Members of Congress were petrified Wednesday night that political violence would only worsen after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday evening.
"I'm wondering, Congressman, your reaction to what happened today," said Cooper.
"There was a real pall over the House floor this afternoon when we learned that Charlie Kirk had passed away, and it didn't really matter whether you're Republican or Democrat," said Goldman. "I didn't know Charlie Kirk personally. I followed some of what he said. I disagreed with almost everything he said, but he was exactly what our politics is all about, which is an exchange of ideas. The desire to convince others, to persuade others that your view of whatever a situation is, whatever policy is, is the right one. And this is heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking."
Not only are members of Congress saddened, he continued, "but to some degree, I think we're all scared. This is escalating. This is not going the other direction. We saw the shootings in Minnesota not too long ago ... and I think we can all and should all agree that we should work out our differences in the public square. And that's how our system should work. But the idea that you would disagree with someone to such a degree that you would commit violence against them is, is just beyond the pale. And I don't have a solution for how it will stop or should stop, but it really has to stop."
"That's certainly not the message we're hearing from some in the sort of far-right, you know, podcasting sphere, who make money off of this, but off this kind of rhetoric," noted Cooper. "I mean, they're talking about war, that there's a war targeting conservatives."
"Yeah, look, it's — that is incredibly dangerous. I am really, really disappointed," said Goldman. "I would really urge the President of the United States to speak out against that. I don't view this as an issue of the right or the left. I think we've seen political violence, you know, on both sides of the spectrum."
"I hope these far-right podcasters come to their senses and recognize that this is not war," he added. "We are Americans at bottom, and we may be Republicans, we may be Democrats, but we don't — we do not divide this entire country based on political ideology. And we can't do that. And we have to come back and remember that we are all Americans, in the greatest country on Earth, and that we may disagree on how we move forward, but we all want our country to move forward."
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