On Saturday’s Good Morning America, ABC senior White House correspondent Selina Wang made the wild claim that President Trump is “blaming the left” for Charlie Kirk’s murder even though the motive is currently unknown. The previous evening, on World News Tonight, chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl tried to drive a wedge between Trump and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox over their responses to the crime, claiming the former was not heeding the latter’s pleas for the country to step back from the brink of political violence.
Wang began her report by claiming, “The president is grieving, but he’s also angry, and he is once again blaming the left for the murder of Charlie Kirk even before authorities know the motive of the alleged shooter.”
Authorities have mentioned that the bullets had anti-fascist slogans on them. A family member said the assassin had claimed Kirk was “full of hate and spreading hate.” That doesn’t sound like a neo-Nazi assassinating Kirk for being supportive of Israel, like some liberals stuck in the crazy segments of the internet are claiming.
However, Wang continued:
Now the White House says the president will soon announce a plan to go after left-wing extremism, but so far the president has only listed out attacks against Republican leaders while making no mention of violence against Democrats, including the killing of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the arson attack at Governor Josh Shapiro’s home earlier this year in Pennsylvania and some in the MAGA world have echoed the president’s sentiments, saying the violence only goes one way, but that simply is not true. That’s not the reality we’re seeing in this country, where violence comes from and impacts people all across the political spectrum, and lawmakers from both parties are rattled. Some have even canceled events out of fear for their own safety. In fact, Capitol Police say the number of threats against lawmakers this year is on pace to nearly double the previous record.
While we can acknowledge Wang’s point about Hortman, it should be noted that Shapiro was targeted by a bipolar schizophrenic who thought that by firebombing the governor’s mansion he was protecting Palestinians.
The previous evening on WNT, Karl reported how Cox claimed Kirk’s murder made him madder than he’s ever been before, “But despite the anger, Governor Cox, a Republican, is pleading for calm, for dialing down the rage and the division. Pointing out that political violence has targeted Democrats as well as Republicans, saying the shooting in his state can be a turning point for America.”
He then played a clip of Cox, “We can return violence with violence. We can return hate with hate. And that’s the problem with political violence is it metastasizes. Because we can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse.”
Karl then lamented, “The governor’s words stood in stark contrast to those, including the president, who have blamed the attack on the, quote, ‘radical left.’
Trump also said that he wants, and that Kirk would have wanted, people to respond with “nonviolence,” but Karl didn’t recall that. Instead, he played another clip of Cox, “I think we need more moral clarity right now. I hear all the time that words are violence. Words are not violence, violence is violence. There is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody.”
Karl wants to focus on the “one person” part of Cox’s answer and not the first part where he condemned the far-left idea that “words are violence.” Ultimately, the shooter made an evil choice that he alone bears responsibility for, but let’s not pretend that his choice wasn’t the logical conclusion of the idea that “words are violence,” which he had to learn from somewhere.
Here are transcripts for the September 12 and 13 shows:
ABC World News Tonight
9/12/2025
6:40 PM ET
JONATHAN KARL: But despite the anger, Governor Cox, a Republican, is pleading for calm, for dialing down the rage and the division. Pointing out that political violence has targeted Democrats as well as Republicans, saying the shooting in his state can be a turning point for America.
SPENCER COX: We can return violence with violence. We can return hate with hate. And that’s the problem with political violence is it metastasizes. Because we can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse.
KARL: The governor’s words stood in stark contrast to those, including the president, who have blamed the attack on the, quote, “radical left.”
COX: I think we need more moral clarity right now. I hear all the time that words are violence. Words are not violence, violence is violence. There is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody.
***
ABC Good Morning America
9/13/2025
7:07 AM ET
SELINA WANG: The president is grieving, but he’s also angry, and he is once again blaming the left for the murder of Charlie Kirk even before authorities know the motive of the alleged shooter. Now the White House says the president will soon announce a plan to go after left-wing extremism, but so far the president has only listed out attacks against Republican leaders while making no mention of violence against Democrats, including the killing of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the arson attack at Governor Josh Shapiro’s home earlier this year in Pennsylvania and some in the MAGA world have echoed the president’s sentiments, saying the violence only goes one way, but that simply is not true. That’s not the reality we’re seeing in this country, where violence comes from and impacts people all across the political spectrum, and lawmakers from both parties are rattled. Some have even canceled events out of fear for their own safety. In fact, Capitol Police say the number of threats against lawmakers this year is on pace to nearly double the previous record.
