The assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk in Utah and the reaction of some people celebrating or justifying it has illustrated that there is a "real sickness on the left," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Schmitt, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on "National Report," "When you see numbers like 25% of self-described very liberal citizens think political violence is justified to achieve political ends, that's very troubling."
"There's a real sickness on the left here that has to be addressed. … We have to tell the truth about what's going on," he added.
Schmitt reiterated that "the radicalization of the far left and justification we have seen for political assassinations, there is just no place for it here in our country."
"I'm not buying this 'both sides-ism' right now. You are really seeing this from the radical left. This is a sickness, and it's growing on the left, and it has to be confronted. Do I want us to unify as a country, of course. I don't know how to unify with people who celebrate a man's death like that."
Schmitt also discussed the appearance of FBI Director Kash Patel before a Senate hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, saying that Patel "has delivered on the promise of President [Donald] Trump as relates to the FBI on crime fighting."
He said the FBI has done this by "moving a lot of the agents and resources away from going after Catholics and going after parents who show up to school board meetings and political debts that they were trying to settle under the Biden administration."
Instead, Schmitt said, "they are actually in communities doing the work of combating violent crime."
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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