the tragic death … political assassination of Charlie Kirk, but it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals,” Cox said. “This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been and who we could be in better times.”

    Cox noted that Kirk often championed freedom of expression, debating people who disagreed with him. By Kirk being killed, freedom of expression across the country will become more difficult and others will feel discouraged about sharing their ideas and speaking freely, he said.

    “We will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about, if we can’t have a clash of ideas safely and securely … especially those ideas with which you disagree,” Cox said. “That is why this matters so much.”

    Cox had a message for the young people of Utah and across the country, particularly because Kirk had amassed such a following among the younger generation and spent his career and organization focused on young voters.

    Orem City Kirk Vigil_tc_22.JPG

    Andrew Parry, left, and his fiancee, Anja Albrecht, right, hold candles at a vigil for Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA who was fatally shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at City Center Park in Orem on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

    “To my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option,” he said, highlighting Kirk’s message of human connection. “But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path.”

    “Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now. Not by pretending differences don’t matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations,” Cox continued.

    Cox said there is one person responsible for what happened to Kirk and that person is in custody and soon will be charged and held accountable.

    “And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different,” he said.

    The governor highlighted the vigils and community togetherness that Utahns showed in the days since the shooting.

    “We can return hate with hate. And that’s the problem with political violence, is it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side,” he said. “And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp or it’s going to get much, much worse.”

    Cox called on Americans, no matter their political beliefs or partisan divide, to choose to change the course of history and the rise of political violence in the United States.

    “These are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us,” Cox said.

    Charlie Kirk Shot_LS_0011.JPG

    Law enforcement vehicles are posted at the entrance of Utah Valley University in Orem following the shooting of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

    Other leaders weigh in

    Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, one of the largest youth conservative activist organizations in the country, was a staunch supporter of Trump’s. He became a controversial figure when touring the college campuses to debate ideas with students, which could sometimes become heated and have often gone viral online. Kirk was at Utah Valley University on Wednesday to kick off his “American Comeback Tour,” where he hosted his “Prove Me Wrong” debate session.

    In a video message on Wednesday evening after confirming Kirk’s death, Trump called on the American public and the media to “confront the fact that violence and murder” over political disagreements is wrong. He said that the “radical left” compared Kirk to a Nazi and claimed that rhetoric was “directly responsible” for the “terrorism” the country sees today.

    Other political leaders, like former President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris, condemned the political violence and said it has no place in the United States.

    Orem City Kirk Vigil_tc_11.JPG

    People hold lights up to grieve at a vigil for Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA who was fatally shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at City Center Park in Orem on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

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  • Trump says ‘with a high degree of certainty’ that suspect in Charlie Kirk killing has been caught

    The suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination has been captured, President Donald Trump said Friday in an announcement representing a significant breakthrough in the investigation into a targeted killing that raised fresh alarms about political violence in the United States.Live video above: Officials address arrest in shooting death of Charlie Kirk“With a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump announced in a live interview on Fox News Channel. He said a minister also involved with law enforcement turned the suspect in to authorities.“Somebody that was very close to him said, ‘Hmm, that’s him,’” Trump said.The suspect in custody in connection with Kirk’s killing is a 22-year-old from Utah, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Authorities have identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.The FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately comment, but a news conference in Utah, where the killing took place on a college campus this week, was planned for later Friday. News of the arrest came hours after the FBI and state officials had pleaded for public help by releasing additional photographs of the suspect, a move that seemed to indicate that law enforcement was uncertain of the person’s whereabouts.Kirk was killed by a single shot in what police said was a targeted attack and Utah’s governor called a political assassination. Kirk co-founded the nonprofit political organization Turning Point USA, based in Arizona.Authorities recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle near the scene of the shooting and had said the shooter jumped off a roof and vanished into the nearby woods afterward.Kirk had been speaking at a debate hosted by Turning Point at Utah Valley University at the time of Wednesday’s shooting. He was taken to a local hospital and was pronounced dead hours later.“He wanted to help young people, and he didn’t deserve this,” Trump said Friday. “He was really a good person.”Federal investigators and state officials on Thursday had released photos and a video of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at the university in Orem.More than 7,000 leads and tips had poured in, officials said. Authorities have yet to publicly name the suspect or cite a motive in the killing, the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.Grisly video shared onlineThe attack, carried out in broad daylight as Kirk spoke about social issues, was captured on grisly videos that spread on social media.The videos show Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, speaking into a handheld microphone when suddenly a shot rings out. Kirk reaches up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running away.The shooter, who investigators believe blended into the campus crowd because of a college-age appearance, fired one shot from the rooftop, according to authorities. Video released Thursday showed the person then walking through the grass and across the street before disappearing.“I can tell you this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the top FBI agent in Salt Lake City.Trump, who was joined by Democrats in condemning the violence, said he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, visited with Kirk’s family Thursday in Salt Lake City. Vance posted a remembrance on X chronicling their friendship, dating back to initial messages in 2017, through Vance’s Senate run and the 2024 election.“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”Kirk’s casket was flown aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where his nonprofit political youth organization, Turning Point USA, is based. Trump told reporters he plans to attend Kirk’s funeral. Details have not been announced.Kirk was taking questions about gun violenceKirk became a powerful political force among young Republicans and was a fixture on college campuses, where he invited sometimes-vehement debate on social issues.One such provocative exchange played out immediately before the shooting as Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about gun violence.The debate hosted by Turning Point at the Sorensen Center on campus was billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour.”The event 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?”Attendees barricaded themselves in classroomsSome attendees who bolted after the gunshot rushed into two classrooms full of students. They used tables to barricade the door and to shield themselves in the corners. Someone grabbed an electric pencil sharpener and wrapped the cord tightly around the door handle, then tied the sharpener to a chair leg.On campus Thursday, the canopy stamped with the slogan Kirk commonly used at his events — “PROVE ME WRONG” — stood, disheveled.Kathleen Murphy, a longtime resident who lives near the campus, said she has been staying inside with her door locked.“With the shooter not being caught yet, it was a worry,” Murphy said.Meanwhile, the shooting continued to draw swift bipartisan condemnation as Democratic officials joined Trump and other Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the attack, which unfolded during a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major political parties.

