President Trump said on Wednesday that rhetoric from the “radical left” contributed to the shooting death of his close ally Charlie Kirk, and he promised to find those responsible for political violence, as well as the “organizations that fund it and support it.”
In a video address from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said that liberal criticism of conservatives was “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,” he said.
High-profile attacks linked to politics have proliferated in recent years. At a moment of deep divisions in the country, Americans on both sides of the political spectrum have been affected by it, Republicans and Democrats alike.
In his video, Mr. Trump connected Mr. Kirk’s death to other recent attacks on political figures, all of them Republicans. He mentioned the attempt on his own life during a political rally in Butler, Pa.; the 2017 shooting of Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana; and attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Mr. Trump made no mention of attacks on Democrats, including Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was killed in June.
The four-minute video came just hours after Mr. Kirk, the founder of the nation’s pre-eminent right-wing youth activist group, was fatally shot while speaking at an event on a college campus in Utah.
“Radical-left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Mr. Trump said.
The president also honored Mr. Kirk’s life, calling him a “martyr” and a “patriot” and lauding his commitment to free speech, the rule of law and God.
“Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country,” Mr. Trump said. “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.”
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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