Watch: Kirk’s assassination invites bipartite warnings to animated rhetoric

Legislators on both sides of the aisle agreed that political speech in the United States reached a surprising level following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and other recent acts of political violence.

Kirk’s assassination is the last in a series of political violence that has killed several high -level or injured since July 2024, when President Donald Trump was killed as he campaigned for his second term in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was again targeted by a potential assassin a few months later. In April, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was the victim of a criminal fire. And in June, two Minnesota legislators and their families were attacked, killing two people.

Political violence had a frightening effect on the nation, some legislators going so far as to cancel public appearances in the midst of fears of physical violence.

“We have a climate at this moment when people who are frankly disadvantaged … Like the two guys who tried to shoot the President Trump, the one who shot him, the person – anyone – who killed Charlie, the person who followed the Minnesota legislators – these people are crazy,” said senator Josh Hawley, R -MO., Fox News Digital. “But they are crazy by a climate that says:” Hey, you know, it will essentially go out and shoot your opponents because they are really Hitler. “”

Anti-Trump voices rent the heritage of Charlie Kirk after the assassination, say he was doing politics “the right way”

Charlie Kirk appears alongside an image of President Donald Trump after being shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images)

The feeling was also taken up by democratic legislators on the hill.

“It’s really sad and scary, you know, honestly, how disastrous things have been in this country in terms of political discourse,” said senator Andy Kim, Dn.J. “I just noticed the other day how, in an investigation, more than 50% of the Americans interviewed said that they would call people in the other political party” the enemy “. I just think it’s terrifying, it’s so dangerous for a place for our country.”

The Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon added that for this Republic to work, people must be able to “share with passion (their) points of view and do it knowing that we resolve our differences by advocacy and vote, not by violence”.

Charlie Kirk warned that “the assassination culture is spreading on the left” strange line of the months before the murder

The New Jersey Kim Democratic Senator is speaking during an audience on Capitol Hill. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I do not know what that is said about political speech, but that certainly says something about violence, and that has nothing to do in political speech. You can have a robust disagreement with people, but when it turns into violence, something has been wrong,” replied Senator Shedon Whitehouse, Dr.i., when he was asked what the death of Kirk had said about the state of political speech.

Kirk was known to engage passionately, but also respectfully, with students of all political stripes on university campuses as part of Turning Point USA, the basic organization he co -founded in 2012. He would regularly visit university campuses throughout the country and debate with students on various perspectives on various issues of the day. Often, Kirk would organize events “prove the bad”, where he would give students a chance to do exactly that – prove him the opposite.

“I mean, it is the shame of that. Charlie Kirk was polite, he had a message, and he broadcast this message, and he hired people to speak and debate, then he lost his life for that,” said representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky. “This is the thing about this country, we have freedom of expression. No one should ever eliminate violence according to something that someone said.”

Representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Is seen outside the American Capitol on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images)

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“I hope everyone would take a moment, reflect and drop this political rhetoric,” said representative Jonathan Jackson, D-ill., Fox News Digital told. “These violent words precede violent actions.”

Hawley, on the other hand, suggested a tactic to help solve the problem.

“I’m just going to repeat, part of the way we stop it, is that we realize that there are things in life that are more important than politics,” he told journalists.