Thursday on CNN, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) reacted to Charlie Kirk’s killing a day earlier by suggesting both sides had a duty to “turn down the rhetoric.”
The Massachusetts Democrat tied Trump’s 2025 pardon of January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill rioters to the incident.
“First of all, the governor is right — we start by condemning violence on all sides,” Moulton declared. “And you know, that is what Speaker Johnson, a Republican who is leading the House right now, is doing. He is saying we need to turn down the rhetoric, and he is calling out what we call major outlets — these and these groups that are out there on the internet or maybe even on TV actually calling to up the political violence. We’re hearing that a lot from the right right now. Democrats across the board are saying we need to come together. We need to turn down the rhetoric.
“We need to stop this political violence,” he continued. “It’s shocking to me that so many Republicans are not doing that, not following the lead of Speaker Johnson — but actually following the lead of Donald Trump, who’s just trying to, you know, call out extremist left-wing groups, blame this on Democrats. We heard that from my colleague, Nancy Mace, before we even know who the shooter is. That’s not a way to solve this problem. If the president is serious about stopping political violence, then maybe he should start by rescinding the pardons for all the domestic terrorists who came to the Capitol on January 6 to kill cops, to kill Speaker Pelosi, to kill Vice President Pence. Let’s have an honest conversation about the origins of this political violence and why it has risen so dramatically since Donald Trump’s first term. We need to have that conversation if we’re serious about stopping it.”
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