The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has reignited a national conversation about whether political violence has reached a boiling point and if there is any turning back.
Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder, was fatally shot while speaking on the Utah Valley University campus. His death immediately sparked allegations from Republicans that Democrats were at fault for dialing up the rhetoric in the country.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said he hoped Kirk’s death would be a turning point, pushing lawmakers to tone down inflammatory comments, yet he also acknowledged the nation may not be ready to lower the political temperature.
“I’m not all that optimistic that we are,” he said. “What happened to Charlie is wholly unacceptable. That can’t happen again, and sadly, it probably will.”
Politicians and their aides, however, said they don’t expect political violence to tone down in the future. A senior White House aide told the Washington Examiner that they predicted the political environment would worsen “big time.”
Another staffer who worked in Trump’s first administration suggested the violence had a supernatural element to it.
“Personally, as a believer in Jesus Christ, this is demonic spiritual warfare. We’ve been in it for some time, but like this is the darkest it has felt in a long time. … People like to joke around about the devil and ‘oh that stuff isn’t real.’ … This stuff is real, and it absolutely terrifies me.”
On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump addressed Kirk’s death in a four-minute video posted to his Truth Social account, in which he criticized the “radical Left” for incendiary remarks paving the way for the murder.
“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, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
One Republican with close ties to the White House said of Trump’s address: “He may have charged rhetoric. But I don’t think it’s any nuttier than the loudest voices on the Left.”
Some of the most prominent Republicans on Capitol Hill appeared to support Trump’s belief that Democrats, or the media, are at fault.
“Republicans, we are the party of normal, and they are the party of the wicked, they are the party of the vile,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said on Wednesday. “They are the party of violence. And until they recognize that, until they absorb that and take responsibility for that, nothing is going to change and will only get worse.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) shouted at reporters, blaming both Democrats and the media for being “complicit” in Kirk’s death.
“You are responsible for this, because you are echoing the horrifically horrible political violent rhetoric that’s being produced by the Democrat Party,” Van Orden said Thursday.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller denounced an ideology within the U.S. “which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved,” after Kirk’s murder.
Some Republicans had hoped Trump would use the address to unite a nation reeling from Kirk’s death. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told NBC News that he wished the president had adopted a more united message.
“But he’s a populist, and populists dwell on anger,” Bacon said. “I have to remind people, we had Democrats killed in Minnesota, too, right?”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) added that Trump “himself engages in it,” and called on the president to tone down his rhetoric, according to The Hill.
Several lawmakers across the political spectrum acknowledged the need to back away from incendiary rhetoric after multiple attacks on politicians, including the president, last year.
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) said, “I don’t think it’s so productive to look backwards to say, ‘who caused that,’ or ‘who threw the gasoline in the fire.’ But I think more importantly, it’s important to look forward and to hold each other accountable. When our political base, on either side, are saying things that inflame people, I think it’s the responsibility of honest and good political leaders to calm folks down.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) chastised lawmakers and Trump as “irresponsible” for casting blame before authorities had apprehended the killer.
DAVID HARSANYI: CHARLIE KIRK EPITOMIZED THE BEST OF OUR CIVIC TRADITION
“We must come together. Our responsibility is to de-escalate this environment, to reduce the level of chaos that is at risk right now in this country, so that we can, first and foremost, increase the level of safety that people can feel in this country, and then we can move forward together,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The New York Democrat and Mace have changed their event plans after Kirk’s death. Ocasio-Cortez rescheduled an event over the weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina, while Mace said she would no longer participate in outdoor events for the time being and canceled a future speaking opportunity at a university.
Trump faced two assassination attempts as he campaigned for the White House in 2024; Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota Democratic state representative, and her husband Mark were assassinated earlier this year; Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi, was beaten at his home by an intruder with a hammer; and Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and his family were evacuated from his house after an assailant set the governor’s mansion on fire.
Before that, anti-government extremists were arrested in 2020 for plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), now-Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was wounded in 2017 after an attacker opened fire during a practice baseball game for charity, and former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords narrowly survived a 2011 shooting outside a Safeway supermarket.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) pointed to a past assassination attempt in an interview with the Washington Examiner, where he cast doubt on calmness prevailing in the immediate future.
“I had a guy try to kill me,” Moskowitz said.
“No, it’s gonna get worse,” he added. “Go look at their responses on Twitter. This is not a calming moment — it’s the opposite.”
Other lawmakers voiced their hope that the temperature could be turned down.
House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), said: “I think both parties need to turn the temperature down, it’s not getting better. It’s getting worse, so hopefully that’ll happen.”
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) told the Washington Examiner that a way to dial it back is to “spend less time on social media.”
“Everyone has to decide that they’re going to be more thoughtful about their language,” he said. “Be convicted, lead with your convictions. Do it with a kind of kindness that maybe you haven’t yet, generosity and grace, and understanding, and that there is a pull to be hyper-partisan and intense with your rhetoric. Don’t hesitate, push back.”
Political strategists claimed that voters have a part to play in electing fewer firebrand lawmakers who have escalated the political environment.
“When voters go to the polls — and there will be more opportunities than the November 2026 election to express their preferences on who it is that they want leading their respective parties — do they want the people that are sowing this civil discontent between the parties, or do they want people that are trying to figure out a way that we can all coexist and not be at each other’s throats?” asked Jason Roe, a Republican strategist.
“You know the reality is, for some of the fringe people, there has been an electoral reward to being belligerent. We’ve got to take away the political incentive to fuel this kind of … rhetorical violence or actual violence,” he continued.
Roe suggested Trump and other living presidents could release a joint statement condemning political violence. “I think anything that shows people across the ideological spectrum linking arms and saying this has got to stop is more helpful than less helpful,” he said. “Trump rarely does things that we would conventionally expect from a national leader, so it’s hard for me to imagine him doing something that would accomplish that. But maybe he surprises us.”
Christian Datoc contributed to this report.
