WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital reeled this week following the death of Charlie Kirk, which unleashed a partisan clash over the shooting of the conservative activist.
Kirk, 31, headlined a well-attended event at an outdoor mall at Utah Valley University on Wednesday when he was felled by a single shot, apparently from the roof of a nearby building. Friday morning, Utah authorities and the FBI announced that a suspect was in custody — 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
According to videos and accountings of the scene, Kirk was answering a question from the audience that referenced mass shootings involving transgender people when the shot rang out.
That exchange came two weeks after the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church by Robin Westman, whose mother said in court documents identified as female.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” an audience member asked.
“Too many,” Kirk replied.
The questioner then said there had been five in 10 years and asked Kirk how many mass shooters there had been in the last decade.
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk replied as the shot that felled him rang out.
Kirk’s death shocked the nation’s lawmakers, but it was seen through a partisan prism.
When House Speaker Mike Johnson asked for a moment of silence on Wednesday, the entire U.S. House obliged.
But afterward, the chamber erupted into a fracas.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, called out that there should be a public prayer for Kirk. “I believe silent prayers get silent results,” she said.
Democrats jeered loudly. Some noted that congressional Republicans had all but ignored a school shooting in Colorado earlier that day. Others called out for Congress to pass stricter gun laws.
Related: Who was Charlie Kirk? The activist who turned campus politics into national influence
As a huge wave of political violence has been unleashed across the nation, so has the partisan finger pointing.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told reporters, “Democrats own what happened today.”
And President Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for Kirk’s assassination.
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in a video posted on Truth Social. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence — including the organizations that fund it and support it.”
Meanwhile, Democrats pointed to violence perpetrated by right-wing extremists, including the shooting in Minnesota of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and state Sen. John Hoffman, both Democrats. They decried Trump’s order to fly flags at half-staff for Kirk, but not Hortman, who unlike Hoffman did not survive the shooting.
Minnesota’s House members steered clear of the vitriol. The state’s Republican lawmakers called for prayers.
“Let’s not allow evil to win by letting his work die with him, but instead pray that those who have heard him will use their faith and reason to be beacons of hope, common sense, and courage … out of darkness will come light,” Rep. Brad Finstad of the 1st District posted on X.
And Minnesota’s Democratic lawmakers condemned the escalating political violence and asked the nation to come together.
“We must come together as a nation and condemn any and all political violence,” Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, said in her post on X. “It is going to take all of us to begin to change the tone of our political discourse and bring civility back to our nation.”
Another government shutdown threat
It’s brinksmanship time again as Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a spending package to avoid a federal government shutdown.
Chances of a shutdown grew this week as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that House Democrats are likely to reject a short-term bill that would keep spending at current levels.
Democrats are not opposed to a stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed Jeffries in saying the legislation must contain some Democratic priorities — including perhaps an extension of a boost in Affordable Care Act subsidies that will end without congressional action at the end of the year.
Schumer was vilified by liberals in the Democratic base for helping the GOP pass an earlier spending bill without any concessions.
The shutdown blame game has already begun, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accusing Democrats of “beginning to apply their government shutdown pressure” and “rejecting commonsense solutions to fund the government.”
Not so fast, say Democrats, pointing out that the GOP has control of the White House and both chambers of Congress and shouldn’t need Democratic support to pass a budget.
“I hope there isn’t a shutdown and there shouldn’t be a shutdown,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.
But she said this about her Republican colleagues if there is a shutdown: “They own it.”
A ‘nuclear’ strike in the U.S. Senate
Daniel Rosen, President Donald Trump’s choice to be the new U.S. attorney in Minnesota, was nominated in May and has waited a long time for the U.S. Senate to confirm him.
But he may not have to wait much longer.
House Majority Leader John Thune took the first steps this week to change U.S. Senate rules to expedite votes on nominees, excepting Cabinet officials and those with lifetime judicial appointments.
Rosen’s candidacy was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan basis in July. But Senate Democrats have insisted on adhering to rules that draw out the confirmation process, creating a backlog of nominees and many unfilled positions in the Trump administration.
So Thune planned a vote Thursday to allow slates of nominees to be confirmed in a single vote by a simple majority.
A partisan rules change like that is considered a “nuclear option” since it threatens to disrupt the Senate.
Biden-appointee U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger resigned about a week before Trump returned to the White House this year. So until Rosen is confirmed, the job has fallen on acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who has had to handle the shootings of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and state Sen. John Hoffman and their spouses, and the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, who recommended Rosen’s candidacy to the White House, blamed the Senate Democrats’ slow-down policy for impeding the federal investigations in Minnesota.
“It hasn’t even been two weeks since the Annunciation shooting and Senate Dems are blocking the confirmation of Daniel Rosen, the nominee for U.S. Attorney for Minnesota,” Emmer posted on X. “Senate Dems must STOP playing political games with these nonpartisan positions! Law and order should never be a partisan issue.”
In case you missed it
– Even as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy restricts the availability of COVID vaccines, they continue to be widely available in Minnesota, writes reporter Shadi Bushra.
– State government reporter Matthew Blake profiled Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, and his rise to lead the DFL in the state House.
– Nicole Hockley, the mother of a six-year old victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, spoke with MinnPost about long-term trauma and the advice Sandy Hook victims are offering Minnesota lawmakers to prevent another tragedy.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
The post D.C. Memo: Kirk shooting ignites partisan rancor in Washington appeared first on MinnPost.
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