The ladies on The View are “heartbroken” over the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot and killed while speaking at a campus in Utah yesterday.
Whoopi Goldberg opened up the episode by sending condolences to Kirk’s family following the “beyond devastating” assassination.
“Isn’t a fundamental part of being an American that we are able to express our opinions to each other without fear, without this kind of horror happening?” she asked. “It seems to be something we have been seeing more and more of. It’s not even left or right. It’s just people being taken out because of their beliefs or their thoughts.”
The news seemed to hit especially hard for The View’s resident Republican, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who came to know Kirk over the years.
“Regardless of your politics, we have got to get to a place in this country where we see people we disagree with not as our enemies but as fellow Americans with different viewpoints that we are willing to engage,” she said.
Griffin described Kirk, 31, as an “incredibly influential young activist on the right” who founded the Turning Point USA organization, which advocates for conservative politics in schools and on campuses.
“This is gonna hit young Republicans really hard because he made them feel like when they were the lone conservative voice on campus or they were one of the only Republicans, it was OK to speak up and say their viewpoints,” Griffin added. “That is a feeling that is going to be felt really deeply. I hope it doesn’t have a chilling effect, whether you’re left or you’re right, on your ability to speak your mind.”
Sunny Hostin went on to condemn political violence, telling the panel that she’s “heartbroken” over Kirk’s death, especially knowing that he has left behind a wife and two young children.
“I cannot believe that someone would kill another person because they were speaking their beliefs,” she said. “This is antithetical to who we are as Americans. The First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason. We should be able to voice whatever opinions that we have.”
Joy Behar, who has lived through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, then offered a hopeful perspective.
“We lived through all that. It was a turbulent time,” she said, referring to the headline-making murders in the ’60s. “I’d like to be positive about it. I think we did get out of it. The country survived it. We got better. I think we will again. We’re having a traumatic period right now.”
Goldberg, for her part, took one last moment to add, “This is not the way we do it. We say this every time but somehow it’s not resonating. And I hope that young Republicans never forget that they have a voice. We all have voices. We should never, ever be afraid.”
The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.