The solid of Friday’s PBS Information Hour expressed critical doubts that President Trump could be the chief the nation wants after the homicide of Charlie Kirk. By way of a mixture of misrepresentations, hypocrisy, and omissions, the assembled trio of anchor Amna Nawaz, New York Instances columnist David Brooks, and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart condemned Trump’s response to the crime.
Nawaz thought she observed an inconsistency in Trump’s habits, “When it comes to the response from the president, David, you have got seen the president first say that his supporters ought to reply with nonviolence. He mentioned that is what Charlie would have needed. The following second, he is blaming the unconventional left political violence. There’s individuals round him now even suggesting that they need to be deporting people who find themselves crucial of Charlie Kirk after his killing.”
Truth-check: Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau tweeted that foreigners praising or mocking Kirk’s assassination is not going to be welcomed as guests on this nation. No one dangers being deported for merely disagreeing with Kirk.
After citing some polling knowledge the place 81 p.c of Individuals claimed to oppose political violence, Nawaz requested, “What does that say to you about whether or not or not we’ll see extra political violence forward?
Brooks agreed about Trump, “Yeah, it solely takes a couple of, proper? It solely takes a couple of younger males just like the — the younger man who tried to kill Trump, the younger one who killed the Minnesota speaker, after which the man who killed Charlie Kirk.
However the response — I’ve to say, I’ve been appalled by a few of the reactions, a couple of, together with the president’s.”
The remainder of Brooks’s response was extra constructive as he praised “the overwhelming majority” for his or her response. He concluded by declaring, “Martin Luther King preached a gospel of affection, and in an aggressive manner that was going to drive the sins of society into the faces of individuals and make them see, is that this who we’re? And so I do not know if this will probably be a turning level the place individuals will make that interruption and halt the cycle, however thus far I felt it was a — it has been a second, with a couple of exceptions, of coming collectively.”
Capehart was pessimistic, “Can I simply say that, in your instance, David, with the Civil Rights Motion and Dr. King and all these marchers, they’d an ally within the president who was there to, you recognize, break the passions and to — and to steer. And right here, with regards to what you had been simply saying, I’m not satisfied that our present president is the one who’s going to have the ability to try this… I am unsure President Trump is succesful or prepared to indicate that sort of management.”
That led Nawaz to surprise, “If not from the president himself, as a result of we’ve seen blended messages even on this final two days or so, the place does the message have to return from? What has to occur to achieve this inflection level you have got each famous is critical on this nation?”
Capehart then praised Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, “We’d like extra individuals like him in excessive positions, particularly in excessive positions of management, govt management, who step out and do what Governor Cox has accomplished.”
Whereas Cox is deserving of reward, Capehart ignored how Cox mentioned, “I believe we want extra ethical readability proper now, I hear on a regular basis that phrases are violence. Phrases aren’t violence. Violence is violence.”
Because of this PBS’s freak-out over Trump doesn’t make sense. Sure, individuals shouldn’t search violent retribution towards harmless individuals, however individuals on the far-left, particularly these within the training enterprise liable for shaping the minds of younger individuals, who imagine that speech is violence must reevaluate.
Capehart concluded, “If we’ve not seen it totally and persistently from the president, then we have to see it from governors, we have to see it from mayors, we have to see it from members of Congress, we have to see it from the speaker, the bulk chief of the Senate. We have to see it from and listen to it from leaders up and down the chain on each side of the aisle simply to lastly say, okay, look, we will not maintain happening this street, as a result of, if we do, the slide that lots of people really feel that we’re on will probably be inexorable. And I am not — I — as fearful as I’m, I’m praying, praying that leaders will lead.”
In September 2023, after a white supremacist murdered three black individuals at a Jacksonville Greenback Common, Capehart mentioned on Information Hour that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s training coverage despatched “a message not solely to the black neighborhood that the governor doesn’t suppose a lot of you or your historical past or your contributions to this nation, but it surely additionally sends a sign to these individuals, deranged or not, who imagine that Black individuals are inferior and due to this fact are worthy of extermination.”
Trump’s response about “radical left lunatics” and their flippant use of Nazi analogies appears tame by comparability.
