America is in a dark era of political violence

Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and commentator, was shot and killed while hosting an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Utah Governor Spencer Cox says it was a political assassination. Kirk, 31, co-founded the conservative youth organization, Turning Point USA, when he was 18. His visit to Utah Valley University was the kick-off for his “American Comeback Tour,” during which he planned to host political debates on college campuses across the country. President Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social, and later said his death was a result of “radical left political violence.” A string of political violence has broken out in America over the past few years, from the January 6, 2021 insurrection to two assassination attempts on President Trump. What’s the path to ending political violence and the extreme rhetoric that leads to it?

As for overseas conflicts, President Trump claims he’s stopped several of them, such as Thailand and Cambodia’s, and Armenia and Azerbaijan’s. But as war continues in Gaza and Ukraine, is Trump’s strategy to bring global peace effective? Do Democrats have better ideas?

This week, a listener asked Left, Right, and Center about three problems he thinks the left struggles with. Our panel discusses those issues and whether they can be solved.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to left, right and center, everybody. I'm David Green. You know, American politics is in a very dark place right now.
0:10.0	Conservative commentator and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event in Utah this past Wednesday.
0:19.4	This was the latest incident in a really disturbing
0:23.7	trend of political violence in our country. Earlier this summer, a Minnesota state representative
0:28.1	and her husband were killed, and another Minnesota legislator and his wife were shot. There were
0:33.4	two attempts, as we know, on Donald Trump's life last year. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's home was torched.
0:40.6	There was Gabby Giffords, Steve Scalise, January 6th.
0:44.8	Unfortunately, this list is long, and it's getting longer.
0:48.4	President Trump spoke on Wednesday, and we should say unlike past leaders who have tried
0:53.5	to bring Americans together
0:55.0	after tragedy, the president spoke about political violence only is something the left is carrying
1:01.0	out on the right.
1:02.3	My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity
1:07.6	and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support
1:13.2	it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else
1:20.2	who brings order to our country. From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year,
1:26.9	which killed a husband and father to the
1:29.1	attacks on ice agents, to the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York,
1:35.9	to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others.
1:41.3	Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.
1:48.3	The ramifications of this moment on our politics and our democracy are pretty difficult to
1:54.5	grasp right now, but we're going to try to do our best here in this space. Moel Lathie is here,
	...

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