“The View” co-hosts mourned the death of political activist Charlie Kirk on their show Thursday and discussed the threat his fatal shooting poses to free political speech.
Whoopi Goldberg opened the “Hot Topics” segment by calling Kirk’s death at Utah Valley University “beyond devastating,” pointing to several politicians on both sides of the political spectrum reacting to his assassination.
Kirk was shot while visiting the college campus as part of his American Comeback Tour, during which the conservative activist challenges students of differing opinions to engage in political debate.
“Isn’t a fundamental part of being an American that we are able to express our opinions to each other without fear, without this kind of horror happening?” Goldberg asked. “It seems to be something we have been seeing more and more of, and it’s not even left or right, it’s just people being taken out because of their beliefs or their thoughts.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who had a personal relationship with Kirk, said “regardless of politics,” his murder poses a larger threat to diversifying political debates and engaging with Americans with different viewpoints.
“This is going to hit young Republicans really hard,” she said. “He made them feel like when they were the lone conservative voice on campus, or they were one of the only Republicans, it was OK to speak up and say their viewpoints.”
“I hope it doesn’t have a chilling effect, whether you’re left or right, on your ability to speak your mind,” Farah Griffin added. “I know the one thing we all agree about on this table, we all share our viewpoints, and we should be able to do that without fear.”
Joy Behar then told the table this tense political climate is not unfamiliar to her. She referenced the assassinations of Medgar Evers, JFK, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., which happened within a five-year span in the 1960s.
“It was a turbulent time. I was very young and I think it’s one of the reasons I got married so young, to tell you the truth, because it was such a scary time. You kind of clung to each other,” she told the panel before providing a sliver of hope. “We got better. I think we will again. We’re having a traumatic period right now.”
Next, Sunny Hostin reiterated that Kirk was only 31 years old and a father of two young daughters. “I cannot believe that someone would kill another person because they were speaking their beliefs. This is antithetical to who we are as Americans,” she said.
“Although we don’t all align with his his views, what I deeply aligned with was he said, ‘When we stop talking, that’s when things get bad,’” Sara Haines noted. “The irony of being violently killed while saying those words of what we need more of in this country, I know all of us agree on that part, as there’s never a place for political violence.”
