A former communications director for President Donald Trump took to CNN Thursday to blast the president’s Oval Office address on the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, criticizing it for its “heated rhetoric” and labeling it as a missed opportunity to “unify the country.”
Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University in an event that has drawn international coverage and bi-partisan condemnation. Kirk had an intimate relationship with many officials in the Trump administration, including with the president himself, who shortly after the shooting delivered an address from the Oval Office.
“Those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in his address. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now!”
Speaking on Trump’s address, Mike Dubke, who served as the White House communications director during Trump’s first term, said the president missed the mark.
“I watched the president's speech, and the first two-and-a-half minutes of that were, I thought, a unifying message,” Dubke said.
“Then, there was the turn towards the negativity, the heated rhetoric of Democrats, the reference to Republicans as being Nazis and all of that. As a communicator, stop after the two-and-a-half minutes because I think one of the powers of the Oval Office is, in times of strife, to try to unify the country, and I think that is still an important role for the president.”
As of Thursday morning, the culprit in Kirk’s shooting was still at large, with bi-partisan condemnation of the attack pouring in from across the political spectrum, including from former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. A vigil for the right-wing influencer was held Wednesday night at the Idaho State Capitol that devolved into violence after a passerby shouted an expletive directed at Kirk.