    OREM, Utah —

    The suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination has been captured, President Donald Trump said Friday in an announcement representing a significant breakthrough in the investigation into a targeted killing that raised fresh alarms about political violence in the United States.

    Live video above: Officials address arrest in shooting death of Charlie Kirk

    “With a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump announced in a live interview on Fox News Channel. He said a minister also involved with law enforcement turned the suspect in to authorities.

    “Somebody that was very close to him said, ‘Hmm, that’s him,’” Trump said.

    The suspect in custody in connection with Kirk’s killing is a 22-year-old from Utah, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Authorities have identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    The FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately comment, but a news conference in Utah, where the killing took place on a college campus this week, was planned for later Friday. News of the arrest came hours after the FBI and state officials had pleaded for public help by releasing additional photographs of the suspect, a move that seemed to indicate that law enforcement was uncertain of the person’s whereabouts.

    Kirk was killed by a single shot in what police said was a targeted attack and Utah’s governor called a political assassination. Kirk co-founded the nonprofit political organization Turning Point USA, based in Arizona.

    Authorities recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle near the scene of the shooting and had said the shooter jumped off a roof and vanished into the nearby woods afterward.

    Kirk had been speaking at a debate hosted by Turning Point at Utah Valley University at the time of Wednesday’s shooting. He was taken to a local hospital and was pronounced dead hours later.

    “He wanted to help young people, and he didn’t deserve this,” Trump said Friday. “He was really a good person.”

    Federal investigators and state officials on Thursday had released photos and a video of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at the university in Orem.

    More than 7,000 leads and tips had poured in, officials said. Authorities have yet to publicly name the suspect or cite a motive in the killing, the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.

    Grisly video shared online

    The attack, carried out in broad daylight as Kirk spoke about social issues, was captured on grisly videos that spread on social media.

    The videos show Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, speaking into a handheld microphone when suddenly a shot rings out. Kirk reaches up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running away.

    The shooter, who investigators believe blended into the campus crowd because of a college-age appearance, fired one shot from the rooftop, according to authorities. Video released Thursday showed the person then walking through the grass and across the street before disappearing.

    “I can tell you this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the top FBI agent in Salt Lake City.

    Trump, who was joined by Democrats in condemning the violence, said he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, visited with Kirk’s family Thursday in Salt Lake City. Vance posted a remembrance on X chronicling their friendship, dating back to initial messages in 2017, through Vance’s Senate run and the 2024 election.

    “So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”

    Kirk’s casket was flown aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where his nonprofit political youth organization, Turning Point USA, is based. Trump told reporters he plans to attend Kirk’s funeral. Details have not been announced.

    Kirk was taking questions about gun violence

    Kirk became a powerful political force among young Republicans and was a fixture on college campuses, where he invited sometimes-vehement debate on social issues.

    One such provocative exchange played out immediately before the shooting as Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about gun violence.

