Republicans blame ‘radical left’ for Kirk shooting, Democrats reject that claim
In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, Republicans on Sunday criticized some Democrats, suggesting language used by them contributed to Kirk's killing, claims that Democrats rejected.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said the assassination attempt on his wife, then-Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, shows political violence has come from both sides.
"Well, I mean, it was 14 years ago that my wife was shot. You know this. You know, both sides of the political spectrum experience this kind of violence. Not too long ago, Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota, they were shot and killed," Kelly told NBC's "Meet the Press." "This isn't like one party committing all the violence against the other."
Appearing later on "Meet the Press," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he saw Kirk's murder as another example of "an effort by the radical left to dehumanize the MAGA movement."
"The bottom line here is that we all reject political violence. What happened to Mark's wife Gabby is just senseless. What happened in Minnesota is senseless," Graham said.
"But let me just be honest with you, President Trump nor do I see this as the all kind of 'do it' moment. I see this as an attack on a political movement."
House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a similar tone during an interview on Fox News.
"People have got to stop framing simple policy disagreements in terms of existential threats to our democracy and all these phrases you hear all the time," he said.
"You can't call the other side 'fascists' and 'enemies of the state' and not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take that as cues to act and do crazy and dangerous things, and that's what we've seen an increasing frequency," Johnson argued.
Investigators have not released any information on what they think might have driven the alleged shooter to kill Kirk. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said there will be "much, much more information" revealed in the coming days when charges are filed.
GOP Sen. James Lankford showed an effort towards reconciliation, appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" alongside Democrat Sen. Chris Coons.
"This is not new, but it continues to be able to rise," Lankford said. "As we've seen Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota in their own home have a home invasion to be murdered in their home, as we've seen a governor in Pennsylvania have his home set on fire. It's not just public events. It's also in our private spaces as well, that we're keenly aware that there are people that are irrational that do irrational acts."
On CNN's "State of the Union," Lankford rejected sentiments from Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who called the Democratic Party "a domestic extremist organization."
"Well, they have a very different view than I do. I'm a conservative Republican. I have Democratic friends that think very differently, vote very differently, but they're still my friend," Lankford said. "So just having that ideology, just believing differently than some other American, is not illegal. That's America."
Kelly said it was up to both parties to reject divisive politics in order to turn the temperature down.
"I mean this, this is clearly a pervasive issue in our country. We are more divided than we have been, probably in my lifetime or yours, and if we don't collectively try to come together to fix it, and I think it can get, it can get worse," Kelly said.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized Trump's threats that his administration would go after the "radical left" that he blamed for political violence.
"I want to be really clear about this. This is an example of something that is hurting," Buttigieg said. "We are not getting the leadership that we need to bring this country together from the White House."
"The response to this cannot be for the government to crack down on individuals or groups not because of violence, but because they challenge the government politically," he said. "We need to have free and open political debate and a healthy political process in this country."
Lawmakers did agree on the need for social media companies to do a better job regulating content circulating online -- specifically for children -- and criticized the ways in which videos of Kirk's killing were widespread.
"The ways in which folks are then taking the horrific images of these incidents and propagating them on the internet adds fuel to the fire we can and should pass bills," Coons said on CBS, advocating for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act.
Lankford said social media algorithms push people to the extreme.
"The algorithm in social media is always pushing who is the angriest, who is the loudest, who says the craziest thing. That's what gets repeated over and over and over again," he said.
Cox blamed social media for helping to put the country into the "dark place" it's in and suggested a way out of it.
"Are we going to get out of those social media, those dark places of the internet where the conflict entrepreneurs reside, who are praying upon us, these, these companies with trillion dollar market caps who are using dopamine just like fentanyl, to addict us to their product and, and lead us again -- those algorithms -- lead us to more outrage?" he asked on ABC News' "This Week."
Buttigieg said there is no consistent pattern of left vs. right among people who carry out violence, "but there is a pattern where we see so many of these people are men, usually young men, who seem to spend more and more of their time in dark and twisted corners of the internet. And I think there is a sickness."
