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Republican and Democrat lawmakers alike mourned the “horrific” sudden fatal shooting of conservative leader Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., praised Kirk’s faith and positive message to young people, saying he “leaves a huge legacy.”
“It’s going to be hard for anybody to fill his shoes,” she said. “He’s extremely important. Students all over the country would get very excited if they found out he was coming to their college campus. He brought in thousands of people to hear him speak. Even people that didn’t agree with him would come, ask questions, even argue with him.”
“He would go on college campuses and tell young people to get married and have children and just talk about how wonderful it is to be married and to have children,” she went on. “He shared the word of God. He was a Christian, and he shared the gospel of Jesus Christ, and encouraged young people.”
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Greene added that she believes Kirk was “killed for the words that he says and the things that he stood for.”
“He was always about the debate and Charlie Kirk was never for violence and to see him murdered in such a graphic way in front of the camera and that video is too gruesome,” said Greene.
“We’re honestly shocked, we’re devastated,” she said, adding, “I’m at a loss for words and I’m not often at a loss for words.”
Democrats have also expressed grief over Kirk’s passing. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said, “It’s awful. It’s absolutely awful.”
“I’m sorry for his family. There’s no room for political violence in our country and we all can do more to just condemn it and hopefully that’s the antidote to it, but it’s awful, period,” said Swalwell.
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Asked whether he was concerned about the safety of other political figures and members of Congress, Swalwell said, “We don’t have enough resources to protect the people who are threatened around here. But I don’t want to make it about us right now. This is just, it’s awful.”
“It has no room in our politics, and we can’t normalize political violence,” he added.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc., blamed Kirk’s death on the media and Democrats who he accused of “fueling the political violence.”
“Every single member of that party that is putting out politically violent statements, and so many of them have, should be censured and they should be removed from every single one of their committees or more people are going to die,” Orden fired.
“This didn’t have to happen. It did not,” he added. “But it happened because of the violent political rhetoric coming out of the left being amplified by you people in the press. You are partially responsible for this. For both the assassination attempts for President Trump and for Charlie Kirk being shot.”
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Pressed on whether both sides of the political aisle share in the responsibility for the ongoing spate of political violence, especially in light of the recent shootings of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers and their spouses, Orden answered, “It’s horrible, I said the same thing.”
“Let’s quit convoluting this issue. The vast majority, by orders of magnitudes, of the politically violent speech is coming out of the left. Period. So, until these people stop doing that, and until you stop trying to drive wedges between Republicans and Democrats and everyday Americans, this is going to happen again and again and again,” he said.
“So, every single one of you people needs to go home tonight and do some deep soul-searching. There’s a dead man who left two kids in a widow because of you,” Van Orden added.
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