Trump's week in review: Probing and prosecuting murder of Iryna Zarutska, remembering Charlie Kirk

5. Trump gives Oval Office address remembering Charlie Kirk, condemning rhetoric of the ‘radical Left’ 

In an Oval Office address Wednesday night, Trump addressed the death of Kirk, which happened around 12:20 p.m. Mountain time that day. He remembered the conservative activist as “a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America.” 

“He fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people,” Trump added. “He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth. Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith, and we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in Heaven.”

After offering condolences to Kirk’s widow, Erika, and their children, Trump proclaimed that it was “long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.

The president lamented that, “For years, those on the radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals.”

“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” he insisted. After listing examples of political violence, including the assassination attempt against his own life, Trump vowed that his administration would apprehend “each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence.”

“Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country,” Trump concluded. “An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed, because together, we will ensure that his voice, his message and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.”