The cast of Friday’s PBS News Hour expressed serious doubts that President Trump can be the leader the nation needs after the murder of Charlie Kirk. Through a combination of misrepresentations, hypocrisy, and omissions, the assembled trio of anchor Amna Nawaz, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart condemned Trump’s response to the crime.
Nawaz thought she noticed an inconsistency in Trump’s behavior, “In terms of the reaction from the president, David, you have seen the president first say that his supporters should respond with nonviolence. He said that's what Charlie would have wanted. The next moment, he's blaming the radical left political violence. There's people around him now even suggesting that they should be deporting people who are critical of Charlie Kirk after his killing.”
Fact-check: Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau tweeted that foreigners praising or mocking Kirk’s assassination will not be welcomed as visitors in this country. Nobody risks being deported for simply disagreeing with Kirk.
After citing some polling data where 81 percent of Americans claimed to oppose political violence, Nawaz asked, “What does that say to you about whether or not we will see more political violence ahead?
Brooks agreed about Trump, “Yeah, it only takes a few, right? It only takes a few young men like the — the young man who tried to kill Trump, the young person who killed the Minnesota speaker, and then the guy who killed Charlie Kirk.
But the reaction — I have to say, I have been appalled by some of the reactions, a few, including the president's.”
The rest of Brooks’s response was more positive as he praised “the overwhelming majority” for their reaction. He concluded by declaring, “Martin Luther King preached a gospel of love, and in an aggressive way that was going to force the sins of society into the faces of people and make them see, is this who we are? And so I don't know if this will be a turning point where people will make that interruption and halt the cycle, but so far I felt it was a — it's been a moment, with a few exceptions, of coming together.”
Capehart was pessimistic, “Can I just say that, in your example, David, with the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King and all those marchers, they had an ally in the president who was there to, you know, break the passions and to — and to lead. And here, when it comes to what you were just saying, I am not convinced that our current president is the one who's going to be able to do that… I'm not sure President Trump is capable or willing to show that kind of leadership.”
That led Nawaz to wonder, “If not from the president himself, because we have seen mixed messages even in this last two days or so, where does the message have to come from? What has to happen to reach this inflection point you have both noted is necessary in this country?”
Capehart then praised Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, “We need more people like him in high positions, especially in high positions of leadership, executive leadership, who step out and do what Governor Cox has done.”
While Cox is deserving of praise, Capehart ignored how Cox said, “I think we need more moral clarity right now, I hear all the time that words are violence. Words are not violence. Violence is violence.”
This is why PBS’s freak-out over Trump does not make sense. Yes, people should not seek violent retribution against innocent people, but people on the far-left, especially those in the education business responsible for shaping the minds of young people, who believe that speech is violence need to reevaluate.
Capehart concluded, “If we haven't seen it fully and consistently from the president, then we need to see it from governors, we need to see it from mayors, we need to see it from members of Congress, we need to see it from the speaker, the majority leader of the Senate. We need to see it from and hear it from leaders up and down the chain on both sides of the aisle just to finally say, okay, look, we can't keep going down this road, because, if we do, the slide that a lot of people feel that we're on will be inexorable. And I'm not — I — as fearful as I am, I am praying, praying that leaders will lead.”
In September 2023, after a white supremacist murdered three black people at a Jacksonville Dollar General, Capehart said on News Hour that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s education policy sent “a message not only to the black community that the governor does not think much of you or your history or your contributions to this country, but it also sends a signal to those people, deranged or not, who believe that Black people are inferior and therefore are worthy of extermination.”
Trump’s response about “radical left lunatics” and their flippant use of Nazi analogies seems tame by comparison.
Here is a transcript for the September 12 show:
PBS News Hour
9/12/2025
7:41 PM ET
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, let's talk about that for just a second, the — in terms of the reaction from the president, David, you have seen the president first say that his supporters should respond with nonviolence. He said that's what Charlie would have wanted.
The next moment, he's blaming the radical left political violence. There's people around him now even suggesting that they should be deporting people who are critical of Charlie Kirk after his killing.
But in the context of the country they're speaking to, just take a look at this poll we pulled up from April of 2025. PRRI asked people if true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. Basically, what's your view of political violence? Eighty-one percent, the overwhelming majority of Americans, 81 percent, said, no, they disagreed with that sentiment. Slightly more Republicans, 18 percent, would agree with it, than Democrats at 11 percent.
But that is the environment we're in right now. What does that say to you about whether or not we will see more political violence ahead?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, it only takes a few, right? It only takes a few young men like the — the young man who tried to kill Trump, the young person who killed the Minnesota speaker, and then the guy who killed Charlie Kirk.
But the reaction — I have to say, I have been appalled by some of the reactions, a few, including the president's. But I have to say I have been sort of impressed. On the whole, I think a lot of people in various political stripes who really disagreed with Charlie Kirk have been pretty noble about this, about seeing past politics, into a human life, into a Christian, into a family man, like just seeing this is a boat we're all in.
And I have seen that across the political divide. And when I have looked at the Republican reaction, the overwhelming majority has been, you know, he was talking to people. He was talking to people he disagreed with. And that's instructive to us.
There's a moment — Thomas Hobbes, philosopher, said fear can sometimes be used for good. When you become so afraid that your society is slipping into chaos, then you're jolted out of your bad habits. And maybe this will be a moment for this. It really takes an act of heroism. To get out of the dark passion doom loop, there has to be a moment of interruption, where you say, no, I'm stopping this. I'm not partaking. I will respond to hatred with love.
And, of course, the ultimate example of this is the Civil Rights Movement, where they — Martin Luther King preached a gospel of love, and in an aggressive way that was going to force the sins of society into the faces of people and make them see, is this who we are? And so I don't know if this will be a turning point where people will make that interruption and halt the cycle, but so far I felt it was a — it's been a moment, with a few exceptions, of coming together.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Can I just say that, in your example, David, with the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King and all those marchers, they had an ally in the president who was there to, you know, break the passions and to — and to lead.
And here, when it comes to what you were just saying, I am not convinced that our current president is the one who's going to be able to do that. And even though we don't have kings in this country, we have always looked at our — looked to our presidents as moral exemplars, especially in moments like these, in moments of national trauma.
And, right now, I'm not sure President Trump is capable or willing to show that kind of leadership.
BROOKS: Fair point.
NAWAZ: In a minute or so we have left, then, Jonathan, I will just follow up. If not from the president himself, because we have seen mixed messages even in this last two days or so, where does the message have to come from? What has to happen to reach this inflection point you have both noted is necessary in this country?
CAPEHART: We need more Governor Coxes. We need more people like him in high positions, especially in high positions of leadership, executive leadership, who step out and do what Governor Cox has done.
If we haven't seen it fully and consistently from the president, then we need to see it from governors, we need to see it from mayors, we need to see it from members of Congress, we need to see it from the speaker, the majority leader of the Senate. We need to see it from and hear it from leaders up and down the chain on both sides of the aisle just to finally say, okay, look, we can't keep going down this road, because, if we do, the slide that a lot of people feel that we're on will be inexorable.
And I'm not — I — as fearful as I am, I am praying, praying that leaders will lead.