The Washington Examiner‘s Joe Concha said Thursday that he doubts the political temperature in the United States will go down, arguing that it didn’t happen after President Donald Trump narrowly avoided assassination attempts last year.
Concha compared Charlie Kirk’s murder to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, calling them both younger and “prominent” people in politics. Concha reflected on how Kirk created Turning Point USA “from scratch” at 18 years old, and said he believes Kirk’s legacy will have “one of the hugest impacts in American history.”
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Concha said he wants “in his heart” for people to come together in civil debate in the wake of Kirk’s death, but said his “brain” believes that won’t happen. He said the aftermath of Trump’s assassination attempts set a “precedent” for what’s to come, as some hoped people would say “enough is enough” with calling politicians “fascists” or “authoritarians.”
“Instead, what we saw was, after about a week or two, all that rhetoric just started right back up again, and then sure enough, President Trump was, or at that time, candidate Trump was nearly assassinated on September 13th [15th], on nearly a year ago today,” Concha said on a 2 a.m. Fox News panel co-hosted by Jonathan Hunt and Anita Vogel.
“So I wish I could say that I was hopeful that everything is going to improve now as a result of Charlie’s death, but I have a feeling that we’re going to go right back to the same sort of rhetoric that we saw, particularly from the Left, who seem to act very emotionally and think that calling people things, not understanding what they mean as far as Nazism or Hitler or fascism,” Concha said.
On Fox & Friends First, Concha said Kirk would want people to “keep moving forward,” adding that he believes Kirk would say “it’s not about me, it’s about the movement.”
Trump said Wednesday that the suspect in Kirk’s death was “attacking our whole country.” The president also ordered flags lowered to half-staff until Sunday night to honor Kirk.
The House floor dissolved into chaos after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) held a moment of silence for Kirk after his death. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) asked for a prayer to be read, which was met by Democrats yelling, “No!”