Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro accused the White House and Republicans on Tuesday of cherry-picking which political violence to condemn in the wake of last week's assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk.
Shapiro made the comments in a speech at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit 2025 in Pittsburgh, ABC News reported.
"Unfortunately, some, from the dark corners of the internet all the way to the Oval Office, want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn," Shapiro said.
Shapiro and his family were the victims of an attack in April when the governor's mansion was firebombed by a man who targeted Shapiro for his views on the Israel-Hamas war, saying Shapiro needed to stop the killing of Palestinians. Shapiro is Jewish. Trump called Shapiro to check on his family and said publicly, "Certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen."
Likewise, Trump condemned the political murder of a Minnesota state lawmaker in June, calling it "horrific violence" and saying "it will not be tolerated."
Trump on Saturday condemned the murder of Kirk, asserting that comments by "the radical left" comparing "wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals" are "directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today."
Shapiro, however, called Trump's response "selective condemnation."
"There are some who will hear that selective condemnation and take it as a permission slip to commit more violence so long as it suits their narrative," Shapiro said. "We cannot allow violence to be used as a pretext for more violence."
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Newsmax on Tuesday that there's a "real sickness on the left," based on a recent poll showing that one in four liberals justify political violence.
"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," Schmitt said.
Shapiro disagreed.
"Each and every time this type of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it or who pulls the trigger, who throws the Molotov cocktail, or who wields the weapon. It doesn't matter if it's coming from one side or from the other, directed at one party or the other, one person or another," he said.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.