Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) condemned political violence on Tuesday and called for the White House not to “cherry-pick” instances on the left to condemn.
Shapiro, who is Jewish, opened his remarks at the Eradicate Hate Summit in Pittsburgh by sharing his personal connection with political violence when his home, the Pennsylvania governor’s residence, was set on fire earlier this year for his stance on Israel. He later went on to list the assassination attempts against President Donald Trump in Butler and the assassinations of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, former Speaker of the Minnesota House Melissa Hortman and her husband, and conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Shapiro, considered a 2028 Democratic Party presidential contender, emphasized that it does not matter where the violence comes from, but pushed the importance of condemning all instances, despite the attack on his home, which was apparently fueled by anti-Israel stances pushed by the Left of his own party.
“This type of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it or who pulls the trigger, who throws the molotov cocktail, or who wields the weapon,” Shapiro said at the summit. “It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or the other, directed at one party or another, one person or another, it is all wrong and it makes us all less safe.”
He went on to call out the White House for its handling of political violence before Kirk’s assassination.
“During moments like this, I believe we have a responsibility to be clear and unequivocal in calling out all forms of political violence and making clear it is all wrong; that shouldn’t be hard to do. Unfortunately, some from the dark corners of the internet all the way to the Oval Office want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn.”
Trump directed flags to be flown at half-staff to honor Kirk last week, an action he did not take when Hortman was assassinated in her home earlier this year. When asked about it on Monday, the president said he was “not familiar” with Hortman’s assassination, going on to say, “If the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that.”
“As the survivor of two assassination attempts — and now watching his dear friend Charlie be assassinated — no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Washington Examiner. She added that the White House “will not hesitate to speak the truth” that “radical leftists have slandered their political opponents as Nazis and fascists, inspiring left-wing violence. It must end.”
Since the assassination of Kirk, the White House has begun a push to target and investigate left-wing violence. Jackson did not tell the Washington Examiner specific actions that would be taken, but she said perpetrators would be prosecuted.
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“The President was clear: the perpetrator of this horrific act will pay for what they did. They will face the full wrath of the American justice system,” Jackson said in a statement. “And any other left-wing whack jobs who engage in targeted political violence like the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Vice President JD Vance hosted The Charlie Kirk Show on Monday afternoon to “pay tribute to my friend” and point fingers at the culprits of political violence.
“But the data is clear, people on the left are much more likely to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a both-sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told,” Vance said.
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Shapiro’s address mirrored the sentiment taken by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) in his address last week following Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University.
“It is an attack on all of us,” Cox said. “It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideas. This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, who we have been, and who we could be in better times. Political violence is different than any other type of violence.”
“I agree with him 100%,” Trump told reporters Tuesday about Cox’s remarks. The president went on to say, “But most of the violence is on the left.”
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Both governors emphasized that political violence is an attack on the country as a whole and talked of lowering the political temperature.
“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence is it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side, and at some point we have to find an off-ramp or it’s going to get much, much worse,” Cox said.
Mabinty Quarshie contributed to this article.