“CBS Mornings” host Nate Burleson told former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday that Republicans need to ‘reflect” on their own rhetoric following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Kirk died from a gunshot wound to the neck during TPUSA event at the University of Utah on Wednesday. Burleson said that his words were “offensive to many communities” and asked McCarthy if his party should “reflect” on political violence. McCarthy responded that the nation, rather than political parties, needs to reflect on political violence.
“Not everyone took to [Kirk’s] words or his rhetoric. You know, at times they were offensive to certain communities,” Burleson said. “But with that said, this is not the time to focus on that. We are focused on this tragedy and speaking of this tragedy, is this a moment for your party to reflect on political violence? Is it a moment for us to think about the responsibility of our political leaders and their voices and what it does to the masses as they get lost in misinformation or disinformation that spills in or turns into political violence.”
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“I don’t even say parties, I say a nation,” McCarthy said. “If there’s a moment in time that we want to look to, and I looked back and I watched this again when Robert F. Kennedy is running and he’s in Indianapolis and he just got the news that Martin Luther King was killed. And he has to tell the crowd because we don’t have social media at that time. And it was remarkable the words he said. He said, ‘we have to ask ourselves as a nation, who are we? And how do we want to move forward?’ We have watched this political attack on both sides … We’ve watched this on both sides.”
While condolences have poured in from both sides, Democrats, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, have invoked the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and have placed blame on President Donald Trump for the rise in political violence. Two separate assassination attempts have threatened Trump’s life in the past year, and The Republican Party of New Mexico’s headquarters was “destroyed in a deliberate act of arson” in March.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced that a suspected killer had been released from custody following interrogation from authorities. The assailant is currently not in custody.
Trump stated from the Oval Office that the assassination was a “dark day for America” and promised that Kirk’s life would live on.
“This is a dark moment for America,” Trump said. “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.”
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