Denver (AP) – Conservative activists and icons from the moment Charlie Kirk Falling down by an assassin bullet, the partisans begin a fight over which side is responsible. President Donald Trump became the most prominent in linking the attack to the “radical left” before the suspect was identified.
It is part of a new, harsh tradition in polarized countries, seeking to lock in immediate responsibility for the act of public violence in one of two political aspects. The nation is from the lille Waves of physical attack Experts have warned both Republicans and Democrats that they are rushing to condemn political movements that vague and irrational behavior can sometimes lead to more conflict.
“The University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats” said Robert Pape, political scientist and director of the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats.
On Friday, authorities announced they had been arrested. Tyler Robinson, 22 Shot in Washington, Utah. A registered voter, he has not partnered with any party and has not voted in the last two general elections. Still, authorities said Robinson has grown more politically recently and expressed a negative view of Kirk.
There was other first evidence of the potential impact of Robinson. According to court documents, he carved a provocative phrase into his ammunition, including a casing of one bullet marked with “Hey, fascist! Catch!” – and other people in the world loaded with memes and online video games sarcasm.
Nihilistic violent extremism is a new FBI category
Experts say political assassins don’t always fall into neatly organized partisan categories. In some cases, like Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Trump. Pennsylvania Campaign Rally Last year there are few records of political stances. The FBI said Crooks was also studying then President Joe Biden. As a possible attack target.
Bruce Hoffman, a researcher of terrorism at Georgetown University, noted that the FBI has created a new category of nihilistic violent extremism to track the rise in attacks that appear to have no clear political motivation.
“Extremism is becoming an ideological salad bowl where you can choose what you want,” Hoffman said.
More important than the attacker’s state of mind, experts emphasize that the broader political environment is. The warmer the atmosphere, the more likely it is for unstable people to commit violence.
“What they all share is a political ecosystem that is very tolerant about violence against political rivals,” said Allie Perlinger, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell University, about the perpetrators of recent political violence. “Politicians are encouraged to use extreme rhetoric and extreme language, leading to the demonization of their political rivals.”
Some people want to be calm, others want “war.”
It certainly happened after Kirk’s murder. The 31-year-old father of two young children was a new populist rights icon and a key ally of Trump, especially among young conservatives. Some conservatives sought something calm, but other conservatives, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and podcaster and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, sought “war.”
In a speech in the House on Thursday, Illinois Republican Rep. Mary Miller said Kirk’s “death is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of the disturbing trend of political violence in our country, amplified by corrupt media that has been encouraged by the radical left and become totally evil.”
Many prominent Democrats have issued statements that are gently clashing with each side. Among them were California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi was seriously injured by a hammer-wielding attacker who broke into her home in 2022 in an assault that Trump had oc-lol among other Republicans.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is also being asked to lower the temperature across the board.
Trump declares radical leftists as “problem”
Still, Trump remains the most notable practitioner of polarized attacks. Shortly after announcing his arrest on Fox News Friday morning, he said, “The extremists on the right are radical because they don’t want to see crime. …The extremists on the left are the problem.”
The Prevention League discovered that from 2022 to 2024, all of the US 61 political killings were committed by right-wing extremists. That changed on the first day of 2025. When a Texas man flew the flag of an Islamic State Group, he drove a truck down a crowded New Orleans Street before being fatally shot by police, killing 14 people.
Hoffman said in modern history the right is responsible for political attacks on more people than the left. He said it was because left-wing extremists are likely to target property rather than people, and because the extreme right boasts of militias and other organizations.
He added that Trump forgives More than 1,500 people have been convicted of crimes Attack on January 6, 2021 At the U.S. Capitol, in order to overturn his election losses, “there is a belief that if you engage in violence you can wipe the slate clean.”
There is no doubt that there was political violence from the left. A 66-year-old man who supported the cause of the left in 2017 I fired Rep. Steve Scullyse, who eventually recovered, was seriously injured in Congressional Republican baseball practices.
Armed man angry at a leaked ruling from a coming case restricting abortion rights in 2022 I tried to enter the house Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The man retreated when he saw Marshall guarding the house of Justice, called his sister, and was persuaded to call 911 and surrender to the police.
What can take people “over the edge”?
University of Chicago Pape said people engaged in political violence are often not the same as partisans who debate online. He said about 40% of people who committed political violence have mental illness.
“When there’s strong support from the public due to political violence, they think they’re acting on the community’s interest, so they tweak people to the edge,” he said.
He said Trump was worried about unilateral accusations of leftist violence and said it would only burn the conflict. He compared it to when some liberals denounce all Trump voters as racist.
“The members of the people doing this, that burn them,” Pape said. As for the group being hurt as a distinctive violence, “it creates a greater sense of rebellion,” he added. “All we need to do is persuade Trump to suppress more of the restraint on his part.
