WASHINGTON ― Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Wednesday baselessly blamed Democrats for the fatal shooting of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah event.
“Democrats own this,” Mace said on Capitol Hill. “Democrats own this.”
HuffPost asked why, since nothing is known about the shooter or the shooter’s motives. Mace pointed to the immediate context of the shooting ― Kirk was talking on a college campus about transgender mass shooters.
“I mean, give me a fucking break. This guy’s talking about mass trans violence, tranny violence — I’m not going to filter myself — and got shot in the neck like that,” Mace said.
As of this writing, police say there is no suspect in custody after the shooting, which took place during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem. Kirk died shortly after the attack, his spokesperson confirmed.
Mace’s caustic remarks stood out Wednesday among the statements from Republicans and Democrats alike praying for Kirk, condemning the shooting and condemning political violence in general.
“This political violence has got to stop now. They shot President Trump in the head. They tried to assassinate him a month after that. You had a Bernie Sanders bro shoot up the congressional baseball game. You had some wingnut kill some legislators over in Minnesota,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) told HuffPost, referring to the shooting in June of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) led lawmakers in a silent moment of prayer for Kirk and his family on the House floor on Wednesday. Afterward, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) could be heard saying, “Silent prayers get silent results,” leading to a shouting match, with some Democrats reportedly yelling Kirk wasn’t the only shooting victim on Wednesday. Johnson repeatedly banged the gavel, calling for order.
“We need every political leader to decry the violence and to do it loudly,” Johnson told reporters afterward. “The problem is in the human heart. It’s gotten out of hand.”
On the House steps, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) choked back tears about Kirk, saying he’d been an influential voice in the conservative movement.
“When I was in college, we used to be able to walk in those doors, just walk right into the Capitol, and didn’t have any of the security. Obviously, airports were the same,” Roy told reporters. “And the more we just have this, like, sickness in society, the more we have to clamp down, the more you have to have, you know, security barriers and lock down our society, because people are just sick, and there’s obviously no place for it.”
Speaking to TV cameras outside the House, Mace said she had condemned the firebombing of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home.
“I’ve spoken out against violence of all kinds, when it’s been a Republican or Democrat alike, but what I don’t usually see is Democrats [speaking out] when something happens to us,” Mace said. “They need to own the rhetoric. They need to own what’s happening in this country right now.”
Just about every prominent member of the Democratic Party — including former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the head of the Democratic National Committee and minority leaders in the House and Senate — condemned the Kirk shooting on Wednesday.
“I am shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said. “Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.”