Is the far left to blame for more political killings in America?
Opinion polls probably overestimate public support for violence
SINCE THE assassination on September 10th of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist, President Donald Trump has said that “most of the violence is on the left”. Pam Bondi, the attorney-general, posted on X that “we’ve watched the radical left normalise threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence”. And J.D. Vance, the vice-president, claimed, while hosting Kirk’s podcast in his stead, that supporting violence “is not a ‘both-sides’ problem”, but rather one where the left has a “much bigger and malignant problem”.
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Deathly data”
From the September 20th 2025 edition
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