Seth Meyers on Charlie Kirk shooting: ‘Political violence is abhorrent to the highest ideals of this country’
Late-night hosts reacted to the assassination of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and decried the rising tide of political violence in the US.Seth Meyers opened Thursday’s Late Night with a separate segment on the Kirk assassination.“We are horrified by this grotesque tragedy and our condolences go out to his family and loved ones,” he said.“It should never be a matter of political ideology to mourn and to extend our fullest and deepest empathy to those who are suffering.“Political violence is abhorrent and anathema to the highest ideals of this country,” he continued.
“It corrodes us and threatens the very foundations of our democracy.The great promise of our democratic experiment is that we can engage with one another and resolve our differences through dialogue, not violence.We must hold true to that promise and strive toward it with our fullest effort even when it feels furthest away.”Meyers also mentioned another school shooting in Colorado on Wednesday that injured several students, just two weeks after a school shooting in Minnesota killed two children and injured 21 more.“There have been over 300 mass shootings and 47 school shootings this year alone,” he said.
“We’ve said this many times on this program and we’ll say it again: gun violence is a plague in this country.We desperately need reasonable gun safety laws to stop this epidemic of tragedy and pain.“No matter the identity or ideology of these perpetrators, one thing is always constant: the guns,” he added.“We must make it possible for children to go to school and for everyone to engage in public debate without the threat of gun violence looming over them.”Meyers also noted the trend of political violence in recent years, including the murder of the Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband at home in June; the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul; an attempt to bomb the home of the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro; the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017; and the mob that attacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Meyers said: “This rising tide of political violence will only lead to a darker and more dangerous place, and it must end.”“Like the rest of the country, we’re still trying to wrap our heads around the senseless murder of the popular podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday, whose death has amplified our anger, our differences,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday evening.“I’ve seen a lot of extraordinarily vile responses to this, from both sides of the political spectrum,” he continued, a day after a perpetrator shot and killed Kirk, a close ally of Donald Trump, during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.“Some people are cheering this, which is something I won’t ever understand.And we had another school shooting yesterday in Colorado.
“With all these terrible things happening, you would think that our president would at least make an attempt to bring us together,” Kimmel added,“But he didn’t,” Instead, Trump blamed the shooting on Democrats’ “rhetoric”,“A man who told a crowd of supporters that ‘secondment amendment people’ should ‘do something’ about Hillary Clinton, the man who said he wouldn’t mind if someone shot through the fake news media, the man who unleashed a mob on the Capitol and said Liz Cheney should face nine barrels shooting at her for supporting his opponent, blames the ‘radical left’ for their rhetoric,” said a disgusted Kimmel,On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert expanded upon his message of peace and free speech from the night prior.
“However you feel about his politics, he was a young father of two small children and an American who had the constitutional right to express his opinion in safety,” he said,“It should go without saying that violence is never the answer to political disagreement, but I think these days, it should be said as often as possible,“And in these troubling moments, I am grateful to any leader who, instead of dividing us, points to our common humanity,”Colbert then played a clip of the House speaker, Mike Johnson, who called for “everyone with a platform to say loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner, and political violence must be called out,It has to stop.
”“I agree with that sentiment,” said Colbert.“We should be able to settle our disagreements civilly, in the end as Americans, we are all brothers and sisters.Or at least, Mike Johnson and I look like we are.”.@michaelkosta on the instant finger-pointing and rage-stoking after the shooting of Charlie Kirk pic.
twitter.com/YKIHcCx7djAnd on the Daily Show, Michael Kosta made one point clear.“This probably goes without saying, but I feel like I have to say it: I believe killing people is wrong,” he said.“As of now, we don’t know who did it,” he continued.“But Kash Patel’s FBI is on the case.
So we will never know who did it.“This is as good a time as any to say that political violence is never acceptable and should be condemned,” he added.“And thankfully, many political leaders think the same.All four living past presidents issued messages of unity and tolerance.“It was comforting to see our living past presidents, and Joe Biden, attempting to lower the country’s temperature yesterday,” said Kosta.
“But none of those people are running this place right now.” That would be Trump who wasted no time blaming the ‘rhetoric’ of the ‘radical left’, despite the fact that nothing was known about the perpetrator or his motives.Trump’s Oval Office address basically amounted to, as Kosta mimicked, “My fellow Americans, we must come together to destroy each other.”“Let’s be real: did we expect anything different?” Kosta wondered.“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.”Kosta also grew frustrated with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers blaming the other side.“Here we go again – ‘It’s Democrats’ rhetoric.’ ‘No, it’s Republicans.’ 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 hadn’t even thought of yet.