    The debate hosted by Turning Point at the Sorensen Center on campus was billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour.”

    The event 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?”

    Attendees barricaded themselves in classrooms

    Some attendees who bolted after the gunshot rushed into two classrooms full of students. They used tables to barricade the door and to shield themselves in the corners. Someone grabbed an electric pencil sharpener and wrapped the cord tightly around the door handle, then tied the sharpener to a chair leg.

    On campus Thursday, the canopy stamped with the slogan Kirk commonly used at his events — “PROVE ME WRONG” — stood, disheveled.

    Kathleen Murphy, a longtime resident who lives near the campus, said she has been staying inside with her door locked.

    “With the shooter not being caught yet, it was a worry,” Murphy said.

    Meanwhile, the shooting continued to draw swift bipartisan condemnation as Democratic officials joined Trump and other Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the attack, which unfolded during a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major political parties.

    Source link

  • Trump says ‘with a high degree of certainty’ that suspect in Charlie Kirk killing has been caught

    President Donald Trump said Friday that the suspect in the Charlie Kirk killing has been captured.“With a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump announced in a live interview on Fox News Channel on Friday morning.Trump said a minister who is also involved with law enforcement turned in the suspect to authorities.“Somebody that was very close to him said, ‘Hmm, that’s him,’” Trump said.Kirk was killed by a single shot Wednesday in what police said was a targeted attack and Utah’s governor called a political assassination. Kirk co-founded the nonprofit political organization Turning Point USA and was a close ally of Trump.Authorities recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle near the scene and had said the shooter jumped off a roof and vanished into the woods after the shooting.Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by Turning Point at Utah Valley University at the time of the shooting. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead hours later.Federal investigators and state officials on Thursday had released photos and a video of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at Utah Valley University in Orem.More than 7,000 leads and tips had poured in, officials said. Authorities have yet to publicly name the suspect or cite a motive in the killing, the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.Grisly video shared onlineThe attack, carried out in broad daylight as Kirk spoke about social issues, was captured on grisly videos that spread on social media.The videos show Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, speaking into a handheld microphone when suddenly a shot rings out. Kirk reaches up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running away.The shooter, who investigators believe blended into the campus crowd because of a college-age appearance, fired one shot from the rooftop, according to authorities. Video released Thursday showed the person then walking through the grass and across the street before disappearing.“I can tell you this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the top FBI agent in Salt Lake City.Trump, who was joined by Democrats in condemning the violence, said he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, visited with Kirk’s family Thursday in Salt Lake City. Vance posted a remembrance on X chronicling their friendship, dating back to initial messages in 2017, through Vance’s Senate run and the 2024 election.“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”Kirk’s casket was flown aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where his nonprofit political youth organization, Turning Point USA, is based. Trump told reporters he plans to attend Kirk’s funeral. Details have not been announced.Kirk was taking questions about gun violenceKirk became a powerful political force among young Republicans and was a fixture on college campuses, where he invited sometimes-vehement debate on social issues.One such provocative exchange played out immediately before the shooting as Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about gun violence.The debate hosted by Turning Point at the Sorensen Center on campus was billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour.”The event 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?”Attendees barricaded themselves in classroomsSome attendees who bolted after the gunshot rushed into two classrooms full of students. They used tables to barricade the door and to shield themselves in the corners. Someone grabbed an electric pencil sharpener and wrapped the cord tightly around the door handle, then tied the sharpener to a chair leg.On campus Thursday, the canopy stamped with the slogan Kirk commonly used at his events — “PROVE ME WRONG” — stood, disheveled.Kathleen Murphy, a longtime resident who lives near the campus, said she has been staying inside with her door locked.“With the shooter not being caught yet, it was a worry,” Murphy said.Meanwhile, the shooting continued to draw swift bipartisan condemnation as Democratic officials joined Trump and other Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the attack, which unfolded during a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major political parties.

    President Donald Trump said Friday that the suspect in the Charlie Kirk killing has been captured.

    “With a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump announced in a live interview on Fox News Channel on Friday morning.

    Trump said a minister who is also involved with law enforcement turned in the suspect to authorities.

    “Somebody that was very close to him said, ‘Hmm, that’s him,’” Trump said.

    Kirk was killed by a single shot Wednesday in what police said was a targeted attack and Utah’s governor called a political assassination. Kirk co-founded the nonprofit political organization Turning Point USA and was a close ally of Trump.

    Authorities recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle near the scene and had said the shooter jumped off a roof and vanished into the woods after the shooting.

    Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by Turning Point at Utah Valley University at the time of the shooting. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead hours later.

    Federal investigators and state officials on Thursday had released photos and a video of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at Utah Valley University in Orem.

    More than 7,000 leads and tips had poured in, officials said. Authorities have yet to publicly name the suspect or cite a motive in the killing, the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.

    Grisly video shared online

    The attack, carried out in broad daylight as Kirk spoke about social issues, was captured on grisly videos that spread on social media.

    The videos show Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, speaking into a handheld microphone when suddenly a shot rings out. Kirk reaches up with his right hand as blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators gasp and scream before people start running away.

    The shooter, who investigators believe blended into the campus crowd because of a college-age appearance, fired one shot from the rooftop, according to authorities. Video released Thursday showed the person then walking through the grass and across the street before disappearing.

    “I can tell you this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the top FBI agent in Salt Lake City.

    Trump, who was joined by Democrats in condemning the violence, said he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, visited with Kirk’s family Thursday in Salt Lake City. Vance posted a remembrance on X chronicling their friendship, dating back to initial messages in 2017, through Vance’s Senate run and the 2024 election.

    “So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”

    Kirk’s casket was flown aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where his nonprofit political youth organization, Turning Point USA, is based. Trump told reporters he plans to attend Kirk’s funeral. Details have not been announced.

    Kirk was taking questions about gun violence

    Kirk became a powerful political force among young Republicans and was a fixture on college campuses, where he invited sometimes-vehement debate on social issues.

    One such provocative exchange played out immediately before the shooting as Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about gun violence.

    The debate hosted by Turning Point at the Sorensen Center on campus was billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour.”

    The event 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?”

    Attendees barricaded themselves in classrooms

    Some attendees who bolted after the gunshot rushed into two classrooms full of students. They used tables to barricade the door and to shield themselves in the corners. Someone grabbed an electric pencil sharpener and wrapped the cord tightly around the door handle, then tied the sharpener to a chair leg.

    On campus Thursday, the canopy stamped with the slogan Kirk commonly used at his events — “PROVE ME WRONG” — stood, disheveled.

    Kathleen Murphy, a longtime resident who lives near the campus, said she has been staying inside with her door locked.

    “With the shooter not being caught yet, it was a worry,” Murphy said.

    Meanwhile, the shooting continued to draw swift bipartisan condemnation as Democratic officials joined Trump and other Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the attack, which unfolded during a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major political parties.

    Source link

  • Sifting through the emotional impact of political violence – WTOP News

    From news headlines to the social media that even very young children may have access to, children can be exposed to disturbing images, such as the shooting of Charlie Kirk.

    News stories about violence — especially those that include graphic images of an event caught in real time, such as the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — may not be fully understood by children, but they are often more aware of current events than adults realize.

    From news headlines to the social media that even very young children may have access to, children can be exposed to disturbing images and videos.

    So how do you help them process it?

    “You want to keep it simple and age-appropriate,” Dr. Anisha Abraham, chief of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s National Hospital, said. “You want to avoid detailed explanations, but just really focus on safety.”

    The message to younger children, Abraham said, should be along these lines: “You are safe. There are adults and grown-ups, your family members, teachers, who are here to protect you.”

    While it’s important to recognize the impact of disturbing news stories, Abraham said, “You might want to also avoid overexplaining, try to limit their exposure.”

    And she said it can be helpful to have them identify their feelings, whether that’s fear, sadness or anger.

    For older children, especially high school students, more detail and nuance can be included in discussions. Middle and high schoolers are doing more exploring of the outside world, and may be learning about current events and controversial topics in school.

    Older children are often sorting through feelings with friends, and may not immediately seek out their parents.

    “They may not want to speak about it, ” Abraham said. “They also might again feel confused, or angry or feel disillusioned.”

    Teenagers and middle schoolers are typically online more frequently than younger children, and Abraham said her own teenage son came to her Wednesday afternoon, letting her know he’d seen the graphic images of Charlie Kirk in the moments after he was fatally shot.

    Abraham told him that she would not be seeking out the video and added, “What’s out there is really difficult to see, and let’s talk about that.”

    Parents concerned about how their teens are dealing with their feelings can start with what Abraham calls a “check-in.”

    “I personally think it’s important to limit re-exposure because that can sometimes retraumatize young people,” Abraham said.

    It’s important to remember that a child may not race to their parents to talk about things that upset them, Abraham said. They may find that with time, they are more worried, scared or confused.

    “Kids may not think about it initially, but later it can really impact them,” Abraham said.

