On the eve of the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, former New York Republican Rep. Peter King told Newsmax that all he was thinking about were his memories from that day and the upcoming commemorations. That is, until a gunshot rang out in Utah.
In an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report" on Thursday, King reflected on the enduring impact of that tragic day in 2001 and the tragedy of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. King drew a sobering connection between the two events, emphasizing that terrorism — whether international or domestic — remains a persistent threat to the American way of life.
"Up until yesterday afternoon, all I was thinking of was 9/11, the commemoration of that horrible memories of that day, but also the tremendous memory of how America fought back, how our worst day of tragedy became our finest hour," he said.
But then came the news that Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, had been fatally shot during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. The incident is being investigated as a politically motivated assassination.
"This is, again, an example of something that has to be stopped in our country," King said. "This political violence and terrorism takes many forms, many faces."
For King, the assassination of Kirk is not merely an isolated act of violence but an attack on the very foundations of democracy.
"To shoot anyone, any act of violence at all against somebody in political life, you're not just attacking that person, you're attacking the entire democratic system, the entire constitutional system of our government, where you have the free exchange of ideas," he explained.
He argued that such acts aim to disrupt the open dialogue essential to a free society, equating them to attempts to "obstruct democracy."
King called for a robust response to this growing threat of domestic political violence, advocating for the application of counterterrorism strategies honed in the fight against international threats like Islamist terrorism.
"Many of the techniques that we've perfected in going after terrorism, international terrorism, Islamist terrorism, now we'll have to be used also to spot and stop and cut off domestic terrorists, political terrorists, before they get a chance to act," he urged.
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