In the wake of the shooting death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at a college in Utah last week, some Republicans have insisted that the movement is at “war” with what they see as the “radical” left — a catch-all term that encompasses most of the Democratic Party and Trump-opposing independent voters.
But as some of his own colleagues insist that calls for political violence are solely perpetrated by Democrats — ignoring those very calls from some of the president’s loudest supporters — a Utah Republican senator is calling on the targets of a recurring GOP blame game to take things in stride.
Sen. John Curtis told ABC’s This Week Sunday that Democrats would see their efforts to mend fences go a long way by ignoring the clumsy recriminations of Kirk’s allies, who have accused the left of espousing the same violent rhetoric that the likes of Steve Bannon and Alex Jones continue to amplify on their respective media channels.
“We need to have a little grace for those who are angry, we know anger is a part of grieving,” Curtis told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “As they move past that anger, and they definitely need to move past it, we need to think about productive dialogue.”
The senator added that he believed social media was inflaming tensions and passions, particularly among younger Americans: “I fear in many cases it’s a huge weight, and a very negative weight on this generation.”
Though he did not address Bannon or Jones directly, his remarks echoed a sentiment from his state’s governor, Spencer Cox, in the hours and days following Kirk’s shooting last Wednesday.
Utah’s Republican governor urged Americans to come together and talk out their differences again on Sunday, and directly rebuked the War Room podcast host Bannon, who called him a “national embarassment” to the MAGA Republican movement last week.
Bannon, like Jones, has described Kirk as a “casualty of war” and used the same kind of violent rhetoric many argue will lead to further violence as authorities try to prevent further politically-motivated attacks like the killing of Kirk.
On CNN, Cox labeled Bannon a “conflict entrepreneur” during an interview Sunday and encouraged Americans not to listen to voices that profit off of division.
“Look, there are conflict entrepreneurs out there who benefit from radicalizing us. And I’m not one of those. I don’t know that that’s particularly helpful,” he said.
“That’s what I appreciate most about Charlie,” Cox added. “If we don’t keep talking, that’s when the violence starts.”
Of Bannon, he added: “But he is right at this: we need to find out how this happened, and we need to stop it from happening [again].”
In a separate interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Cox insisted that while Bannon remained a close ally of the president and members of his team, Trump in fact had the governor’s back on the issue, and said the White House had asked Cox to appear on Sunday morning shows to to talk about the case.
“They’re worried about the escalation that’s happening out there,” Cox said.
Trump himself has taken a markedly different tone with his own rhetoric, one that doesn’t match the White House’s support for Cox’s bridge-building.
“We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” the president said a day after Kirk’s death.
His eldest son, meanwhile, is one of those voices blaming the left for glorifying violence while dishonestly claiming innocence of similar behavior.
“These are not exactly radical concepts, although when the left realizes that they are losing arguments, they resort to this violence,” Donald Trump Jr. told Fox’s Martha MacCallum on Friday. “I see the constant ‘violence goes both ways,’ and it does not, Martha — the violence is going one way.”
In reality, Trump Jr. — like his father — repeatedly made light of a vicious home invasion and bludgeoning attack committed against Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after it took place in 2022.