I’m sure Labubus are somewhere in there to blame.“I guess I just don’t think rhetoric is the root cause of this thing,” he concluded.“Political violence isn’t going to go away if the people on the other side say exactly the right words from now on.”
The ‘war on drugs’ has failed. There’s another way to solve the US fentanyl crisis | Letter
Your editorial on the so-called war on drugs (Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a more dangerous reality, 7 September) is correct: the extrajudicial killing of alleged drug traffickers will not solve the US fentanyl crisis.Anyone who has followed past attempts to militarise drug law enforcement will know that such efforts are bound to fail. For instance, despite billions in military and counternarcotics assistance by successive US administrations, Colombia now produces more cocaine than ever before, flooding a rapidly growing market.Similarly, hard-hitting military responses in one country have pushed the problem across borders. Ecuador and Brazil have experienced significant surges in drug trafficking and crime as a result of Colombia’s (unsuccessful) crackdowns
Downing Street says Starmer still has ‘confidence in his top team’ after Rayner and Mandelson departures – as it happened
Downing Street said Keir Starmer still had confidence in his “top team” follow questions over his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who was reported to have lobbied for Peter Mandelson’s initial appointment.Education secretary Bridget Phillipson, and the ousted cabinet minister Lucy Powell, are set to be the two candidates for Labour’s deputy leadership as other candidates struggled to get the minimum number of nominations. On Wednesday evening, Phillipson had the backing of 116 MPs and Powell had 77 nominations, three short of the required 80.The chairwoman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has written to the foreign secretary demanding answers on the vetting process for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US. Emily Thornberry wrote to Yvette Cooper, who took over as foreign secretary after the cabinet reshuffle, asking for clarification on what security concerns were raised during the process and how the Foreign Office responded to those concerns
Labour deputy contender Lucy Powell calls for culture change at No 10
Lucy Powell has called for a “change of culture” inside Keir Starmer’s Downing Street to make it more inclusive and better connected to MPs, promising that as Labour’s deputy leader she would when needed deliver difficult truths to the prime minister.Speaking to the Guardian after she secured 117 MP nominations in the battle to replace Angela Rayner, Powell said a sequence of what she called “unforced errors” by the government had left many Labour MPs and members frustrated.Powell now faces a vote of party members against Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, who reached 175 endorsements and is viewed as No 10’s preferred choice to take on the role.Powell was Commons leader until she was sacked from the government in last week’s reshuffle, a decision she said was a complete shock, and for which she had as yet received no explanation.She said she believed it could be because she sometimes passed on MPs’ concerns to Downing Street, and that if elected she would hope to continue such a “shop steward” role, making the government less factional and closed-off
Starmer urged to do more to push back against ‘onslaught of racism’
Senior Labour MPs and the UK’s largest anti-fascist campaign group have called on Keir Starmer to mount a more heartfelt defence of diversity and anti-racism. They say they fear that Labour is not yet putting its “heart and soul” into the battle against Nigel Farage and the far right.Hope Not Hate’s chief executive has written a letter to Starmer in the lead up to a planned far-right demonstration in London on Saturday, demanding the prime minister speak up more against hate and racism.In the letter, Nick Lowles said: “Hate breeds when those in power are silent. I implore you and other ministers to speak out urgently in defence of our migrant communities and our multicultural society more generally
Share your question for the Labour party deputy leadership candidates
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson, and the ousted cabinet minister Lucy Powell, are set to be the two candidates for Labour’s deputy leadership as other candidates struggled to get the minimum number of nominations.On Wednesday evening, Phillipson had the backing of 116 MPs and Powell had 77 nominations, three short of the required 80.Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Paula Barker received support from fewer than 15 MPs, with Emily Thornberry announcing on Thursday she had withdrawn from the race. The communities minister Alison McGovern pulled out on Wednesday afternoon and endorsed Phillipson.The ballot for members to vote will open on Wednesday 8 October and they will have until Thursday 23 October to have their say
Sir Robert Worcester obituary
On the morning of 16 March 1976, Robert Worcester – universally known as “Bob” – received the phone call that converted him from the head of a little-known market research company into the public face of polling in Britain. The call was from Harold Evans, the editor of the Sunday Times. Harold Wilson had just announced his retirement as prime minister. Evans wanted to find out whom voters wanted as the next Labour leader. Who better to conduct the survey than Labour’s own private pollster: Worcester himself?The poll, showing James Callaghan well ahead, provided the front-page lead for the following Sunday’s paper
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