Trump Faces Scrutiny Over Blame for Political Violence Following Recent Killings

President Donald Trump was put on the defensive Monday when a reporter challenged his narrative that political violence stems solely from the left, just days after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and months after the killing of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman.

CBS News’ Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes confronted Trump with a list of attacks targeting Democrats—including the murder of Hortman in June, the assault on Paul Pelosi, and the attack on Gabby Giffords—asking why he maintained that violence was exclusively one-sided. Trump, who had previously asserted that “the problem is on the left,” responded, “I didn’t say it’s on one side,” though he quickly reiterated that the “radical left causes tremendous violence and they seem to do it in a bigger way.”

The exchange followed Trump’s intensified rhetoric over the weekend, where he blamed “the left” for political violence in the wake of Kirk’s assassination last week in Utah. He described “the agitators” and “scum that speaks so badly of our country” as being from the left.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, speaking alongside Vice President JD Vance, further outlined the administration’s plans to “crack down on the radical left,” specifically targeting those “paying for violence.” This strategy, which Miller had discussed earlier on Charlie Kirk’s talk show, appeared to conflate political violence with non-violent protests such as the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-ICE demonstrations.

Adding to the controversy, Trump was questioned about his decision not to lower flags to half-staff after Hortman’s killing, a gesture he ordered following Kirk’s death. He claimed he would have done so if Minnesota’s governor had requested it, a statement later contradicted by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who pointed out Trump had previously dismissed contacting Gov. Tim Walz as a “waste time.”

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