    That’s why she said it’s important to keep the door to more discussion open, and in the meantime, provide them with positive news and inspiring stories.

    Adults and the toll of political violence

    Adults can also struggle with the way exposure to violence, including political violence, can leave them feeling, according to another expert.

    Andrea Bonior, psychology professor and licensed clinical psychologist at Georgetown University, told WTOP about the impact that violent images can have when they pop up on social media feeds.

    “I think it’s horrifying because I don’t think we were built or made or wired to constantly be exposed to violent imagery,” Bonior said.

    The nature of technology, with algorithms that can send violent images into social media feeds, means, “We do have to take matters into our own hands and really set limits and be aware of what we might see,” Bonior said.

    Bonier said adults should know that it’s not unusual to find that days or even weeks may go by before the impact of images, videos or disturbing news accounts fade.

    “It will take time, because our nervous system basically takes time to reset,” she said.

    Bonior recommended avoiding overexposure to sources of upsetting stories.

    “Watch your exposure, make sure you aren’t seeing it over and over,” she said.

    And she said seeing those violent acts can have an impact that goes beyond the initial shock.

    “Try to notice your bodily response. Once we’ve had that trauma response of seeing a trauma happening to somebody else, we often have our nervous systems on high alert,” she said.

    In those cases, Bonior said, self-care becomes critical. She suggested relaxation exercises, sufficient sleep and spending time outdoors and away from screens.

    The political divide

    Bonior said the bitterness of the political divide is on full display on social media.

    “I think it’s really important that we seek connection, but connection in the right ways,” she said.

    People may scroll through their social media seeking connection, “but then we’re probably getting more inflamed,” Bonior said.

    Instead of scrolling, Bonior suggested going for a walk with a friend or texting within a trusted friend group.

    “When we see things online at a rapid pace and people respond to things without thinking it through and they’re not face to face, we’re bound to just inflame situations, and I think we lose a bit of our humanity,” Bonior said.

    Bonior added that when political attacks are so heated that empathy is seen as weakness, that’s “heartbreaking.” Empathy, Bonior said, is a source of strength.

    “Empathy helps us actually build human connection,” she said. “And we know that in this epidemic of loneliness and this epidemic of anger and anxiety, if we tune out our empathy, it’s just going to make us more miserable.”

    The impact on young adults

    Bonior, who teaches at Georgetown University, said for the younger generation, the impact of Charlie Kirk’s violent death generated “really big feelings across the spectrum.”

    “I think there’s a lot of real concern in young people right now about the world that they’re inheriting as adults and the way that things feel so divisive and so polarized and so driven by anger,” Bonior said.

    Bonior added it is important for adults of all ages to take time to pause and reflect before taking to social media to state their opinion on the very latest event.

    “I think that taking that deep breath and realizing that we might not be the first to comment on something and that might be a strength rather than a weakness — I think that’s really important,” she said.

    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.

    Kate Ryan

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  • Moment of silence for Charlie Kirk on Capitol Hill spirals into partisan shouting match

    Republicans and Democrats came together on the House floor on Wednesday to hold a moment of silence in honor of Charlie Kirk, just as news broke that the magnetic youth activist had been shot and killed.

    The bipartisanship lasted about a minute.

    The event quickly spiraled after a request to pray for Kirk from Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado led to objections from Democrats and a partisan shouting match.

    Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a close friend of Kirk’s, told Democrats on the floor that they “caused this” — a comment she later said she stood by, arguing that “their hateful rhetoric” against Republicans contributed to Kirk’s killing.

    Johnson banged on the gavel, demanding order as the commotion continued.

    “The House will be in order!” he yelled to no avail.

    The incident underscored the deep-seated partisan tensions on Capitol Hill as the assassination of Kirk revives the debate over gun violence and acts of political violence in a divided nation. As Congress reacted to the news, lawmakers of both parties publicly denounced the assassination of Kirk and called it an unacceptable act of violence.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he was “deeply disturbed about the threat of violence that has entered our political life.”

    “I pray that we will remember that every person, no matter how vehement our disagreement with them, is a human being and a fellow American deserving of respect and protection,” Thune said.

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), whose husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer three years ago, also denounced the fatal shooting.

    “Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation,” she said in a post on X.

    A few hours after the commotion on the House floor, the White House released a four-minute video of President Trump in which he said Kirk’s assassination marked a “dark moment for America.” He also blamed the violent act on the “radical left.”

    “My administration will find each and every one of those that contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said as he grieved the loss of his close ally.

    Ana Ceballos

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  • U.S. political violence is rising. Why?

