Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called for an end to political violence in a series of appearances and speeches following the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
At the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh on Sept. 16, Shapiro — who also holds an ex officio seat on the Penn Board of Trustees — was especially vocal about the selective condemnation of incidents of political violence. He reiterated his message the following day at a press conference addressing three police officers who were shot and killed while serving a warrant at a farm in York County, Pennsylvania.
The summit was established in 2018 following a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 worshippers dead. The summit, which traditionally doesn’t allow sitting elected officials to serve as speakers, made an exception after an arson attack on the Pennsylvania Governor’s mansion in April.
“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,” Shapiro said at the Tuesday summit. “Listen: doing that only further divides us, and it makes it harder to heal.”
In an interview with NBC after his speech, Shapiro specifically criticized 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump for blaming Kirk’s assassination on the “radical left.”
“He claimed, in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk, that he wanted to heal this nation,” Shapiro said. “You don’t heal this nation by attacking your fellow Americans, by calling some of your fellow Americans ‘scum’ — his word choice, not mine.”
Shapiro spoke to his own experience with political violence — referring to the attempted arson at his residence back in April, which came during the middle of the night when Shapiro was asleep with his wife and children.
“The emotional challenge for me that’s been the hardest to work through is that, as a father, the career I chose, that I find great purpose and meaning in, ended up putting my children’s lives at risk,” Shapiro told The Associated Press. “Make no mistake, the emotional burden of being a father through this has been something that continues to be a challenge for me to this day.”
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A day after his speech at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit — on Sept. 17 — Shapiro held a press conference to address a shooting involving police officers that left three dead and two injured.
“This kind of violence isn't okay,” Shapiro said. “We need to do better as a society. We need to help the people who think that picking up a gun, picking up a weapon, is the answer to resolving disputes. We can do better when it comes to mental health.”
Shapiro condemned several specific acts of political violence during the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, which came with a list of acts of targeted violence in the past year, including two attempts to assassinate Trump, the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO, the gunman who killed former Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D-Hennepin, Anoka) and her husband, and the assassination of Kirk. Shapiro cited one common thread: “people using violence to settle political differences.”
“Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity,” Shapiro added. “And as I have made clear time and time again, this type of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it, who pulls the trigger, who throws the molotov cocktail, or who wields the weapon.”
