Arguably buried given it aired on Friday’s show, NBC Nightly News nonetheless offered a shocking full segment that conceded the truth there’s “growing support for political violence among the ‘younger, highly online, and ideologically left aligned’” that’s included support for Luigi Mangione, the assassination attempts on President Trump, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The piece tried to insert a disclaimer for their liberal base that “both sides are now radicalized,” but the tone was unmistakable.”
Anchor Tom Llamas set the table: “We turn to the rise of political violence in this country. Among young people who spend a lot of time online, support for violent acts is now growing.”
Correspondent Stephanie Gosk came out of the gate with the reality about the broad support for Mangione: “Soon after Luigi Mangione was accused of killing United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson, the memes started celebrating the cold-blooded murder, treating the alleged killer like a hero.”
Network Contagion Research Institute’s Max Horder backed this up by refusing to join in the left’s troubling lionizing of him: “He’s become a symbol for this really enormous and radical and maybe unprecedented change in American culture.”
“We no longer are ashamed of this violence, but actually there’s a large percentage of people that actually applaud it,” he added.
Then Gosk delivered the welcome dose of reality to legacy, liberal media viewers, citing a study the right has been promoting for weeks, including the late Charlie Kirk himself:
In a survey of about 1,200 people conducted with Rutgers University, Horder found growing support for political violence among the “younger, highly online, and ideologically left aligned.” According to their results, 56 percent of people who identify as left of center believe there could be some justification for killing President Donald Trump. Hauntingly a few months before he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk posted about the survey results on X.
Simply put, there’s no way around those troubling facts, a sickening indictment of our country’s political climate.
Horder added the unsurprising qualifier: “Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the left only which is supporting increased forms of physical violence. It seems to be more that they’re sort of catching up, that we’re seeing a broader change in America where both sides are now radicalized.”
But that was where the attempt at both-sidesism ended with Gosk and Horder discussing assassination culture:
GOSK: Online networks across the political spectrum fueling the growth of what he calls an assassination culture. [TO HORTER] Do you think in those spaces, people are becoming desensitized to the enormity of murder as a crime?
HORDER: Absolutely, I do.
GOSK: Authorities say Kirk’s accused killer Tyler Robinson spent a lot of time on Discord. So, what is discord? It’s an online platform based around group chats. The categories are split into something called servers. They’re either public or invite-only. Once in, you can click on a group and join the chat.
The piece concluded with the obvious, which is the need for key leaders and institutions to speak out: “If authority figures can say, this is not acceptable, we’re much more likely to calm this down and to wind this down.”
Unfortunately, too many in the far-left, legacy media won’t allow it. And even if they did, their base would be apoplectic.
To see the relevant NBC transcript from September 19, click “expand.”
NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas
September 19, 2025
6:41 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: NBC News Reports; Online Threats]
TOM LLAMAS: We turn to the rise of political violence in this country. Among young people who spend a lot of time online, support for violent acts is now growing. Stephanie Gosk with our in-depth look.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: NBC News Reports; Researchers: Online Networks Fueling “Assassination Culture”]
STEPHANIE GOSK: Soon after Luigi Mangione was accused of killing United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson, the memes started celebrating the cold-blooded murder, treating the alleged killer like a hero.
MAX HORDER: He’s become a symbol for this really enormous and radical and maybe unprecedented change in American culture.
GOSK: Anthropologist Max Horder works with the Network Contagion Research Institute studying online threats.
HORDER: We no longer are ashamed of this violence, but actually there’s a large percentage of people that actually applaud it.
GOSK: In a survey of about 1,200 people conducted with Rutgers University, Horder found growing support for political violence among the “younger, highly online, and ideologically left aligned.” According to their results, 56 percent of people who identify as left of center believe there could be some justification for killing President Donald Trump. Hauntingly a few months before he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk posted about the survey results on X.
HORDER: Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the left only which is supporting increased forms of physical violence. It seems to be more that they’re sort of catching up, that we’re seeing a broader change in America where both sides are now radicalized.
GOSK: Online networks across the political spectrum fueling the growth of what he calls an assassination culture. [TO HORDER] Do you think in those spaces, people are becoming desensitized to the enormity of murder as a crime?
HORDER: Absolutely, I do.
GOSK: Authorities say Kirk’s accused killer Tyler Robinson spent a lot of time on Discord. So, what is discord? It’s an online platform based around group chats. The categories are split into something called servers. They’re either public or invite-only. Once in, you can click on a group and join the chat. This is about travel tips in Paris, but people can be on here chatting about anything. Discord says it “found no evidence that Robinson planned this incident or promoted violence on Discord.” One of the best ways to disrupt the cycle, Horder says, strong messages offline.
HORDER: If authority figures can say, this is not acceptable, we’re much more likely to calm this down and to wind this down.
GOSK: What you’re saying is the message from the top matters.
HORDER: Absolutely. It matters more than anything else.
GOSK: Stephanie Gosk, NBC News.