Former NFL wide receiver and current co-host of CBS Mornings Nate Burleson fumbled the ball on Thursday as he and his colleagues welcomed former GOP Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to the set to react to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. After the murder of a conservative activist, Burleson first got in a dig at Kirk’s politics while insisting that he wasn’t interested in doing that before asking McCarthy if “your party” needs to tone down the rhetoric.
Burleson began, “Mr. Speaker, I want to get back to you. And as Tony mentioned, not everyone took to his words or his rhetoric. You know, at times they were offensive to specific communities. But with that said, this is not the time to focus on that, we are focused on this tragedy.”
Somebody seems focused on it.
As it was, Burleson rolled on, “Speaking of tragedy, is this a moment for your party to reflect on political violence? Is it a moment for us to think about the responsibility of our political leaders and their voices and what it does to the masses as they get lost in misinformation or disinformation that turns in and spills into political violence?”
Even co-host Gayle King seemed uncomfortable with the question, “I say both parties, you know.”
McCarthy was the bigger man and echoed King’s sentiment, “I don't even say parties. I say a nation.”
He added, “If there's a moment in time you want to look to, and I looked back, and I watched this again when Robert F. Kennedy is running, and he's in Indianapolis, and he just got the news that Martin Luther King was killed, and he has to tell the crowd because we don't have social media at that time, and it was remarkable the words he said. He said we have to ask as a nation who are we? And how do we want to move forward?”
Recalling recent attacks on people from both parties, McCarthy continued, “We have watched this political attack on both sides, we've watched what happened in Minnesota, we watched what happened to President Trump, we've watched this on both sides. This is not a question about parties, this is a question about nations. We cannot normalize this, but Charlie was not elected. Charlie was not doing something where you would sit there and one party say something wrong, he was honoring, he was doing it on a college where ideas—this is what happened in the '60s. This is a moment in time for this nation to take this time to actually—to make a question about all of us.”
The day after this segment aired, the shooter was arrested, and it was reported that he had World War II-Italian Resistance song titles, among other things, etched on the bullets. McCarthy’s point is well taken, but people who are envious of other people who fought actual Nazis in an actual war and now have to invent fake Nazis to compensate should listen especially carefully.
Here is a transcript for the September 11 show:
CBS Mornings
9/11/2025
7:44 AM ET
NATE BURLESON: Yeah. And, Mr. Speaker, I want to get back to you. And as Tony mentioned, not everyone took to his words or his rhetoric. You know, at times they were offensive to specific communities. But with that said, this is not the time to focus on that, we are focused on this tragedy.
Speaking of tragedy, is this a moment for your party to reflect on political violence? Is it a moment for us to think about the responsibility of our political leaders and their voices and what it does to the masses as they get lost in misinformation or disinformation that turns in and spills into political violence?
GAYLE KING: I say both parties, you know.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: I don't even say parties. I say a nation.
KING: Okay. Even better.
MCCARTHY: If there's a moment in time you want to look to, and I looked back, and I watched this again when Robert F. Kennedy is running, and he's in Indianapolis, and he just got the news that Martin Luther King was killed, and he has to tell the crowd because we don't have social media at that time, and it was remarkable the words he said. He said we have to ask as a nation who are we? And how do we want to move forward?
We have watched this political attack on both sides, we've watched what happened in Minnesota, we watched what happened to President Trump, we've watched this on both sides. This is not a question about parties, this is a question about nations. We cannot normalize this, but Charlie was not elected. Charlie was not doing something where you would sit there and one party say something wrong, he was honoring, he was doing it on a college where ideas—this is what happened in the '60s. This is a moment in time for this nation to take this time to actually—to make a question about all of us.