Rep. Ilhan Omar calls Kirk’s defenders ‘full of shit’ as Dems frame assassination as consequence of conservative speech
Democrats and media pundits were quick to blame President Donald Trump, Republicans, and even Charlie Kirk himself for encouraging political violence ahead of the assassination of the conservative commentator.
Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker accused Trump of inciting political violence and pointed to the president’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters.
“Political violence, unfortunately, has been ratcheting up in this country,” he said. “I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country. I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) made a similar accusation when asked to respond to Republicans’ calls for Democrats to “lower the temperature.”
“Oh, please. Why don’t you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he has posted and every ugly word,” Warren responded.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), meanwhile, said anyone claiming Kirk was dedicated to civil debate is “full of shit.”
“There is nothing more effed up than to completely pretend that his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so,” she said. “There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate.”
“These people are full of shit, and it’s important for us to call them out while we feel anger and sadness and have empathy,” Omar added.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) suggested Kirk himself was to blame for supporting the Second Amendment.
“People can finger-point all they want. Look at the record,” the New York Democrat said. “I don’t think a single person who has dedicated their entire career to preventing gun safety legislation from getting passed in this House has any right to blame anybody else but themselves for what is happening.”
MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki accused Trump of escalating the situation in his response to Kirk’s assassination by calling out “the radical left” for comparing “wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals.”
“There is a lot of rhetoric that is problematic. A lot of it is coming from one particular side, from one particular building,” Psaki said Wednesday on her MSNBC show, The Briefing. “But what can be done when this is an escalation already in less than 24 hours of this shooting?”
CBS Mornings co-host Nate Burleson on Thursday questioned whether Republicans needed to use Kirk’s death as an opportunity for self-reflection.
“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 turns in and spills into political violence?” he asked former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Kirk was shot in the neck while delivering a speech at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon, killing the Turning Point USA founder. The assassin is still at large, but authorities have released photos of the suspect and believe they found the rifle used, which reportedly contained ammo engraved with expressions of transgender and anti-fascist ideology.
During MSNBC’s coverage as news of the shooting unfolded, political analyst Matthew Dowd blamed the murder on Kirk’s “hate speech”—a comment that got him fired.
“You can’t stop with these awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place,” Dowd said Wednesday.
His comment was a response to MSNBC anchor Katy Tur, who described Kirk as a “divisive figure, polarizing, lightning rod, whatever term you want to use.” She also suggested the Trump administration would likely “use this as justification for something.”
Likewise, MSNBC politics reporter Allan Smith decried Kirk as having “been front and center on a lot of the more divisive social and cultural issues that have driven the MAGA movement,” blaming the shooting on Kirk’s political advocacy.
“I mean, you talk about trans rights, a lot of issues around racial justice,” Smith said. “He has taken the sort of contrarian, more MAGA approach to a lot of these issues and he has, you know, he’s been pretty inflammatory in his rhetoric throughout the years.”
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