Trump Blames the Left for Charlie Kirk’s Assassination as Rhetoric Escalates | The Daily Show

Trump Blames the Left for Charlie Kirk’s Assassination as Rhetoric Escalates | The Daily Show

By now, you guys all
know about yesterday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk. And this probably
goes without saying, but I feel like
I have to say it. I believe killing
people is wrong. And I know that’s a hot take. But as of now, we
don’t know who did it. But Kash Patel’s
FBI is on the case, so we will never
know who did it. [LAUGHTER] This is as good a time as any
to say political violence is never acceptable
and should be condemned. And thankfully, many political
leaders think the same. All four former
presidents are reacting to the death of Charlie Kirk. Joe Biden posting
on X, quote, “There is no place in our country
for this kind of violence.” Barack Obama shared
a similar sentiment, writing, “This kind of despicable
violence has no place in our democracy.” And a statement as well from
George W. Bush, who said this. “Members of other political
parties are not our enemies. They are our fellow citizens.” And a message from Bill
Clinton, who says he, “hopes we all go through some
serious introspection and redouble our efforts
to engage in debate passionately yet peacefully.” Yeah, and let’s not
get sidetracked by who may or may not have been
friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Just focus
on the introspection thing. But yes, it was comforting
to see our living past presidents– and Joe Biden– attempting to lower
the country’s temperature yesterday. But none of those guys are
running this place right now. So I want to hear from
the current big guy. For years, those
on the radical left have compared wonderful
Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass
murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric
is directly responsible
for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today. My fellow Americans,
we must come together to destroy each other. So, yeah, Donald Trump came
out with a partisan message blaming the left. And let’s be real, did we
expect anything different? This is what this guy does. The last time Trump delivered
a thoughtful message was apparently when
he sent a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, that’s– [CHEERING] I realize that’s two
Epstein jokes in a row. It’s not my fault everyone
was friends with this guy. [LAUGHTER] And by the way, I’m
not singling Trump out. This is how our society
behaves now. A tragedy occurs. Instead of digesting
and trying to understand, everyone sets their feet
and starts throwing punches immediately, like Nancy Mace,
Republican Congresswoman and somehow the scariest
type of Mace. [LAUGHTER] She came out swinging
but apparently wasn’t expecting a counter. I’m going to say this. Democrats own what
happened today. By that logic,
do Republicans own the shooting of the two
Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota? Political– Isn’t this on both sides? Are you kidding me? But isn’t there
a problem with– Democrats own this. –political violence
across the spectrum? Yeah, we’re talking about
Charlie Kirk right now. Yeah, OK. We’re talking about my thing
right now, not about things that make me look stupid. Because if we did that, we’d
be talking all day long. [LAUGHTER] All right, now, we’re all– [CHEERING] And now we’re in very
familiar territory. Republican accuses Democrat,
so Democrat accuses Republican. REPORTER: What do
you say to people who are saying that Democrats
need to lower the temperatures? Oh, please. REPORTER: You know– Right, why don’t you
start with the President of the United States. So here we go again. It’s– [CHEERING] It’s Democrats’ rhetoric. No, it’s Republicans’ rhetoric. Has anyone considered that the
problem of political violence in America might not
just be the rhetoric but instead something
extraordinarily complex? The problem might be
a toxic mix of our gun laws, lack of mental health,
collapsed social connection, probably a bunch
of other things I haven’t even thought of yet. I’m sure the Labubus are
somewhere in there to blame. [LAUGHTER] I guess I just don’t
think rhetoric is the root cause of this thing. Political violence
isn’t going to go away if the people on the other
side say exactly the right words from now on. Now, that said, if you
turned on the 24/7 news coverage
yesterday, you probably saw some unhelpful rhetoric. He’s been one of the most
divisive, especially divisive younger figures, in this
who is constantly sort of pushing this
sort of hate speech or aimed at certain groups. And I always go back
to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which
then lead to hateful actions. And I think that’s
the environment we’re in that people
