Leadership was missing in wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder

Rear Adm. Tom Jurkowsky, USN (Ret.)

The Baltimore Sun

Sept. 23, 2025

The assassination of Charlie Kirk marked another act of political violence in our nation’s history. Unfortunately, these acts seem to be coming far more frequently, with each one portraying our country in an increasingly poor light.

We’ve seen political violence before with the assassinations of presidents — Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy. Ronald Reagan was shot but survived, along with two attempts on President Donald Trump’s life. We’ve seen the shootings of Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Republican Congressman Steve Scalise. More recently, we’ve seen the assault on Paul Pelosi in his California home; the killing of a Democratic state representative in Minnesota and her husband; the wounding of another Democratic Minnesota state senator and his wife; an arsonist setting fire to the home of Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor; the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington; and, of course, how can we forget the mob of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?

Political violence is a plague that has infected our country. Some political leaders say, “This is not who we are.” But unfortunately, it is. When our political leaders who represent us in Congress are afraid to meet with their constituents because they fear for their safety, we have a serious problem.

So what’s the antidote to this plague? The answer is leadership. Unfortunately, we’ve seen very little of it after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

President Trump has basically been a bystander in the aftermath. Instead of gathering leaders of both parties to calm and reassure the public, Trump has used his powerful pulpit to blame the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder. The “radical left” is a term that Trump continually uses to describe the Democratic Party. Using that term does nothing more than provoke more hate and polarization of Americans.

Trump seems to have forgotten the role the “far right” has played in the political violence our nation has seen — an example being the arsonist attack on Governor Shapiro and his family.00:01

The Kirk murder was an excellent opportunity for Trump to address Democratic and Republican leaders at all levels — congressional members, governors, mayors, state leaders — urging them to condemn the violence we continue to witness. Instead of using provocative language, our nation would have been better served by using a calming tone. That’s what presidents are supposed to do — use their leadership skills and be a calming influence.

The Kirk assassination demanded an address to the nation by Trump in prime time with both Democratic and Republican leaders by his side. The themes used in that address about ending political violence should have been repeated countless times.

Yet what did we see in the Kirk aftermath? Instead of there being a solemn time of reflection over Kirk, we saw Democratic and Republican members of Congress getting into an angry shouting match over whether there should be a moment of silence on the House floor for Kirk.

Robert Pape, a professor of political violence at the University of Chicago who has studied political violence for 30 years, says “full-throated condemnations of political violence” urging restraint should be made strongly and repeatedly.

Interviewed in Politico, Pape says our leaders must make an extraordinary effort to stem this tide of political violence. If left to its own devices, it will continue to get worse. If political violence is not condemned, without any equivocation, it will continue because violence will be accepted and construed as being justified.

“Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity,” said Governor Shapiro when he recently addressed the 2025 Eradicate Hate Global Summit.

“It [political violence] doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or the other, directed at one party or another, or one person or another. It’s all wrong,” Shapiro said. “During moments like these, we must be clear and unequivocal and call out all forms of political violence as wrong.”

“That shouldn’t be hard to do,” said Shapiro. “Unfortunately, some — from the dark corners of the internet all the way to the Oval Office — want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn. Doing so only further divides us and makes it harder to heal.”

Unfortunately, leaders — starting at the very top — need to step in now as the trajectory of political violence is getting worse. To look the other way — or worse, to add to already incendiary rhetoric — is an abrogation of a leader’s responsibilities. It is also destructive to our democracy.