I will start with the obvious, because even though it is obvious, it needs to be said lest there be any misunderstandings. What happened yesterday to Charlie Kirk was a tragedy. It was a tragedy for his friend and family, and it was a broader tragedy for our politics. The former is axiomatically obvious. The latter is a mix of what this latest assassination says about where we are in America at the moment, and, worse, what it allows for the evolution of this moment.
I fear two things very deeply.
I fear that this moment allows all of us to succumb to anger and hatred, and to see all of this in terms of “sides.” It is a moment in which Us and Them deepens. And so that I am not being too vague, I will note that in my view, US v. Them is the main element of fascistic politics in contemporary America. There is a cancer that can eat at our souls, the more we engage in such views personally.
I also fear that this moment will allow political leadership in the United States, and specifically in the Trump administration, to harness the anger, frustration, and grief into not only deepening Us v. Them, but to then use these events as excuses for further deployments of government forces against US citizens.
On the first count of fears about what the administration will do, it must be reported that Trump never misses an opportunity to divide us.
He made a statement from the Oval Office wherein he took several opportunities to blame the left (you know, Them) for all the violence and vitriol.
Here’s the whole thing in video form:
Here’s a transcript via Grok, since I cannot find a news organization that provides the whole text.
To my great fellow Americans,
I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah.
Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.
Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America.He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth.
Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith, and we take comfort in the knowledge that young, beloved children and his entire family who he loved more than anything in the world.We ask God to watch over them in this terrible hour of heartache and pain.
This is a dark moment for America.
Charlie Kirk traveled the nation joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever.
To share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense on campuses nationwide.
He championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace.It’s a long past time for all Americans in the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.
For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals.
This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.
It must stop right now.
My administration will find each and every one of those who contribute 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.
From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, New York, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others—radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.
Tonight I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died: the values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God.
Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country.An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed.
Because together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.
Today, because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before.
It is not even close.
May God bless his memory.
May God watch over his family.
And may God bless the United States of America.
Thank you.
Emphases mine.
At a moment of national tragedy (and a political assassination is such a moment), leadership matters. A good leader would seek to calm the nation. A good leader would seek to turn down the temperature. A bad leader, conversely, emphasizes how one side is to blame and turns up the temperature.
We don’t even know who did this or why, and yet Trump is laying blame.
Worse, he is only acknowledging violence committed against his version of “Us” and ignoring violence against “Them.”
As NPR notes in their write-up:
Trump did not include any examples of political violence against Democrats, such as the June attack in Minnesota that killed a state lawmaker and left another wounded or the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She wasn’t home at the time, but was the intended target.
In regard to the attack on Paul Pelosi, here’s a trip down memory lane via Politico from roughly two years ago:
“We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco — how’s her husband doing, anybody know?” Trump said to a raucous crowd of California Republicans at a state party convention. “And she’s against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house — which obviously didn’t do a very good job.”
Trump does not aspire to be the leader of all Americans. He aspires to be the leader of those he sees as Us and not those he sees as Them (or, maybe more accurately, he is happy to weaponize Us v. Them dynamics for his own political gain–he cares little about those he leads, rather obviously). His response to the Kirk assassination just underscores this yet again.
And no, this is not a surprise. It still needs to be highlighted, however.
Allow me also to highlight this specifically:
It’s a long past time for all Americans in the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.
Let me just note that there has not been a politician of Trump’s stature who has engaged in more demonization of his opponents than has Trump. And he and his administration continue to do so.
We all know that Trump’s main rhetorical tool is to engage in schoolyard-level name-calling, you know, high-level discourse. Moreover, he frequently uses Us v. Them rhetoric, as he does in the statement above.
Leadership matters, and Trump continually illustrates this fact by being a bad leader.
I am going to agree with Trump when he says, “This is a dark moment for America.”
It is. And it is made all the darker that he sees this moment as a chance to further divide us.