Here’s a transcript for the September 12 present:
PBS Information Hour
9/12/2025
7:41 PM ET
AMNA NAWAZ: Effectively, let’s discuss that for only a second, the — when it comes to the response from the president, David, you have got seen the president first say that his supporters ought to reply with nonviolence. He mentioned that is what Charlie would have needed.
The following second, he is blaming the unconventional left political violence. There’s individuals round him now even suggesting that they need to be deporting people who find themselves crucial of Charlie Kirk after his killing.
However within the context of the nation they’re talking to, simply check out this ballot we pulled up from April of 2025. PRRI requested individuals if true American patriots might need to resort to violence with a purpose to save our nation. Principally, what’s your view of political violence? Eighty-one p.c, the overwhelming majority of Individuals, 81 p.c, mentioned, no, they disagreed with that sentiment. Barely extra Republicans, 18 p.c, would agree with it, than Democrats at 11 p.c.
However that’s the surroundings we’re in proper now. What does that say to you about whether or not or not we’ll see extra political violence forward?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, it solely takes a couple of, proper? It solely takes a couple of younger males just like the — the younger man who tried to kill Trump, the younger one who killed the Minnesota speaker, after which the man who killed Charlie Kirk.
However the response — I’ve to say, I’ve been appalled by a few of the reactions, a couple of, together with the president’s. However I’ve to say I’ve been type of impressed. On the entire, I believe lots of people in numerous political stripes who actually disagreed with Charlie Kirk have been fairly noble about this, about seeing previous politics, right into a human life, right into a Christian, right into a household man, like simply seeing this can be a boat we’re all in.
And I’ve seen that throughout the political divide. And when I’ve seemed on the Republican response, the overwhelming majority has been, you recognize, he was speaking to individuals. He was speaking to individuals he disagreed with. And that is instructive to us.
There is a second — Thomas Hobbes, thinker, mentioned concern can generally be used for good. Once you develop into so afraid that your society is slipping into chaos, then you definitely’re jolted out of your unhealthy habits. And possibly this will probably be a second for this. It actually takes an act of heroism. To get out of the darkish ardour doom loop, there needs to be a second of interruption, the place you say, no, I am stopping this. I am not partaking. I’ll reply to hatred with love.
And, after all, the final word instance of that is the Civil Rights Motion, the place they — Martin Luther King preached a gospel of affection, and in an aggressive manner that was going to drive the sins of society into the faces of individuals and make them see, is that this who we’re? And so I do not know if this will probably be a turning level the place individuals will make that interruption and halt the cycle, however thus far I felt it was a — it has been a second, with a couple of exceptions, of coming collectively.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Can I simply say that, in your instance, David, with the Civil Rights Motion and Dr. King and all these marchers, they’d an ally within the president who was there to, you recognize, break the passions and to — and to steer.
And right here, with regards to what you had been simply saying, I’m not satisfied that our present president is the one who’s going to have the ability to try this. And though we do not have kings on this nation, we’ve all the time checked out our — seemed to our presidents as ethical exemplars, particularly in moments like these, in moments of nationwide trauma.
And, proper now, I am unsure President Trump is succesful or prepared to indicate that sort of management.
BROOKS: Truthful level.
NAWAZ: In a minute or so we’ve left, then, Jonathan, I’ll simply comply with up. If not from the president himself, as a result of we’ve seen blended messages even on this final two days or so, the place does the message have to return from? What has to occur to achieve this inflection level you have got each famous is critical on this nation?
CAPEHART: We’d like extra Governor Coxes. We’d like extra individuals like him in excessive positions, particularly in excessive positions of management, govt management, who step out and do what Governor Cox has accomplished.
If we’ve not seen it totally and persistently from the president, then we have to see it from governors, we have to see it from mayors, we have to see it from members of Congress, we have to see it from the speaker, the bulk chief of the Senate. We have to see it from and listen to it from leaders up and down the chain on each side of the aisle simply to lastly say, okay, look, we will not maintain happening this street, as a result of, if we do, the slide that lots of people really feel that we’re on will probably be inexorable.
And I am not — I — as fearful as I’m, I’m praying, praying that leaders will lead.
