'Nothing breaks the fever': Fears the US at a boiling point after Kirk assassination
Charlie Kirk's murder has further polarised a deeply divided country, former BBC correspondent and author Nick Bryant told Capital Brief.
Donald Trump's decision to escalate his rhetoric in the wake of the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is a sharp departure from previous US presidents, historian Nick Bryant warns, as the White House threatens to crack down on what it terms the "far left".
Kirk, the influential Trump supporter and leader of conservative action group Turning Point USA, was shot during a debate event in Utah last week. 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who authorities say held a “leftist ideology”, has been arrested over the killing.
In a video shortly after the killing, Trump claimed left wing rhetoric was “directly responsible” and framed political violence as solely originating from his political opponents.
Bryant, a former BBC correspondent and author of The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict With Itself, argued presidents have always had to confront violence simmering under the surface of American politics. But Trump’s desire to frame Kirk's killing in flatly partisan terms, even as authorities were investigating a motive, was a marked departure from his predecessor norm.