just– you can’t stop with these sort
of awful thoughts you have and then
saying these awful words and not expect awful
actions to take place. I don’t know, man. The whole idea of free
speech in America is you can say what you want
and not expect to be shot. Can you be challenged? [CHEERING] [APPLAUSE] Can you be challenged? Sure. Can you get roasted online? Sometimes. Told to leave a child’s
birthday party? Yeah, even though I think I
was right that the cake [BLEEP] sucked, Derek. [LAUGHTER] That was hardly
only the bad take. Even some people understood
that a cycle of violence was not the answer. They still wanted
to make sure you knew who’d be coming out on top. The last thing I
ever want is violence. Look, I spent nine
years in and out of war. The last thing I want is that. But if these people
keep pushing, they’re going to radicalize
a huge portion of America that they don’t want. I want us to be able
to debate like Charlie Kirk always did on every
campus, gave the airtime to opposing views. I want that as my America,
not trading gunfire because I’ll win. [AUDIENCE GROANING] You could have just
stopped with the last thing I want is violence. You didn’t have to add
in because I’ll win. But I guess it’s
like Jesus always said, turn the other
cheek, but be ready to cut a mother [BLEEP]. [LAUGHTER] But by the way, who’s they? No one knows who the shooter
is or what his motivation was. And even if it was
political, he doesn’t represent half the country. But some of these MAGA guys
are acting like this is a liberal declaration of war. If they could do this,
they are capable of anything. I think that was the message. I believe that was the message. It’s really hard
to radicalize Republicans. It’s like we’re not
the radical type [LAUGHTER] I’m sorry. First off, it’s not that hard
to radicalize Republicans. You guys almost burned down the
country because Cracker Barrel changed its fonts. [LAUGHTER] Second, far be it
for me to tell anyone how to do their job, but you
couldn’t lose the poop emoji mug for one day? [LAUGHTER] When Walter Cronkite
broke the news about the Kennedy
assassination, he didn’t come out
in a wacky novelty bow tie. [SLIGHT GROANS] I did not expect a groan
from the audience on the novelty bow tie. [LAUGHTER] And also, once
again, who is they? Does anyone want
to specify who they is, or are we just going to keep
talking about all that they do? They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or
not, they are at war with us. Trump gets hit in the ear. Charlie gets shot dead. They came after Kavanaugh with
a rifle to his neighborhood. They went after Musk’s cars. [LAUGHTER] Sort of petered out
there at the end, Jesse. If you’re trying to rile
people up for war, maybe leave out the car
vandalism, I mean. [LAUGHTER] Look, I’m sure
people in the media would love to talk about how
they are responsible for what they’ve done and how they
had better watch out, or else they’ll get
what’s coming to them. But I think it would be
better if we as a country understood that
we have a problem with political violence. And we need to start
thinking less in terms of what they
should do and more in terms of what we have to do. [APPLAUSE] It’s not lost on me today that
the last time it felt like we thought in terms of we
was on 9/11 when we all came together as a nation. And we did. We did. [APPLAUSE] Even if it was
just for one day. Sure, we turned pretty quickly
to scapegoating Muslims and blogging about how Bush did it. But on that one day, we
were united as a country. For 24 hours, we even
admired Rudy Giuliani. That’s how incredible
our unity was. [LAUGHTER] And I don’t know what you
do to get back to that. Obviously not another 9/11. I want to be very
clear about that. But what about, I don’t
know, an alien invasion? [LAUGHTER] Maybe if UFOs
suddenly appeared over every important US city
and also Los Angeles, that’s the thing that would
jolt us off our phones and bring us back together. Or the aliens take over
and enslave us all. But at this point, that
might be worth a try. All right?

Michael Kosta dives into the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, including Trump’s inflammatory response, bizarre takes in the media, and a predictable partisan blame game, and reflects on what we can learn from violent tragedies on the anniversary of 9/11. #DailyShow #MichaelKosta #CharlieKirk

0:00 – Michael Kosta Recaps the Assassination of Charlie Kirk
0:30 – Former Presidents React to the Kirk News
1:30 – Trump Places Blame on “Radical Left” for Kirk’s Death
2:27 – Democrats and Republicans Throw Blame at Each Other
4:22 – News Media Gives Their Take on Kirk Assassination
6:22 – GOP Media Claims Kirk’s Death as Declaration of War

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