Vice President JD Vance hosted Charlie Kirk’s radio program Monday — following final week’s homicide of the conservative activist.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Vice President JD Vance hosted “The Charlie Kirk Present” immediately in a tribute to the conservative activist who was killed final week. Vance introduced on folks within the administration near Kirk to reminisce, and key figures talked concerning the important position Kirk performed behind the scenes, like Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller and Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The vp additionally pointed fingers at these he sees as answerable for Kirk’s dying.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW”)
JD VANCE: We’re attempting to determine easy methods to forestall this festering violence that you simply see on the far left from changing into even an increasing number of mainstream.
SHAPIRO: To inform us extra concerning the present and the way Charlie Kirk’s legacy is being formed, NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro and NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik are each right here. Good day to you each.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey there.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Hey there.
SHAPIRO: Domenico, to begin with you, typically, in moments of mourning, we hear leaders name for unity. President Trump has not likely been specializing in that message in the previous few days. Did Vice President Vance immediately?
MONTANARO: Sure and no. I imply, Vance talked about how a lot he appreciated Democratic colleagues, senators and lawmakers who expressed their sympathy for Vance after Kirk’s dying as a result of they know that he was near Kirk. However then Vance closed with a message of motion, stating that the administration can be going after people who they view as a part of a malignant downside, as he known as it, on the left in terms of violence.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW”)
VANCE: There is no such thing as a unity with individuals who scream at youngsters over their mother and father’ politics. There is no such thing as a unity with somebody who lies about what Charlie Kirk stated so as to excuse his homicide. There is no such thing as a unity with somebody who harasses an harmless household the day after the daddy of that household misplaced a pricey pal. There is no such thing as a unity with the individuals who have a good time Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
MONTANARO: Now, Vance did not acknowledge violence towards Democrats, just like the homicide of a Minnesota state senator and her husband earlier this 12 months or the 2020 plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, or, in fact, January 6.
SHAPIRO: He additionally cited polling that he felt backed up his premise that acceptance of violence is extra prevalent on the left. You’re the one that screens polls for NPR. What do the numbers truly present?
MONTANARO: Yeah, the numbers he cited had been coming from YouGov. It was a ballot that was taken final week after Kirk’s killing. It discovered 24% of respondents who recognized as, quote, “very liberal” thought-about it acceptable for an individual to be completely happy concerning the dying of a public determine they oppose. That is in comparison with 3% of those that had been very conservative. And little doubt, I imply, I discovered it disturbing that there is been some glee from some corners with progressives on-line, however we have seen variations in attitudes over time, relying what’s requested and the way it’s requested.
For instance, a Public Faith Analysis Institute ballot from final 12 months discovered that Republicans are way more prone to consider that true American patriots could need to resort to violence to save lots of the nation. And a College of Chicago ballot from simply earlier than the election final 12 months, discovered a negligible distinction between Democrats and Republicans on whether or not they’d help use of drive to both cease Trump from attempting to get again to the White Home or, on the opposite aspect, to assist him. You recognize, so it cuts other ways, however the White Home clearly utilizing that first knowledge level as a justification for saying that it is extra rampant on the left.
SHAPIRO: Turning to you, David, a variety of the vp’s friends assigned blame to the political left. How is that shaping the narrative that types round Kirk’s dying and his legacy?
FOLKENFLIK: Proper, and that takes you past the eulogizing of him as a husband, a father, a pal, a political chief within the MAGA proper and an adviser, clearly, to the Trump world. You recognize, on this level, you noticed folks taking the microphone, primarily, to outline the truth, outline the legacy and set the tone of what they assume ought to be subsequent. I wish to play a clip from you of White Home Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller. He talked on the present about channeling the anger about Kirk’s homicide in the direction of rooting out what he known as a home terror motion on the left.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW”)
STEPHEN MILLER: With God is my witness, we’re going to use each useful resource we’ve got on the Division of Justice, Homeland Safety and all through this authorities to establish, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks, and make America secure once more for the American folks. It’ll occur, and we’ll do it in Charlie’s identify.
FOLKENFLIK: Making him a sort of martyr for a sort of government-centered vengeance, if we’re to take what this highly effective White Home official says actually. You recognize, journalism offers you the info shortly, or tries to, in addition to accurately, or it tries its finest – cannot sustain with hypothesis, however notably cannot sustain with the digital age, the place each opinion someone may need is rocketed into the ether for us all to soak up. And at present, each framing now from the federal government comes at us in a wide range of methods, together with by Charlie Kirk’s personal present.
SHAPIRO: Domenico, what message does it ship when the vp of america hosts the radio present and video podcast for Charlie Kirk from the White Home?
MONTANARO: Yeah, I feel it actually speaks to the significance of Kirk in MAGA world, you already know, not simply as an out of doors operator who helped persuade many younger voters, younger males, specifically, to develop into Trump voters, but in addition as an inside political participant. Vance stated he would not be VP with out him. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated Kirk organized his endorsement occasion with Trump and advocated on his behalf to be Well being and Human Providers secretary. Vance credited Kirk with pushing for White Home Chief of Workers Susie Wiles, for instance, to stay as marketing campaign supervisor when others had been calling for her ouster.
I feel it additionally speaks to the priority Vance and others have about the place the motion goes subsequent. He stated, particularly, he is frightened concerning the, quote-unquote, “expertise” of who would have the ability to change Kirk on these faculty campuses, for instance. In different phrases, who’s going to be that particular person to have the ability to go and be as efficient as he was on this fashion of combative oppositional dialogue?
SHAPIRO: And briefly, David, how would you reply that from a media perspective?
FOLKENFLIK: Properly, the factor that I feel in phrases if you concentrate on rhetoric and what’s being conveyed, anyway, is the sense that these had been people who got here to energy partially ‘trigger they stated we live in a cancel tradition the place broad, controversial incendiary remarks – even these of the sorts of Kirk himself – are inflicting folks to be, you already know, main lefty establishments within the media to go after them. However proper now, what you are listening to is them eager to go after those that they see as critics of Charlie Kirk and what he represented and what they wish to do.
SHAPIRO: NPR’s David Folkenflik and Domenico Montanaro, thanks each.
MONTANARO: You are so welcome.
FOLKENFLIK: You wager.
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