Late-night hosts reacted to the assassination of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and decried the rising tide of political violence in the US.
Seth Meyers
Seth Meyers opened Thursday’s Late Night with a separate segment on the Kirk assassination. “We are horrified by this grotesque tragedy and our condolences go out to his family and loved ones,” he said. “It should never be a matter of political ideology to mourn and to extend our fullest and deepest empathy to those who are suffering.
“Political violence is abhorrent and anathema to the highest ideals of this country,” he continued. “It corrodes us and threatens the very foundations of our democracy. The great promise of our democratic experiment is that we can engage with one another and resolve our differences through dialogue, not violence. We must hold true to that promise and strive toward it with our fullest effort even when it feels furthest away.”
Meyers also mentioned another school shooting in Colorado on Wednesday that injured several students, just two weeks after a school shooting in Minnesota killed two children and injured 21 more. “There have been over 300 mass shootings and 47 school shootings this year alone,” he said. “We’ve said this many times on this program and we’ll say it again: gun violence is a plague in this country. We desperately need reasonable gun safety laws to stop this epidemic of tragedy and pain.
“No matter the identity or ideology of these perpetrators, one thing is always constant: the guns,” he added. “We must make it possible for children to go to school and for everyone to engage in public debate without the threat of gun violence looming over them.”
Meyers also noted the trend of political violence in recent years, including the murder of the Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband at home in June; the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul; an attempt to bomb the home of the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro; the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017; and the mob that attacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021. Meyers said: “This rising tide of political violence will only lead to a darker and more dangerous place, and it must end.”
Jimmy Kimmel
“Like the rest of the country, we’re still trying to wrap our heads around the senseless murder of the popular podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday, whose death has amplified our anger, our differences,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday evening.
“I’ve seen a lot of extraordinarily vile responses to this, from both sides of the political spectrum,” he continued, a day after a perpetrator shot and killed Kirk, a close ally of Donald Trump, during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. “Some people are cheering this, which is something I won’t ever understand. And we had another school shooting yesterday in Colorado.
“With all these terrible things happening, you would think that our president would at least make an attempt to bring us together,” Kimmel added. “But he didn’t.” Instead, Trump blamed the shooting on Democrats’ “rhetoric”.
“A man who told a crowd of supporters that ‘secondment amendment people’ should ‘do something’ about Hillary Clinton, the man who said he wouldn’t mind if someone shot through the fake news media, the man who unleashed a mob on the Capitol and said Liz Cheney should face nine barrels shooting at her for supporting his opponent, blames the ‘radical left’ for their rhetoric,” said a disgusted Kimmel.
Stephen Colbert
On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert expanded upon his message of peace and free speech from the night prior. “However you feel about his politics, he was a young father of two small children and an American who had the constitutional right to express his opinion in safety,” he said. “It should go without saying that violence is never the answer to political disagreement, but I think these days, it should be said as often as possible.
“And in these troubling moments, I am grateful to any leader who, instead of dividing us, points to our common humanity.”
Colbert then played a clip of the House speaker, Mike Johnson, who called for “everyone with a platform to say loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner, and political violence must be called out. It has to stop.”
“I agree with that sentiment,” said Colbert. “We should be able to settle our disagreements civilly, in the end as Americans, we are all brothers and sisters. Or at least, Mike Johnson and I look like we are.”
The Daily Show
And on the Daily Show, Michael Kosta made one point clear. “This probably goes without saying, but I feel like I have to say it: I believe killing people is wrong,” he said.
“As of now, we don’t know who did it,” he continued. “But Kash Patel’s FBI is on the case. So we will never know who did it.
“This is as good a time as any to say that political violence is never acceptable and should be condemned,” he added. “And thankfully, many political leaders think the same. All four living past presidents issued messages of unity and tolerance.
“It was comforting to see our living past presidents, and Joe Biden, attempting to lower the country’s temperature yesterday,” said Kosta. “But none of those people are running this place right now.” That would be Trump who wasted no time blaming the ‘rhetoric’ of the ‘radical left’, despite the fact that nothing was known about the perpetrator or his motives.
Trump’s Oval Office address basically amounted to, as Kosta mimicked, “My fellow Americans, we must come together to destroy each other.”
“Let’s be real: did we expect anything different?” Kosta wondered. “This is what this guy does. The last time Trump delivered a thoughtful message was apparently when he sent a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein.”
Kosta also grew frustrated with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers blaming the other side. “Here we go again – ‘It’s Democrats’ rhetoric.’ ‘No, it’s Republicans.’ Has anyone considered that the problem of political violence in America might not just be the rhetoric, but instead something extraordinarily complex? The problem might be a toxic mix of our gun laws, lack of mental health, collapsed social connection, probably a bunch of other things I hadn’t even thought of yet. I’m sure Labubus are somewhere in there to blame.
“I guess I just don’t think rhetoric is the root cause of this thing,” he concluded. “Political violence isn’t going to go away if the people on the other side say exactly the right words from now on.”
