In yet another horrific turn of events following the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah, various Democratic figures, both in the media and politics, have started commenting on “rhetoric” pushed by both Charlie Kirk and others in the conservative movement, claiming it is “problematic” in a seeming attempt to excuse or downplay the horrific slaying of Mr. Kirk.
Amongst those leading the charge on that front was MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, who, when speaking to Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) about the horrifying assassination and President Donald Trump’s video response, claimed that the president’s “rhetoric,” in which he vowed to crack down on the violent left and blamed its spiteful rhetoric for the violence, was an “escalation.”
She said, “[T]here was a line at the end that I think — I just wanted to raise and read. At the end of this four-minute video, he says, ‘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.’”
Continuing, she then claimed that the majority of the “problematic” rhetoric is coming from the White House, an obvious inversion of the truth, saying, “And, obviously, there’s a lot of rhetoric that is problematic. A lot of it is coming from one particular side and from one particular building. But what can be done, I fear, when this is an escalation, already, in less than 24 hours of this shooting?”
For that comment, she was skewered by Jonathan Turley, who wrote, “MSNBC’s Jen Psaki actually declared Trump’s criticism of the rhetoric on the left to be ‘an escalation’ after the Kirk assassination. We are already at political assassinations, so I am not sure how much more room for escalation there may be for Psaki or MSNBC…”
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Another who joined in was “CBS Mornings,” co-host Nate Burleson, who pressed Kevin McCarthy, the former Republican Speaker of the House, on whether it is Republicans who need to reflect on “political violence.” He said, “Mr. Speaker, I want to get back to you. As Tony mentioned, not everyone took to his words or his rhetoric. You know, at times, they were offensive to specific communities. But with that said, this is not the time to focus on that. We are focused on this tragedy. Speaking of this tragedy, is this a moment for your party to reflect on political violence?”
Continuing, Burleson pressed the same absurd point home, insisting, “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?”
Even Democratic politicians joined in. Among the leading voices on that front was Rep. Ilhan Omar, who insisted that Charlie was a bad guy because he downplayed Juneteenth, saying, “Charlie was someone who once said ‘guns save lives!’ […] He downplayed George Floyd. He opposed Juneteenth.”
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Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video