Donald Trump spoke to the nation Wednesday evening about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at a campus event in Utah hours earlier.
“Charlie inspired millions, and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” the President said in a video address. “This is a dark moment for America,” he added, apparently blaming the shooting as well as other “terrorism,” including his own attempted assassination last year and “attacks on ICE agents,” on political rhetoric “demonizing those with whom you disagree.”
On Truth Social, Trump initially after the shooting posted on Truth Social, calling for prayers for Kirk, whom he called a “great guy from top to bottom.” He later posted: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Trump also ordered flags in the U.S. to fly at half-mast until Sunday evening.
Read More: The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Political Violence Haunting America
Read Trump’s full speech on Charlie Kirk’s death
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 the American people. He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, 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 he is now at peace with God in heaven.
Our prayers are with his wife, Erika, their two 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 long past time for all Americans and 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, and it must stop right now.
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. 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, to the shooting of 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—and it’s 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.
The post ‘A Dark Moment for America’: Trump Responds to Charlie Kirk’s Death appeared first on TIME.
