Some House Republicans blamed the media for the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk despite leadership encouraging members of both parties to turn down the temperature due to the rise of political violence in the United States.

Outside the Capitol on Thursday, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) accused reporters of being “complicit” in the assassination of Kirk, who died on Wednesday after being shot during a political event at Utah Valley University.

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“You are responsible for this, because you are echoing the horrifically horrible political violent rhetoric that’s being produced by the Democrat Party,” Van Orden said.

A reporter asked, “How can you say that when we don’t even know who the shooter is?”

Van Orden responded, “You know what? Knock it off.” He later said to the same reporter, “Be quiet.”

“You are responsible for that assassination yesterday. You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Van Orden added.

Van Orden has been in the spotlight before for controversial actions, including in 2023 when he yelled at Senate pages for taking photos of the Capitol rotunda by lying on the floor. He refused to apologize for the incident, saying at the time he was protecting the integrity of the rotunda.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) also criticized the media for Kirk’s death.

“I have condemned every single bit of political violence, whether it was the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, whether it was a speaker’s husband getting a hammer to the head. This s*** ends. Enough is enough,” Mace told reporters.

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“And you guys in the press need to be more responsible about this, and actually be fair and cover the things that are happening,” she added. “It’s unbelievable what’s happening in this country.”

Both House Republican and Democratic leaders have called on Congress members to stop engaging in inflammatory rhetoric. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has pleaded for people to turn down the temperature.

“At this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, we must appeal to our better angels,” Johnson said in a post. “America is still a grand experiment in self-governance – of, by, and for the people. Charlie modeled that truth: debate passionately, but never hate the person across from you.”

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Johnson also told reporters Wednesday, “We need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner and political violence must be called out, and it has to stop.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said people should be coming together, “not pointing fingers of blame.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said this moment “requires leadership that brings the American people together as opposed to trying to further divide us.”