Charlie Kirk’s assassination; reaction; National Guard to Memphis : NPR

Scott Simon, host:

President Trump says that he will attend the funeral of Charlie Kirk in Arizona. Details of the service have not been published. The superior political editor of NPR, Ron Elving, joins us. Ron, thank you very much for being here.

Ron Elving, byline: delighted to be with you, Scott.

Simon: What do you think of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the reaction before a suspect is identified?

Elving: There was the shock of seeing someone killed in such a way when it is so young – at only 31 years old – with a woman and two small children, someone so talented and drives. You did not have to share the point of view of Kirk or to tolerate all its rhetoric or its provocations. You just have to appreciate your energy and his obvious donations of persuasion. And he gave each sign of force in American politics for the years to come, whether elected or not. And it was appalling, of course, to see the reaction, not mourning in public, but war on social networks, the instant desire to blame everything on the ditch.

Simon: The Governor of Utah, Cox, was very measured in his response. Of course, he is a republican in a deeply conservative state and said, without hesitation, he sees this murder in the context of a model of political violence and to ask everyone to think, to quote: “Where we are and where we want to be.”

Elving: Yes, Cox has had the rise on all this you want to see in our leaders. And he directed his indignation against those who would exploit tragedy and deepen the divisions between us, including the providers of the speech of hatred of the left and the right on social networks. You should hope that all of our national leaders could have done so as well as Cox.

Simon: Last week, we discussed President Trump’s plans to send the National Guard to Chicago. Yesterday, on “Fox & Friends”, he indicated a change of plans.

(Soundbit of the television show, “Fox & Friends”)

President Donald Trump: We are going to Memphis. Memphis is …

Unidentified host, host:

This is the next city.

Trump: … deeply disturbed. And the mayor is happy. He is a democrat. The mayor is happy and the governor – Tennessee. The governor is happy.

Elving: Well, first, we should note that the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, clearly said last night, he was not happy. But he also added that he wanted to work with the guard and get the most out of additional help. And he also agreed with other elected democrats in the region, saying that cities need resources to fight crime. Not a demonstration of force of the guard, but the resources that support that would be useful to them.

And a criticism that we intend to talk about this wave of childbirth is that it is largely a cover for interrupted deportations. This is the increase in arrests that we see in some of these places, and this is what produces figures and not a great recovery in the overall crime rate. We will therefore see what remains in place at the end of these deployments.

And with regard to the targeting of Memphis instead of Chicago, it was surely to do with the attitude of governors. A confrontation like Trump pushed with the city of Chicago would not have been well timed, given what happened with Charlie Kirk or given what is happening in Ukraine and Gaza. And we must also mention, there is a report to the Washington Post this morning that the administration plans to raise the troops of the National Guard – several thousand – in Louisiana and make them stay a year.

Simon: Kirk Assassination seems to have triggered a partisan reaction – point the fingers in the house – and real concerns about the security of the legislators. And that would not seem to help the chances of the parties to reach an agreement to avoid a government closure in a few weeks.

Elving: As you say, the only thing leaving the games of Capitol Hill these days is fear – fear for their own personal security and the security of their colleagues, and it is not a joke. But perhaps even this meager unleashing of shared interest could achieve a good goal. The congress must obtain a compromise to finance the government and all its programs after the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30. The moment of Charlie Kirk could make this type of compromise impossible, or this could make such a compromise so imperative that the members of the Congress would also see it.

Simon: Ron Elving de NPR. Very good to talk to you, as always, but above all this week. Thank you so much.

Elving: Thank you, Scott.

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