Charlie Kirk’s murder should have been a watershed moment for the Republican Party. A conservative leader was assassinated for his beliefs, and the alleged assassin’s motive was clear: silencing Kirk’s voice because he disagreed with it. But instead of treating the murder as a wake-up call to the growing, dangerous trend of left-wing violence, too many Republicans are hiding behind generic calls for “unity.”
Consider the pattern: President Donald Trump faced two assassination attempts in 2024, Justice Brett Kavanaugh was threatened by a would-be assassin in 2022, Rep. Steve Scalise was among the GOP Congressmen targeted in 2017 by a shooter who publicly shared his support of Bernie Sanders and “hatred of conservatives,” and the Family Research Council — a pro-family research organization — was attacked in 2012.
And who could forget the violent Black Lives Matter riots in 2020 that led to the murder of Officer David Dorn and the destruction of private and public property? Or radical pro-Palestinian leftists threatening Jewish faculty, staff, and students on college campuses? Or the recent anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles, where the American flag was burned in the street? Or the growing number of shootings carried out by individuals seemingly steeped in trans ideology?
Despite the long list of targeted attacks, too many Republicans respond with vague statements without calling out the evident trend.
Take Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, who, following Kirk’s assassination, said, “Political violence has no place in America. What we saw yesterday … is sickening, it is disgusting. It was a political assassination.” But she followed this up by saying, “The time for unity, the time for peace, it is now.”
Take Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, who was asked to respond to White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller’s comments about holding left-wing organizations accountable for fomenting violence. In his response, Lankford brought the Oklahoma bombing and “white nationalists” into the discussion to essentially both-sides the issue of Kirk’s assassination.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said last week that while we “can always point the finger at the other side,” we have to find an “off-ramp.”
“I desperately call on every American – Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us – to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me,” Cox said Friday. “Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”
Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis was no better, saying Friday on CNN: “Somehow, as a society, we need to figure out how to turn down the dial. Every one of us, every morning, should wake up, look in the mirror, and see what we are doing in our own personal relationships.”
What these Republicans fail to fully acknowledge is that, as The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson noted last week, “Left-wing politics in this country has always been violent” because such violence and intolerance are “foundational to the left’s entire revolutionary political project going back more than a half-century in this country.” It’s why we see Americans in large numbers cheering on or mocking Kirk’s assassination, and it’s why Republicans must fight against the leftist cause specifically.
This means urging Congress to investigate funds going to left-wing causes and censorship. It means using federal resources to go after the “Violent factions of the establishment left, often fomented online and funded by mega donors,” as The Federalist’s Breccan Thies wrote. Such “groups, communication systems, networks, logistical programs, and the rest need to be uncovered and eradicated” and “treated as terrorist organizations,” Thies continued.
Of course, President Donald Trump does what few other Republicans are willing to do — that is, specifically call out the political violence on the left.
“When you look at the agitators — you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place — that’s the left, that’s not the right,” Trump said Sunday.
Notably, Miller said Monday that the administration would use “every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government, to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.”
Nonetheless, Trump’s rightful acknowledgement of leftist political violence has been criticized by the left, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said Trump should stop “pointing fingers” and “simply say that political violence has no place in this country.”
That’s exactly the trap too many Republicans have fallen into. Generic condemnations of political violence are easy, they cost nothing — but they also do nothing. They demand no action, no courage, and no recognition of who is actually responsible. And as long as Republican “leaders” keep responding to left-wing violence with empty words, they surrender the fight before it even begins and leave the door open for the left to keep escalating.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
