President Donald Trump did not call for unity Friday in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing, but instead pointed to what he called the “vicious” nature of the radical left.
Wyoming Democratic lawmakers who spoke to Cowboy State Daily were unsurprised but still frustrated at the president’s comments.
Two members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation, conversely, cast the president’s reaction as understandable.
Charlie Kirk’s gunshot death Wednesday shook the public sphere — in part because of a graphic video of the shot and the spewing neck wound it left, and in part because Kirk was an ardent driver of open discourse.
Trump took to a Fox News show Friday to discuss the incident and the arrest of the alleged shooter.
"Fox & Friends" co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked, “What do we do about our country with that? Because we have radicals on the right as well — we have radicals on the left. … How do we come back together?”
Trump said his answer would probably get him in trouble, “but I couldn’t care less.”
The radicals on the right have been radicalized because “they don’t want to see crime,” said Trump. But, he continued, “the radicals on the left are the problem. And they’re vicious, and they’re horrible. And they’re politically savvy.”
‘The Worst Thing He Could Be Doing In This Moment’
State Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, told Cowboy State Daily that Trump’s answer was “the worst thing he should be doing in this moment.”
Chestek said he disagrees with nearly everything Kirk stood for.
“But that doesn’t mean he should die, that’s ridiculous,” Chestek said. He added that Kirk’s death has hit him personally.
Chestek lives in the arena of words. He’s been an attorney and now is a retired law professor and a state lawmaker.
That the arena of words is starting to resemble a literal battleground is “kinda scary,” he added.
On the other hand, Chestek said Trump’s “completely partisan” comments toward the political left alone derail the nation from what it should be doing: uniting, listening, and respecting one another.
“This act of violence is completely against our moral values, against our way of life, and it needs to stop now,” he said.
He referenced the June 14 tragedy in which a Democratic state representative of Minnesota was killed along with her husband and her dog — and a Democratic state senator and his wife were both shot and injured.
Chestek said his condemnation of political violence is the same for the June incident and the Kirk incident.
‘Should Not Be’
Wyoming Sen. Mike Gierau and Reps. Karlee Provenza and Mike Yin echoed Chestek’s condemnation of political violence in their own comments.
As for Trump’s interview, Provenza said the president’s comments leave her “deeply saddened.” Yin voiced consternation with them. And Gierau said Trump’s interview “distresses me as an American.”
Provenza wrote in a text message: “Now more than ever, we need to love our neighbors, learn to sit in disagreement and work through that disagreement with them.”
Her comment mirrors a statement she made in Lander weeks before Kirk’s death, when she called for Wyomingites to reach across the political aisle and host community dinners.
“The reality is that most of us want the same thing,” she said then. "We want our communities to have freedom. Freedom to think what they want. Freedom to say what they want.”
Yin said the president, ideally, would have taken “the temperature down a notch and (talked) about, 'How do we come together as a country?'”
Reactions Though
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, delivered a unique response to Trump that was nearly the inverse, albeit more polished, of the president’s interview.
The MAGA movement is racist and divisive in its core, Rothfuss said, and when people on the left have resorted to violence in recent years, it has been a reaction to oppressive and heightening authoritarianism, he said.
Rothfuss specified that he doesn’t condone that violence at all.
The problem, he said, started with the political strategies MAGA and the populist right have deployed, which he said consist of demonizing and dehumanizing political foes to secure and expand one’s own power.
“The hatred is a traditional populist vehicle for gaining favor and power,” said Rothfuss. “You find someone to hate. You talk about how much you hate them and then you rally around that to build support through emotion and anger.”
Rothfuss acknowledged the chorus of voices on the left celebrating Kirk’s killing and the overflow of violence in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death by a police officer’s actions. But those have been reactions — albeit inappropriate — to oppression, he said, not an intrinsic feature of democratic policy goals.
In Rothfuss’ view, Kirk also used hateful strategies, racism in particular.
Left-leaning news site The Guardian compiled a list of charged Kirk quotes, which the outlet called “incendiary and often racist and sexist.”
One of those, a 2024 critique of race-based hiring, reads, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.'”
Kirk would often refer to FBI statistics showing relatively high proportions of arrests of Black people for violent crimes and compare those to the lesser proportion of Black people (around 14%) among U.S. races.
“Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people,” Kirk said in 2023.
Kirk, conversely, also voiced frequent concern over single-parent homes, high abortion rates and high crime-victim rates among Black people.
The Wake-Up
Rothfuss said his ideal solution would be a national wake-up call to Trump’s use of federal troops in American cities and other signposts that, the senator said, signal authoritarianism.
“At some point, I’m hopeful that the education everybody got back in junior high school and high school about what it looks like to move from a democracy to an authoritarian regime — that they’ll remember (it),” said Rothfuss. “Maybe something triggers.”
Rothfuss lamented the lesser outcry in response to the June attacks on the Minnesota lawmakers.
‘Trying To Debate And Engage With Leftists’
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, indicated that it’s time to turn down the temperature.
“There’s no role for violence in political discourse,” said Barrasso in a Friday email to Cowboy State Daily. “Charlie Kirk had an ability and willingness to talk about tough issues with a lot of people. We have to have better discussions instead of the horrible violence we saw this week.”
Barrasso’s Republican counterpart Sen. Cynthia Lummis aligned more with Trump’s stance on the matter.
“Charlie Kirk was literally assassinated this week as he was trying to debate and engage with leftists on a college campus,” said Lummis’ spokesperson Joe Jackson in a Friday email. “It’s not the Right that needs to turn down the temperature in the country.
"The Left needs to stop calling Trump and every Republican they don’t like fascist, authoritarian, or a threat to Democracy. Their inflammatory language has consequences.”
Appearing Thursday on Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show With Jake, Lummis noted how unique Kirk was, and said people should continue his movement of open discourse.
“He was teaching young men and women how to debate in a civil, kind, authoritative, thoughtful manner,” she said. “Crowds of young people … were inspired by his message to articulate yourself clearly, be proud and joyous of your conservative values, and share them with people in a kind, civil manner. He will be so missed.”
‘Understandable’
If Trump came off as disrespectful, one must also remember the political violence he’s endured, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, indicated in a Friday email.
Hageman called Kirk’s “assassination” “truly devastating” and pointed to his talent for engaging with youth.
“Political violence is inexcusable, and President Trump is correct that it must end,” wrote Hageman.
She added: “We must remain respectful in our politics, even when we disagree.”
“But remember,” Hageman continued, “that President Trump himself is only alive by the grace of God after surviving two assassination attempts. And after a decade of hateful rhetoric has led to the murder of one of the people closest to him, his reaction is understandable.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
