US must ‘universally condemn political violence’, Democratic governor Shapiro says | US news

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said the Americans should “universally condemn political violence, regardless of” after the murder of the right -wing youth organizer Charlie Kirk as well as a fatal shooting in the state of Shapiro who made three dead police officers and two other injured.

A few hours before Kirk’s funeral, Shapiro said the nation was held at a “inflection point” and urged the Americans to choose shared values ​​rather than the division, highlighting the solidarity shown by the Pennsylvanians following the murders of the officers in the County of York last week.

“I think we are at a inflection point as a nation, and I think we can go in different ways,” Shapiro told the moderator Kristen Welker on NBC News Meet The Press. “I hope that we are going in the direction of healing, to bring people together, to try to find our common points – not just to focus on our differences.”

Shapiro told Welker his own recent experience with political violence: when his governor manor was bombed in April, an act that the authorities suspected were led by a man unhappy with Shapiro support in Israel in the Israeli war against Gaza.

Shapiro also referred to the murder of the president of the Minnesota State Chamber, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark, in June. The authorities charged a man described by friends and right – and who had previously registered as a republican in another state – with the hortmans killings.

While Shapiro said he did not want to assimilate fires from the Governor’s mansion to the murder of Kirk and Hortmans, he said: “Political violence leaves scars.”

Addressing the arguments that the criticism of political opponents can fuel violence, Shapiro underlined the longtime decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States which distinguish the protected political discourse from illicit incentive to violence.

He said that most political speeches – even offensive, hated or hateful – are legal and protected.

“There is a big difference,” said Shapiro.

The attack on the governor’s manor took place in April, a few hours after Shapiro, his wife, their four children, two dogs and another family had celebrated Passover in one of the rooms that have suffered damage in the fire.

During the interview on Sunday, the governor criticized the management of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called at the end of the war in Gaza, affirming that “suffering must stop” while adding that Hamas should also be out of power.

Welker also asked Shapiro to comment on the criticisms in a new memory of Kamala Harris on his unsuccessful race for the White House against Donald Trump in 2024. As Welker said, the book – 107 days – described him as losing his chance of being Harris Trump because he was more “focused” on the definition of his role than to help his defeat Trump as “number two”.

“The only thing I was focused on was to work on my tail to refuse a second to Donald Trump [presidency]”Said Shapiro, who was a mother to know if he would show up at the White House in 2028, because many predict that he can.

“In the end, it was a choice that the voters had between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. They made their choice.”