    The assassination of Charlie Kirk stunned first the audience at Utah Valley University, where he was shot while speaking Sept. 10, and then the country, as footage of his killing quickly spread. 

    For many Americans, the conservative influencer’s death crystallized a growing fear: The United States is experiencing more and more political violence. 

    Kirk, 31, had the ear of both everyday Americans and the most powerful people in the United States. He founded Turning Point USA, a conservative organization focused on young people, when he was 18. Until he was fatally shot in the neck during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University, Kirk was close to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

    Kirk’s assassination followed numerous recent instances of political violence. In 2025 alone, Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot; an arsonist set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s residence with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family inside; an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was shot and injured outside a detention facility in Texas; the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters was set on fire; and a shooter attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters.

    In 2024, Trump himself was the target of two assassination attempts. Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative recorded over 600 incidents of threats and harassment against local officials that year — a 74% increase from 2022. 

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    “In under a decade, violence has become a shockingly regular feature of American political life,” University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape wrote in “Foreign Affairs.” “Support for political violence has gone mainstream. … Political trends do not move in straight lines, and predicting the future can be a fool’s errand. But it is safe to say that the United States has a rough road ahead.”

    How does the recent spate of violence compare historically?

    Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks July 26, 2024, at an event in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)

    Political violence is hardly unprecedented in the United States. In fact, the country has “a long, dark history” of violence that has “struck the highest level of American politics,” said Kevin Boyle, a Northwestern University historian.

    “Over a third of the presidents in the 20th century experienced assassination attempts, and two of them were killed,” Boyle said. Activists were also assaulted and killed. 

    During the Jim Crow era, in the first half of the 20th century, ordinary citizens, especially Black Americans, were regularly lynched. But historians say the closest analogue to today’s uptick in political violence is the 1960s and 1970s, when President John F. Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy and George Wallace were shot. Only Wallace survived.

    While the perpetrators often had mental health issues, they seemed to have been shaped by the heated political times that seemed to polarize the population, said Kevin M. Schultz, a University of Illinois-Chicago historian.

    Now, Americans are quick to excuse actions and speech that were once taboo, Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism specialist at Georgetown University, said. Luigi Mangione, charged in the December killing of United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson “has become a folk hero,” Hoffman said. A musical about Mangione that’s now in theaters is selling out. And elsewhere in the United States, Hoffman said, “the flags of terrorist organizations are a regular fixture at demonstrations and protests.”

    Why is political violence happening now?

    A note is left behind outside campus a day after the shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP)

    Today’s political and rhetorical landscape is intensely polarized and fueled by anger, distrust and conspiracy theories. It’s easier to target your political opponents for violence if you see them as “enemies of the nation,” Boyle said.

    Where does this enmity come from? Experts point to several sources, including social media, which exacerbated the high-voltage talk that had already existed for two decades in talk radio and cable news and “made it possible for violent rhetoric to reach vast numbers of people,” Boyle said.

    The anonymity of social media also enables people to speak without personal consequence, while algorithms amplify even the most extreme voices, “leading politicians to embrace positions far more extreme than most Americans seek,” Schultz said.

    American voters are actually less ideologically polarized than the fever-pitch rhetoric they consume suggests, according to Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

    “Most partisans hold major misbeliefs about the other party’s preferences that lead them to think there is far less shared policy belief,” Kleinfeld has written. “This perception gap is highest among progressive activists, followed closely by extreme conservatives. In other words, the people who are most involved in civic and political life hold the least accurate views of the other side’s beliefs.”

    And while the 1960s and 1970s might be our best analogue for the violence happening today, there are some key differences. Notably, political violence has become mainstream. 

    “Most mainstream politicians in that era, outside of the Jim Crow south, avoided violent rhetoric,” Boyle said. “That’s no longer the case.”

    Another important factor is the availability of guns.

    Kirk was among about a dozen people killed by guns Sept. 10, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In 2023, nearly 47,000 people died of gun violence and about 38% were homicides.

    “It’s a terrible thing to hate your political opponents, but the ready availability of guns makes it easier for people to act on their hatred,” Boyle said.

    Meanwhile, the underfunding of mental health care has let dangerous people act without being stopped. 

    Is political violence a feature of both the left and right?

    In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, Trump and other conservatives blamed the left for political violence.

    “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in a video message.

    “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

    “The Left is the party of murder,” tech entrepreneur Elon Musk said on X.

    But recent political violence has affected both Democrats and Republicans.

