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The horror of Charlie Kirk’s assassination added a dangerous and unpredictable catalyst to America’s toxic political reality.
But it has not yet crystalized into hard policy responses by the Trump administration, leaving the country in limbo — on the brink of something potentially significant that is yet to be defined.
Its potential to galvanize profound reactions is more potent because it took place in a nation racked by its most venomous divides in decades, where every political win or loss can seem existential, and under an administration that often shows a desire to wield almost unlimited power.
This is also an age when activists and partisan media figures on the left and the right have personal and financial incentives to stoke division and social media tools to magnify their extremism. This is a significant impediment for those political leaders who genuinely want to cool tempers. And no wonder lawmakers and opinion formers are reconsidering their exposure to the public following Kirk’s killing in a hunkering-down that could further constrain American democracy.
Trump has not chosen the traditional presidential route of invoking calm at perilous political moments. He’s ominously blaming his opponents collectively for a spate of worsening political violence that has spilled blood on both sides. “The problem is on the left. It’s not on the right,” he said Sunday.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes reports from the White House, and Dana Bash discusses with her “Inside Politics” panel: CNN anchor and chief Congressional correspondent Manu Raju, CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene, and Axios political reporter Hans Nichols. #CNN #News
