WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadly shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah had significant impact on public figures who have themselves encountered political violence.
Kirk, cofounder and chief executive of the youth organization, Turning Point USA, was well-known for his appearances on college campuses and numerous venues, where he engaged in political discussions with students publicly.
Several leaders who have survived public attacks or had family members victimized joined in bipartisan condemnation of the attack on Kirk.
Nancy Pelosi
The former House speaker’s spouse was gravely harmed at their California residence in 2022 by an attacker with a hammer, who, as authorities revealed, subscribed to conspiracy theories.
Pelosi, a Democrat, commented that “the appalling shooting at Utah Valley University today is abhorrent. Our nation has no room for political violence.”
Donald Trump
The president sustained a minor injury to his ear during a shooting at a campaign event last year and was also targeted unsuccessfully for assassination while golfing in Florida. He shared a close bond with Kirk and announced Kirk’s death on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
Trump described Kirk on Truth Social as a “great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”
He also posted, “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”
Gabrielle Giffords
The former U.S. representative, a Democrat, suffered a severe brain injury during a 2011 shooting at a shopping center in her Arizona congressional district, while meeting with constituents. She lived through the experience and has since dedicated herself to combating gun violence.
Giffords posted on social media that she was “horrified” to hear of Kirk’s shooting.
“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements,” she wrote, “but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”
Steve Scalise
The House majority leader, a Louisiana Republican, was shot at practice for a charity baseball game involving members of Congress in the Virginia suburbs in 2017. The man who attacked Scalise had grievances against Trump and Republicans and was later fatally shot by police.
Scalise asked people on the social media platform X to “please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk after this senseless act.”
Josh Shapiro
The Pennsylvania governor, a Democrat and potential national candidate, was evacuated with his family from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke into the building and set a fire that caused significant damage.
“We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”
Gretchen Whitmer
The Michigan governor, a Democrat, was the subject of a failed kidnapping plot by right-wing extremists who hoped to ignite a civil war. Two men were imprisoned for their 2020 attempt to kidnap the governor during her first term.
“We should all come together to stand up against any and all forms of political violence,” Whitmer wrote on social media.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Health and Human Services secretary appeared to invoke his family’s losses as he reacted to Kirk’s killing. Kennedy’s father, for whom he was named, was assassinated in 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination. Kennedy Sr. was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and an advocate for civil rights legislation as attorney general during his brother’s presidency and after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
“Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era,” Kennedy wrote on social media. He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”