    In addition to Kirk’s assassination and the attempts on Trump’s life, Republicans were targeted in a mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice in 2017. Democrats were targeted in the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz.; a 2022 attack on the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and the attacks on Hortman and Shapiro in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, respectively.

    And on Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was stormed by Trump supporters who falsely claimed Democrats had stolen the 2020 election. When Trump won back the White House four years later, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of everyone who had been charged in the attack.

    In 2023, Reuters identified about 200 more instances of political violence since Jan. 6, 2021.

    There’s a ripple effect. As political violence rises, Kleinfeld said, it will affect everyone, regardless of political party. 

    “The more people justify violence from their side of the aisle, the more unhinged, aggressive people will commit violence from that side,” Kleinfeld said. “And the more that will justify the other side in doing the same.”

    RELATED: Biden said political violence was ‘unheard of’ in US. There’s a long (and recent) history

    RELATED: Election officials, lawmakers in Congress have faced increase in threats

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  • DC-area leaders condemn political violence after Charlie Kirk assassination – WTOP News

    D.C.-area leaders on both sides of the political aisle decried the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot at an event in Utah Wednesday.

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    Officials provide update on search for shooter who killed Charlie Kirk

    D.C.-area leaders on both sides of the political aisle decried the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot at an event in Utah Wednesday.

    “There was a dark soul, an evil present yesterday, that acted in a way that not just shocks the conscience, but murdered a father, murdered a husband, and silenced a voice that was a voice of conversation,” Virginia Gov Youngkin, a Republican, said during an event in Alexandria.

    Youngkin said that any acceptance of a political assassination “illuminates the moral deterioration of some,” and should serve as a wake-up call to the nation.

    “Therefore, we must stand together in a moment and collectively say, ‘No more,’ and collectively bring to justice those that would not just perpetrate this, but in all candor, defend it,” Youngkin said.

    Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay, a Democrat, emphasized the need for civility in political discourse, stating that no political fight is “more valuable than a single human life.”

    “Look, I will debate on a political issue as much as I can, but that should never cross the line into any type of violent behavior,” McKay said.

    In neighboring Maryland, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore said the political violence was “unacceptable.”

    “We will not tolerate it — not now, not ever. The future of our democracy will depend on our ability to resolve political differences peacefully, and not violently,” Moore wrote.

    Sen Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who represents Maryland, made his stance swift and succinct: “Violence is never the answer. It is never acceptable. Never.”

    WTOP has reached out to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for comment.

    WTOP’s Ciara Wells and Abigail Constantino contributed to this report. 

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

    Mike Murillo

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  • A New Era of Political Violence

    Photo: Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images

    The assassination of Charlie Kirk was, at once, horrifically modern and yoked to tradition. For as long as there has been a politics here, there have been assassinations, and virtually every generation since the nation’s founding has had to look on as a great leader or famed political figure was, without warning, shot dead. Kirk, for all his dynamism and influence, was never a force on the scale of Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, and since he was not an American president — merely the appendage of one — he will be no more than a historical footnote a half-century from now.

    But Americans of the past decades, if coming of age in far more violent and terrorized eras, did not have to reckon with such a blood-drenched visual spectacle as the videos of Kirk’s shooting that have circulated widely on social media; technology did not permit them, minutes after the deed, to consume all of it in full, to drown in unmediated horror. Imaginations, or grainy photographs and film, had to suffice. John F. Kennedy’s brains were blown out in the Zapruder film, but it was not broadcast publicly until 1975, 12 years after Lee Harvey Oswald aimed and fired in Dallas. And even then, this was 8-mm. film, shot with a Bell and Howell home-movie camera.

    Kirk’s death was everywhere, all at once, and his death could be experienced like it had happened right in front of you, on that sun-blasted day in Utah.

    We have entered, indisputably, a new age. It’s an old one, too, because it harkens back to how the restless, mentally unstable, and politically ambitious used to settle their scores. We do not yet know who killed Kirk or why; given the Turning Point USA founder’s stature, though, and positioning in the broader culture, we can assume the assassin was thinking, in some sense, symbolically. This is not about left versus right, or Republican versus Democrat — if Republicans, as the party of the gun, will always have more blood on their hands, they have no monopoly on political violence. The radical left and the radical right, throughout American history, have sought to bend and break the system through bloodshed, and many others, operating more enigmatically, have plotted with a politics never so easily defined. Oswald was emblematic of this American tendency; he was a Communist, or a tool of the right-wing CIA, or a patsy of the mafia, or a shadow figure wholly alone, inserting himself, irreversibly, into the slipstream of history.

