'We have to stop it.' Democrats aim to calm tensions after Charlie Kirk murder. Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAYSeptember 11, 2025 at 11:58 PM 0 The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk creates a challenge for Democrats as they try to calm tensions and avoid blame, while continuing to steadfastl...
- - 'We have to stop it.' Democrats aim to calm tensions after Charlie Kirk murder.
Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAYSeptember 11, 2025 at 11:58 PM
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The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk creates a challenge for Democrats as they try to calm tensions and avoid blame, while continuing to steadfastly oppose President Donald Trump's political agenda with which Kirk was closely identified.
In the immediate aftermath, many of Kirk's allies blamed political opponents of the 31-year-old husband and father, who was fatally shot in the neck at a Sept. 10 event at Utah Valley University.
"The left is the party of murder," posted billionaire and Republican mega-donor Elon Musk on X.
President Trump plans to award the slain MAGA supporter the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. He quickly laid blame on the "radical Left" in a 4-minute speech from the Oval Office as authorities are still searching for the shooter and a potential motive.
1 / 11Charlie Kirk remembered in memorials: Conservative activist was shot while speaking in UtahPeople congregate at Turning Point Headquarters in Phoenix after news that the founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed at a rally in Utah on Sept. 10, 2025.
Democrats have responded by condemning Kirk's assassination and all political violence, which has become increasingly common against members of both parties and individuals of all stripes.
"This is not acceptable and well have to condemn it. We have to stop it," Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a longtime Trump foe, said in a Sept. 10 post on X. "This is sickening."
"Political violence is NEVER acceptable," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an Sept. 10 post on X. "My thoughts and prayers are with Charlie Kirk and his family."
Rep. Maxwell Frost, the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress, said the shooting was "nothing short of horrific" and condemned the violence. The Florida Democrat said in a Sept. 10 Facebook post reacting to the shooting that "every single person deserves to be safe from gun violence no matter" their political beliefs.
But in an era that is fueled by an online ecosystem that rewards nastier partisan approaches to politics, experts say it will be a challenge for Democrats to find the right chord to strike after months of promising to "fight fire with fire" against Trump and the populist-fueled movement that Kirk and others led.
"It has been very hard for Democrats to find a way to talk about Trump and Kirk, and kind of convey the idea that they represent a threat to democracy without that going into alarmism," Matthew Dallek, a historian and professor of political management at George Washington University, told USA TODAY.
It's also hard to know, he added, if Kirk's assassination will pull back the nation's trajectory of political violence or pushes it into a "deeper, darker place" that some appear eager to embrace.
More: Charlie Kirk gave young conservatives a voice. We'll feel his loss for years to come. | Opinion
Many conservative officials and figures, for instance, say Democrats calling for calm are hypocrites who have aimed fiery rhetoric toward them for years without regard to their safety. They have also spotlighted comments of those mocking or downplaying Kirk's death, and have sounded a disturbing alarm that more violence is imminent.
"It's not a civil dispute among fellow countrymen," Virginia state Rep. Nick Freitas, a Republican, declared on X. "It's a war between diametrically opposed worldviews which cannot peacefully coexist with one another. One side will win, and one side will lose."
Dems skeptical temperature will lower as Congress ups security
While Democrats on Capitol Hill joined their GOP colleagues in roundly condemning Kirk's assassination, they didn't seem optimistic about the prospect of turning down the political temperature in Trump's Washington.
A man pays respects as people attend a vigil after right-wing activist and commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of President Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City, Utah, September 10, 2025.
Sen. Tim Kaine served as the governor of Virginia during the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings that killed nearly three dozen students and faculty. He said the president has the "loudest megaphone" as the nation grapples with Kirk's death.
"As long as he is sending equivocal messages about violence, pardoning the January 6 protesters, criticizing some violence but not all, we're not getting the leadership that we need," Kaine, a Democrat, told USA TODAY.
