Political leaders react to assassination of Charlie Kirk: 'Very dark part about who we have become as a nation'

In the day following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, political leaders in the state and nationwide have shared their thoughts and prayers for his family, while voicing concerns about security, free speech and polarization of politics.

Response from News 9 Political Analyst Scott Mitchell:

“I think this is a dangerous escalation into who unstable people or hateful people want to murder to silence their voices. We're in a whole different era now. When you watch what is happening on social media, the level of hatred is just incredibly high.”

“The difference is, we've seen political violence, I've seen it in my lifetime, the voices being stilled, generally they are activities trying to do something good like Medgar Evans back in the 60s, or elected officials. This is a change from that sort of target to opinion leaders,” said Mitchell. “I think this is a dangerous escalation into who unstable people or hateful people want to murder to silence their voices. We've seen people harassed at high levels, not to this extent of course to the point of journalists, opinion leaders, advocates."

“I think people in his position are gonna have to rethink how they advocate and where. You ought to be able to do anything that you want short of yelling fire in a crowded theatre without fear that you're going to be murdered ... The way we're going to be doing security moving forward is going to change, it has to change. We need to do that so the people can express themselves in a time where expressing yourself can be threatening to your life,” said Mitchell. “I think anybody who values their life has to look at this and be like I've got to be careful what I say when I say it in this particular situation, like in front of large crowds. There's a lot more risk to go into a crowd of 3,000 at an event that has a speaker from the right or left,”

“Politics is a contact sport now, and it's heartbreaking and I worry about it,” said Mitchell. “I worry about young children watching this, it's not just the generations of the 20s, the 30s, the 40s. We've got generations of 8,9,10 year old's watching this and they're gonna be traumatized. It’s very troubling."

“We talk about it, we don't ever get to a solution. I think if we're not gonna get to a solution, we've got to make it harder to get to the targets, that's heartbreaking but i think that's the way it is. When we start looking at gun violence solutions, people don't talk about what those solutions are. The common sense thing to do is simply harden the targets. Arming everybody, thoughts and prayers, taking away guns, none of that has ever worked, all through history its never worked. So you gotta change hearts, you gotta change minds. The level of hate is so prevalent right now. If somebody wants to lead, what they're gonna do is try to unite people and they're gonna have to dispense some grace."

“I don't know how we ever put the genie back in the bottle."

Response from US Senator Markwayne Mullin:

“I lost a friend, she lost the love of her life and they lost their father over what a senseless act because you didn’t believe his political views. I mean what threat was Charlie to you?,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin. “Charlie Kirk never said anything hateful to anybody, he actually gave a voice for people to give their opposing views and openly debated them and spoke to them.

“They wanted to silence his voice because you didn’t like his point of view and you wanted to steal him from his kids and his wife and from all of us because you disagreed with him. It was pointless, Charlie is a guy that's gonna be heard for a time to come. His words of wisdom at 31 years old and his impact on the world at such a short time will last for a long time and I think we all know that ... we can't allow someone to dictate our behavior. Living in fear is no way to live at all,” said Sen. Mullin. “Don't let your voice at all be silenced because of a senseless act like this.”

Response from US Senator James Lankford:

“We are incredibly grieved for his wife, for his children, for the people who worked around him, for the thousands of people who were at the rally who watched the assassination right in front of them and for who became a nation,” said Sen. James Lankford. “This is a very dark part about who we have become as a nation.”

“It does feel like 1968 in the rage of the nation, multiple assassinations and all the challenges during that time. We are at a spot where we won’t talk to each other. We’re at a very, very difficult moment."

“When violence occurs, the response is to bring justice to make sure we actually find the person is, or persons. At our best as Americans, people who do this kind of act are held to account, we turn to each other and say how do this and make sure this never happens again."

“He was just passionate about having an exchange of ideas he was at OSU covered years back just to be on a college campus and to be able to say lets talk back and forth. As a culture, our first thing is; when we disagree, okay we disagree. We should be able to work this out and talk it out and not lead to violence on it."