Republican Lawmaker Calls Out Trump's 'Over The Top' Rhetoric After Charlie Kirk Killing

Republican Representative Thomas Massie on Thursday called on President Donald Trump to tone down his rhetoric after this week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. 

“I mean, there is a lot of rhetoric. And the president himself engages in it — he called it a ‘hostile act’ to co-sponsor the Epstein resolution,” Massie told The Hill, referring to his bipartisan bill to release the files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was once friends with Trump. 

He called that “ridiculous rhetoric.” 

“It’s amusing,” he told The Hill. “It doesn’t offend me that he’s over the top with the rhetoric, but some people take it literally, and he should probably tone that down himself.” 

Massie wasn’t alone among Republicans in asking the president to help lower the temperature.  

Representative Don Bacon also called on Trump to dial it down and unite the country. 

“But he’s a populist, and populists dwell on anger,” he told NBC News. “I have to remind people, we had Democrats killed in Minnesota too, right?”

Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed by a gunman who also sought out other Democratic figures. 

Trump, however, is showing no signs of altering his tone. 

Authorities have said they don’t yet have a suspect or motive in the killing, but the president has blamed the “radical left.” 

“We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” Trump said on Thursday. 

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, leaving behind a wife and two young children.

Trump isn’t the only one delivering heated rhetoric as tempers flared in the House earlier this week. 

“Well, emotions are raw, because a lot of us knew Charlie Kirk personally and had interacted with him,” Massie told The Hill. “And so, I give everybody a pass here.”

He added: “I don’t think you can blame anybody for what they say in the next 24 or 48 hours, but I think it’ll settle down, and hopefully it settles down to a calmer place than it was before.”