In today’s edition of From the Politics Desk, we dive into how the assassination of Charlie Kirk is reverberating in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
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— Adam Wollner
How Charlie Kirk helped set JD Vance on a path to the vice presidency
By Henry J. Gomez
Without Charlie Kirk, there might not be a Vice President JD Vance.
The prominent conservative activist, who was assassinated yesterday while speaking on a college campus in Utah, was integral in Vance’s rise in national politics from the earliest days.
Publicly, Kirk heralded Vance as a worthy Republican prospect — even when others had suspicions about Vance’s past as a Donald Trump skeptic.
And, behind the scenes, Kirk was a matchmaker, connecting Vance with others who would be invaluable to helping him navigate a course from MAGA movement outsider to insider.
So the news of Kirk’s death landed particularly hard on Vance. The vice president, in a last-minute decision that underscored how close they were, canceled plans to attend a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York and instead went to Salt Lake City, where he and second lady Usha Vance were to meet with Kirk’s family and friends.
From there, Air Force Two was expected to transport Kirk’s casket, along with his family, to Phoenix, a source familiar with the plans told NBC News. Kirk had based his political organization, Turning Point USA, there.
“Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind,” Vance wrote in a eulogy-like tribute on X. “Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives. When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right — as he usually was — he was generous.”
Vance, 41, and Kirk, 31, shared common cause as representatives of a younger, Trump-inspired brand of conservatism that has thrived in a new media ecosystem populated by right-leaning podcasts. Trump’s outreach to young male voters and the podcast hosts they listen to — aided by allies such as Vance and Kirk — was seen as a significant piece of his winning 2024 strategy.
Read more from Henry →
How Trump is responding: In a video message last night, Trump blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s death, even though the shooter’s identity and motive aren’t yet known, Jonathan Allen and Amanda Terkel report. He also vowed to go after “each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and other political violence.”
Trump called for “all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree.” But he then called out “radical left political violence,” without paying tribute to any Democratic politicians who have been targeted, including in Minnesota and Pennsylvania this year.
“From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year — which killed a husband and father — to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Trump said.
Trump struck a more measured tone today at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon, where he said he will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Kirk, Ben Kamisar reports.
Related: Inside the White House as officials learned about Charlie Kirk’s death, by Monica Alba, Kristen Welker, Gabe Gutierrez and Henry J. Gomez
Members of Congress fear for their safety after Kirk assassination
By Scott Wong, Melanie Zanona and Kyle Stewart
Charlie Kirk’s assassination is sending shock waves through Capitol Hill, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing fears for their own safety and taking greater security precautions following a summer of political violence.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the progressive star who has faced numerous death threats over the years, said she had postponed two public events planned for this weekend in North Carolina, including a rally in Raleigh set for Sunday.
“From the moment I was elected, I have felt that I accept a certain level of risk in doing this job,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. But she added that security protocols for members of Congress are “for a bygone time. … They’re not designed for a digital threat environment era.”
Other lawmakers are saying they won’t hold any large town halls or public events — just small, private events.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor in South Carolina, said she is canceling all outdoor and public events for the foreseeable future, including an upcoming speaking gig on a college campus.
An outspoken critic of transgender people and accommodations for them, Mace said she’s been experiencing an uptick in violent threats since a recent floor spat she had with a House Democrat and has requested additional protection from the Capitol Police and House sergeant at arms. Since Kirk’s assassination, Mace said, she also got local police to patrol her district office and plans to start carrying a firearm wherever she can.
Threats to members of Congress were already on the rise before Kirk’s death. By the end of this calendar year, the U.S. Capitol Police said it is on track to work through 14,000 threat assessment cases involving members, up from 9,000 last year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he’s been fielding calls from members concerned since the shooting, and has assured lawmakers that they are undertaking “a very thorough review of the existing options and how we might need to enhance that to ensure members’ security and safety.”
But Johnson also acknowledged there are limits to protecting all 535 members of Congress, pointing out it would cost billions of dollars and thousands of additional police officers to provide a security detail for every member, which is just unrealistic.
“There are many security measures in place for members of Congress, at their homes, at their offices and when they go about. But we live in a dangerous society, and it’s difficult to cover even the president of the United States from every angle,” Johnson said. “The problem, ultimately, at the end of the day, is the human heart, that’s what we got to address.”
Read more from our Capitol Hill team →
More coverage of the Kirk shooting:
🗞️ Today’s other top stories
- ➡️ HBCU scares: At least five historically Black colleges locked down campuses, canceled classes or ordered students to shelter-in-place after receiving “credible threats” of violence. Read more →
- 📈 Inflation watch: Consumer price growth rose in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, the latest indication that the U.S. economy is contending with inflation even as the job market cools. Read more →
- 🚫 Epstein saga: Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, was fired after new revelations about his association with Jeffrey Epstein were revealed. Read more →
- ☑️ On the Hill: Republicans triggered the “nuclear option” to change the rules of the Senate on a party-line basis, a move that will allow them to speed up confirmation of Trump’s nominees for key executive branch positions. Read more →
- ⚖️ In the courts: Former Sen. Bob Menendez’s, D-N.J., wife was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for her role in a bribery scheme. Read more →
- ⬅️ Heading toward the exits: Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, announced he would not run for re-election after serving just two terms in Congress, the Texas Tribune reports. Read more →
- 🪙 Survey says: Young men, particularly Republicans, are more likely to own crypto and see it as a fast way to make money, a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey found. Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Ben Kamisar.
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