Shapiro chides Trump over response to Charlie Kirk assassination

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania on Tuesday strongly condemned all political violence and called for unity and moral clarity following last week’s assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.

And Shapiro, who survived a firebomb attack against himself and his family at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in April, also accused President Donald Trump of cherry-picking which violent acts he’s condemning in the wake of the murder of Kirk at a college campus event at Utah Valley University.

“Violence in all forms is unacceptable,” Shapiro said during an address to the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh. “Political violence is particularly dangerous. Not only does it seek to injure, maim or kill – it seeks to intimidate, terrorize and silence.”

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The Pennsylvania governor in his speech pointed to other high-profile violent political attacks in recent years, including last year’s attempted assassination of Trump, and this year’s murder of the former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband.

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Trump, in an Oval Office address hours after Kirk was killed, blamed “the radical left.”

In interviews Friday on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” and Saturday on NBC News, the president took aim at “a radical left group of lunatics.”

And Trump told reporters on Sunday, “When you look at the problems, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right.”

But Shapiro chided Trump, without directly mentioning the president’s name.

“During moments like this, I believe we have a responsibility to be clear and unequivocal in calling out all forms of political violence and making clear it is all wrong. That shouldn’t be hard to do,” the governor said.

And Shapiro lamented, “Unfortunately, some from the dark corners of the internet all the way to the Oval Office want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn.”

The governor argued: “Doing that only further divides us, and it makes it harder to heal. There are some who will hear that selective condemnation and take it as a permission slip to commit more violence. So long as it suits their narrative or only targets the other side.”