Gov. Andy Beshear condemns political violence following Kirk assassination

FRANKFORT, Ky. (CNN) – Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear discussed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The governor states that this is a time to “unify the country” and bring awareness that violence is against humanity.

Beshear also says that any disagreements “should never escalate” to violence.

In an interview with CNN, Beshear stated the following:

“Well, I think right now leaders have a choice to condemn political violence and all violence against anyone at any time, full stop period, or to only condemn violence against people that look like them, sound like them, or believe like they do. I think President Trump right now is missing the mark. Now is a chance to unify the country, to put our humanity above our political parties, uh, to make sure that we are saying very loud and clear that violence against any human being is wrong, and to remind every American that we are all each other’s neighbors and, and what binds us, what, what makes us united is much more important than the disagreements we may have that should never escalate to something like we saw last week. Again, they have the option to condemn violence full stop period or try to create more of an us versus them that only makes this country boil that much hotter. um, now is the, the, the chance to, to have the opportunity for all of the American people to see that leaders believe that murder is not partisan. It is just wrong. Uh, and, and when I think about all of the instances of violence we’ve seen against political figures, you have the murder of Charlie Kirk, you have the murder of the former Speaker of the House of Minnesota, you have the firebombing of the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion while Josh Shapiro was there, uh, the plan to to kill Gretchen, uh, Whitmer, um, the mayor of Louisville during his campaign three years ago. Uh, was, was shot at in his office. This, this occurs across the political spectrum and the moment that that we try to to use it for politics is the moment we lose the chance uh to declare our humanity and to and to call on people to to be better.”

Beshear made similar comments on X on Sept. 12, stating, “Violence is not red or blue – it’s just wrong. America, we have a commitment to not leave a divided country for our kids. It’s a tall order with where we are now, but the work is worth it.”