Is there a link between political violence and leaders’ rhetoric?

The NPR Politics Podcast

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News, Daily News, Politics

4.4 • 25.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

There have been three incidents of political violence in the last two weeks — an attack on a synagogue in Michigan, a shooting at Old Dominion University and an attempted attack on anti-Muslim protesters outside the New York City mayor's residence. We discuss whether there are any common threads among these attacks and what role leaders can play in lowering the rhetorical temperature.

This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef, and congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt.

This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.

Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Odette Yousef. I cover domestic
0:10.1	extremism. And I'm Barbara Sprint. I cover Congress. There have been three targeted attacks in just the last
0:16.9	week and a half, all considered political violence too classified as acts of terrorism.
0:22.7	It's a toxic stew, and today on the show, we'll try to understand what's leading to a
0:27.3	dangerous atmosphere in this country and what role political leaders could play.
0:32.9	Odette, let's start with these attacks.
0:35.2	Remind us of what we know about these three incidents.
0:39.4	Yeah. So the first was two Saturdays ago, Tam. There was an attempted attack on anti-Muslim protesters outside the mayor's mansion in New York City. Two young men have been charged with providing material support for a terrorist organization, ISIS. They
0:56.4	allegedly both made statements to the effect that they were inspired by ISIS. And then on
1:02.1	Thursday there were two attacks. One of them was at Old Dominion University in Virginia
1:07.9	where a man, according to the FBI, yelled Allahou Akbar before opening fire.
1:14.5	He was killed at the scene.
1:16.5	Previously, though, this man had served prison time after pleading guilty to providing material
1:22.6	support for ISIS. And so this and the New York attack are both being investigated as acts of terrorism.
1:29.3	And then the third attack was on a synagogue in Michigan.
1:33.3	That's right, in a suburb of Detroit at Temple Israel.
1:37.3	And there, a naturalized Lebanese American citizen opened fire and crashed his vehicle into the building.
1:46.0	He died by suicide. And investigators haven't stated a motive yet, Tam, but we do know that he
1:53.0	had family who were killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon a couple of weeks ago.
1:58.6	According to Israel Defense Forces, one of his brothers who was
2:02.0	killed was a Hezbollah commander. Yeah. And I think that there are still a lot of questions there.
2:08.1	Yeah. And I have a question on that front. Odette, all three of these attacks happened,
	...

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