During a roughly 4-minute speech in the Oval Office after the Utah shooting, Trump said it was "long past time for all Americans and the media" to confront that Kirk's murder is the "tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree." He exclusively called out instances of violence against his own supporters without mentioning any of the political violence against Democratic officials, such as a kidnapping plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, who's been advocating for gun reform since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in his state, also laid blame on Trump for worsening the political climate. "It's time that the president lead," he said.
Murphy said lawmakers have already been upping their security details in the wake of several acts of political violence across the country this year, such as the assassination of two Democratic state legislators in Minnesota this summer.
1 / 14FBI, police investigate Charlie Kirk shooting as manhunt for shooter continuesPolice officers and FBI agents walk through the courtyard at Utah Valley University as authorities search for the man who killed political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 11, 2025 in Orem, Utah. Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking at his "American Comeback Tour" when he was shot in the neck and killed the day before.
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle failed to showcase any reconciliation ahead of Trump's remarks during moment of silence for Kirk on the House floor, which quickly devolved into a shouting match between Republicans and Democrats.
It all started when Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, asked members to say a prayer for Kirk, who leaves behind his wife, Erika, a 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.
"What about the kids in Colorado," some Democrats could be heard shouting back, referring to a Sept. 10 school shooting in the Centennial State that occurred on the same day as Kirk's death.
That prompted a response from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, who worked at Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA, before being elected to Congress. She yelled "Y'all caused this!" at Democrats across the aisle.
Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Connecticut, shouted back: "Pass some gun laws!"
Both parties blame each other for inflammatory rhetoric
Kirk's assassination is the culmination of a series of high-profile acts of political violence, experts tell USA TODAY, including two attempts on Trump's life during the 2024 presidential campaign.
There are other incidents that have led up to this moment and been spread across the political spectrum in recent years, such as the hammer attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband in 2022 or the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that same year. (The attacker in Pelosi's home echoed a chant from the Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when he shouted "Where's Nancy?")
Donald Trump shakes hands with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024.
"It's important that everybody calls for the lowering of the temperature, rhetorically speaking, whether we've been complicit in raising the temperature or not, there's never a time where it's improper to stop equating the value of people with the value of their ideas," said Abdu Murray, president of Embrace the Truth, a Christian-based non profit organization.
But Kirk's murder is especially troubling to conservative thinkers and activists given his stardom came from a public embrace of traditional values mixed with an unapologetic, confrontational debate style at college campuses and online that offended liberals but galvanized a generation of younger voters to right-leaning causes and viewpoints, including toward the Trump campaign.
Former Republican Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore said in an interview that the nature of communication in America has changed significantly with the dominance of social media, which he said is more partisan than the cable news era of the 1990s.
"Today's world politics favors the more extreme statements that people make, sometimes even violent statements," he said. "And the Democrats are being hypocritical because they have been so violently anti-Trump that they raise anger and frustration from the left just as well as people are sometimes frustrated on the right."
The partisan finger pointing, however, isn't likely to stop as both sides dig in their heels by spotlighting examples of threats or acts of violence, such as a Sept. 11 a bomb threat at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
Roses and candles are placed next to a picture of Charlie Kirk during a vigil under the line "In Memory of Charlie Kirk, for freedom, patriotism and justice" in front of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany September 11, 2025.
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former senior adviser for the 2020 Kamala Harris presidential campaign, said both parties have a responsibility to look in the mirror and should wait to learn more about the shooter as the investigation unfolds, but that his party will continue to hold Trump accountable for what he says and does.
"I understand that there are a few idiots on the internet who have said some stupid s--t, and the Republicans are going to try to elevate that," Nellis told USA TODAY.
"But Donald Trump is president, he sets the tone for the country and for his movement. If he tells people to jump, they say, 'how high' so if he tells everybody, take a step back, take a deep breath, they would do it."
Contributing: Zachary Schermele
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Too little, too late? Dems rush to lower temperature amid Kirk murder
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