NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin asked on Sunday whether “lone wolves” engaged in political violence can be blamed on the current failure of the political system to hear their concerns.
Over the weekend, a panel on MSNBC discussed the recent wave of political violence over the past decade, ranging from the shooting at the congressional Republicans’ baseball practice and the attempts on Donald Trump’s life to the more recent murders of two Israeli Embassy workers and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The panel’s conversation was spurred by the killing of former Democratic Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as the related shootings of State Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette. The suspect in these attacks is Vance Luther Boelter, who was captured after a two-day manhunt, and has since been charged with two counts of stalking, two counts of murder and two counts of firearm-related crimes in federal court.
During the panel, Mohyeldin turned to former New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and asked whether the recent trend of political violence can be blamed on the system for failing to hear voters’ concerns.
SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORT FOR ACCUSED KILLERS LUIGI MANGIONE, ELIAS RODRIGUEZ AN ‘EXCEPTIONALLY BAD SIGN’: EXPERT
“Do you believe there’s a correlation between how efficiently our democracy and our government runs and the risk of political violence?” Mohyeldin asked. “That when people out there who feel a sense of desperation — and by no means is this a justification, but I’m thinking of Luigi Mangione, who killed in cold blood the CEO of a healthcare company — Do you believe when people don’t have any political outlets, when the government or the system is not representative of the will of the people, these lone wolves, these self-radicalized people then resort to this type of violence? Or do you believe this type of violence will always exist in our society, no matter how efficiently our system of governance works?”
“There has always been, through history, a correlation to the political moment and whether society is serving people or not,” the former mayor answered, warning that even so, “there’s never a justification for political violence.”
De Blasio argued that while there have been times of relative peace, “the ’60s was a time of great political violence, these last years as well, where the level of political conflict intensified and, of course, where there were those voices giving a permission structure.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
After citing past examples of violence by both state and non-state actors in the past, the former mayor suggested, “I think it’s also fair to say that when the public in general feels that society is serving them, when there’s a sense of belonging, when there’s a sense of people being included and respected, it takes the temperature down, it gives less oxygen for fringe elements or violent elements to exist. And I think we can get back there.”
He then suggested that the rise of Trump is at least partially to blame for recent political violence.
“But it will take, bluntly, defeating Trumpism and taking away that permission structure that it’s created, and showing people that there can be a path to a society that’s inclusive once again,” De Blasio said.
Fox News’ Audrey Conklin , Peter D’Abrosca , Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Read the full article here