    With Thomas Crooks’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Luigi Mangione’s alleged killing of the UnitedHealth CEO, and now the slaying of Kirk, we have a triptych of violence to be overlaid over other recent politicized killings, including the fatal shooting of two young employees at the Israeli Embassy and, in June, the home invasion and murder of Melissa Hortman, the Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Some have argued this portends a civil war or a certain kind of volatility that will, in due time, unravel America’s functioning political machinery. This seems less likely, if only because America, in the 2020s, is still more stable — far wealthier, and more durable — than it was at the dawn of the 1860s.

    This doesn’t mean, however, the violence is going to stop. Or, at the very minimum, this sort of targeted violence that is aimed at those who hold power or are representative of an elite that must be, in the febrile and diseased mind of the killer, brought to justice. As assassination attempts surge anew, the mass shooting, as a reality of American life, begins to fade. There are still such shootings, as seen at a Minnesota Catholic school last month, but they were, to a disconcerting degree, far more common in the 2010s and early 2020s. All one needs to do is recite the place names: Sandy Hook, Aurora, Isla Vista, Charleston, Las Vegas, Parkland, and Uvalde. There have been so many that an American can begin to conflate them and the killers themselves, over time, lose notoriety. Columbine, in 1999, inaugurated this heinous era, and there was a long, dark period when alienated young men could dream of the infamy bestowed upon Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Other mass murderers, like James Holmes, Adam Lanza, and Elliot Rodger — best remembered for his incel manifesto — became, for a brief period, pop-culture figures, and the media wrestled with its role in publicizing the identities of these men and the sinister screeds they left behind. Mass shootings proliferated with the wide availability of firearms, assault rifles in particular, and the realization, on the part of the killers, that slaughtering unarmed people who are not famous is far less challenging than plotting the death of an American president. Ronald Reagan was wounded and not killed. Gerald Ford survived two assassination attempts within 17 days in 1975.

    The mimetic theory of desire, pioneered by French historian and philosopher René Girard, posits that humans look to others, rather than themselves, to determine what it is they want to do. They long for what others long for, and sculpt themselves accordingly. Violence itself may follow a similar current. One mass shooting begets another, which begets another. Would-be killers aim to imitate their dark idols.

    Now the political assassination seems to be making an ugly reappearance in America. There may be more men — they are usually men — stewing in the shadows, waiting for their opportunity. Hasan Piker, the leftist streamer who was set to debate Kirk later this month, reacted with great sadness and horror to the assassination of his right-wing rival, even as many of his own followers did not feel much sympathy for a conservative who had vilified the LGBTQ+ community, the immigrant community, and many other marginalized groups.

    “The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this violent, abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome,” Piker said. He understood, right away, he might be a target too. These are times in which we now live.

    Ross Barkan

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  • Trump blames ‘radical left’ for killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk

    Even as the person who shot and killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah Wednesday remains at-large, President Donald Trump appears to be assigning some blame for the murder.

    “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in a recorded video from the White House Wednesday night. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence — including the organizations that fund it and support it.”

    The president, who earlier mourned the loss of “The Great, and even Legendary” Kirk, ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff until Sunday evening in his honor.

    The founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, Kirk, 31, was shot while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. School officials said the shooter fired the single fatal shot from a building about 200 yards away. His death was met with shock and condemnation across the political spectrum, including from all of America’s former presidents Wednesday night on social media.

    “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones,” wrote Former President Joe Biden.

    Former President Barack Obama called Kirk’s killing an act of “despicable violence.”

    “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” Obama said. “Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”

    Former President George W. Bush said Kirk was “murdered in cold blood… on a college campus, where the open exchange of opposing ideas should be sacrosanct.”

    “Violence and vitriol must be purged from the public square. Members of other political parties are not our enemies; they are our fellow citizens,” Bush wrote. “May God bless Charlie Kirk and his family, and may God guide America toward civility.”

    Former Bill Clinton called for “serious introspection” and said he was “saddened and angered” by the shooting.

    “I hope we all go through some serious introspection and redouble our efforts to engage in debate passionately, yet peacefully,” Clinton said.

    Trump administration officials noted Kirk’s impact on shaping conservative youths with his signature public debates on college campuses. The activist was close to many figures in Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr.

    In a lengthy eulogy posted to X, Vance said the Trump administration’s “success traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” and said Kirk helped them “staff the entire government.”

    “Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him,” Vance wrote.

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose uncle and father were both assassinated in the 1960s, wrote: “Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era.” Kennedy described Kirk as a “crusader for free speech.”

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