Whoopi Goldberg started Thursday’s episode of “The View” by calling the shooting death of Charlie Kirk “beyond devastating.” The conservative activist, Donald Trump ally and Turning Point USA co-founder died on Wednesday at 31 years old after being shot in the neck at a college event in Utah.
“Our hearts of course go out to the family of Charlie Kirk,” Goldberg said before praising “politicians from both sides of the aisle” who spoke out “against the violence” and “urged Americans to come together” after Kirk’s assassination.
“Isn’t a fundamental part of being an American is that we’re able to express our opinions to each other without fear and this kind of horror happening?” Goldberg asked. “It seems to be something we’ve been seeing more and more of. It’s not even left or right. It’s just people being taken out because of their beliefs or their thoughts.”
“Regardless of your politics, we’ve got to get to a place in this country where we see people we disagree with not as our enemies, but as fellow Americans with different viewpoints that we need to engage,” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin added while calling Kirk an “incredibly influential young activist on the right” whose death “is going to hit young Republicans really hard because he made them feel like when they were the lone conservative voice on campus, one of the only Republicans, that it was okay to speak up and say their viewpoints.”
Sunny Hostin weighed in by saying: “I can’t believe that someone would kill another person because they were speaking their beliefs. This is antithetical to who we are as Americans. The first amendment is the first amendment for a reason. We should be able to voice whatever opinions we have.”
Goldberg concluded the segment with an urgent plea to Americans: “All the things we’ve seen — the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the aggressiveness when they went after Paul Pelosi, the couple in Minnesota — this is not the way we do it. We say this every time, but, somehow, it’s not resonating, and I hope that young Republicans never forget that they have voice. They have a voice. We all have voices. We should never ever be afraid. It’s beyond, beyond. And Charlie Kirk’s assassin is still at large.”
Many of Hollywood’s most vocal opponents of Trump spoke out against Kirk’s shooting death in the aftermath of the killing. Jimmy Kimmel took to Instagram to write: “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
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Stephen Colbert, meanwhile, recorded a solemn message that aired before Wednesday’s episode of “The Late Show,” which had already recorded its full episode prior to Kirk’s murder.
“Our condolences go out to his family and all of his loved ones,” Colbert said. “I am old enough to personally remember the political violence of the 1960s, and I hope it is obvious to everyone in America that political violence does not solve any of our political differences. Political violence only leads to more political violence. And I pray with all my heart that this is the aberrant action of a madman and not a sign of things to come.”
From Variety US