Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) won a notable concession Tuesday from FBI Director Kash Patel, who committed during a Senate hearing to urge President Donald Trump to rein in his divisive rhetoric after recent incidents of political violence.
Klobuchar’s plea came in the wake of the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, an incident that was immediately followed by explosive rhetoric from Trump who blamed the killing on the “radical left.” Trump and his allies have since vowed to crackdown on progressive groups in response.
Klobuchar, however, pushed back on Trump’s claims that “leftist” organizations were the primary instigators of political violence.
“It is not just the 'radicals on the left' – a quote from the president – [that] are the problem, or the 'destructive movement of left-wing extremism' that Vice President [JD] Vance said,” Klobuchar commented, speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
“I don't want to go left-right with this, but [the] Cato Institute published a study just last week that found terrorists from the right were responsible for six times more deaths than people from the left.”
That study, published by the D.C.-based libertarian think tank, found that terrorist attacks propagated by “right-wingers” accounted for 11% of murders since 1975, whereas “left-wing terrorists” were responsible for 2%.
“I actually don't want to go tit for tat on this, but what I am asking for is that this rhetoric of blaming one side or the other stop, if you could convey that to the president, and that we actually work on things that are solutions,” Klobuchar said. “So could you commit to me Director Patel that you will do that?”
“Absolutely, senator,” Patel answered.
Tuesday’s hearing is just the first of two during which Patel is scheduled to testify before congressional committees, with the second scheduled for Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
