ABC’s Martha Raddatz had a weird Sunday while sitting in the host chair on ABC’s This Week. She spent most of it attempting to elicit her mostly conservative guests to condemn in some way, shape, or form President Donald Trump’s remarks wherein he accused the “Radical Left” of the assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk. And she whiffed.
Watch as Raddatz begins her Expedition of Condemnation with Utah Governor Spencer Cox:
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MARTHA RADDATZ: And Governor, just lastly, you immediately talked about Democrats who had already been targeted. President Trump said nothing about the political violence against Democrats. In fact, he blamed the radical left. What's your reaction to that? Is that something you think he should be doing?
SPENCER COX: Look, President Trump is very angry. And Charlie is his close personal friend. There is a lot of anger on the right, on my side of the aisle. And I’ve certainly felt that. In this case, it does appear that that's true. Again, more- more information is coming and we’ll learn more over time. I don't know that that matters as much as the radicalization piece. I brought up the Democrats who were assassinated recently and how quickly we move on from these things, but the body count is piling up. And so, I'm so concerned about this radicalization piece. And that's what we are trying to understand. Again, this person made a choice. And it was this person's choice and this person will be held responsible. And we have to make different choices. And we also have to figure out how it came to be that a kid with a 4.0, with 34 on the ACT, with a full ride scholarship at my alma mater, who didn't even last a semester, drops out and ends up doing something like this. We need to understand that and we need to figure out how to stop it.
Of course, President Trump DID, in the past, address the murder of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. But that fact is inconvenient to the partisan factual basis that Raddatz is trying to establish and for which she is eliciting condemnation from her guests. Cox sees through all of that and reminds everyone that, contrary to the media’s wishes, the true villain of the shooting remains the shooter.
Moving on, Raddatz tried to get Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, to condemn Trump: with similar results.
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RADDATZ: You heard Governor Cox. He did not- clearly did not want to criticize President Trump at this time. And Charlie Kirk was a good friend of President Trump and his family. But he has pointed the finger at what he calls the radical left. Is that the message you believe he should be putting out?
JARED POLIS: Look, as Governor Cox said, the president was close friends with Charlie Kirk. And of course, to all of Charlie's friends and family, including the president, I extend my sincere condolences. This is about the acts of an individual. The inexcusable, evil acts of an individual. And there have been more of those in different places at different times. The assassination of the speaker of the Minnesota Assembly. The shooting here in Colorado. Whatever motivates these acts, the fault and the responsibility lie with the perpetrator. And I hope that he is brought to justice and faces full accountability for his crime.
Same question, same result. Raddatz posed the bait question and the guest refused to take the bait. In this case, the Democrat guest who had sense enough to recognize the gravity of the moment and governed himself accordingly.
Shortly thereafter, Raddatz convened a panel of College Republicans, the demographic most directly impacted by Kirk’s work. Raddatz proceeded to queue up the condemnation question, only to be rebuffed by the head of the CRs at George Washington University:
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RADDATZ: You obviously saw who was arrested. You’ve heard the president say he blames radical left- and basically blaming the Democrats. We’ve had a lot of political violence in this country. Assassination attempts on President Trump. The killing of a Minnesota state lawmaker. Who do you blame?
KIERAN LAFFEY: Look, I think after tragedies, it's very easy to play the blame game. And that's not something I want to participate in. I think, holistically, condemning political violence is what has to be happening right now. From either side.
Finally, Raddatz turned to Utah’s junior U.S. Senator, John Curtis. She went 0-for-4.
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RADDATZ: I know a lot of people, certainly a lot of Republicans, a lot of people are listening to President Trump. And you’ve heard me talk about it earlier in the show. But several Republican lawmakers, prominent conservatives, including President Trump's sons Don, Jr. and Eric, as well as President Trump, have blamed this on the radical left. Is that the right thing to do? Or what do you wish he was saying?
JOHN CURTIS: So if it were up to me, I think you need to take the word “radical" and remove “right” or “left" and radical, coming from any direction, is not good. It's not healthy. And it should be called out. And that's my mission is to say, look, this to me, this is not right. This is not left. We’re talking about radicals. And that’s where we need to put our attention.
That’s four different guests, four different times, four different perspectives on the ramifications of the assassination of Charlie Kirk- a watershed moment in American history the ramifications of which are yet to be determined. Raddatz instead chooses to focus on self-serving narrative.
