Eric Trump said the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has awoken a “sleeping enemy” of mobilized young and older voters across the country.
In an appearance on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump, a friend of Kirk, referenced the famous reported quote from a Japanese admiral after the attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Trump said the quote “rings true” to Kirk’s assassination and likened his death to a “hit on our country.”
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“They truly have awoken that sleeping giant, just not within the youth vote but really transcending everybody who’s in this nation. It’s had such a profound effect on this nation,” Trump said. “This could have been the greatest mistake these people have ever made.”
Trump did not specify who “they” are. Many lawmakers and politicians have criticized the polarized rhetoric across the country that they say leads to political violence.
In an Oval Office address on Wednesday, President Donald Trump condemned the way the “radical Left” has talked about conservative activists like Kirk, saying, “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for he terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Donald Trump said Wednesday.
Eric Trump called Kirk’s assassination a “hit on our country.”
Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) has emphasized a unifying message since the assassination. He said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning that people need to turn away from social media and violent rhetoric and “get back to community.” Cox told NBC’s Kristen Welker that Donald Trump has emphasized that Kirk was an advocate of nonviolence. Cox also said the president called him to thank him for his press conference speech after the Kirk assassination.
“I don’t do much national press anymore. The White House asked us to come on and to talk about this because they’re worried about the escalation that’s happening out there,” Cox said.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) also preached national unity in an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning.
“My staffers have heard me say a thousand times, ‘When there’s a fire, you pour water on it, not gasoline.’ That should be a basic principle,” Lankford said.
KELLY CONTRASTS TRUMP ‘TRYING TO EXPLOIT’ KIRK’S DEATH WITH COX URGING UNITY
Lankford said he is challenging people to discuss their anger and “talk about how we actually deal with different issues and how we can communicate these in a better way.”
“There are a lot of people angry,” Lankford said. “I can understand that and appreciate that, but it is important for leaders to be disciplined, to be able to say ‘let’s set the example’ and try to do things very differently.”