Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrats in Congress, called for the nation to unite following Kirk's death and said there should be no finger-pointing or blame.
"This is a time that all Americans should come together and feel and mourn what happened. Violence, which affects so many different people of so many different political persuasions, is an affliction of America, and coming together is what we ought to be doing, not pointing fingers or blame," Schumer said when asked by CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion to respond to Mr. Trump's remarks about Kirk's death on Wednesday.
In a video recorded in the Oval Office Wednesday, the president blamed the assassination on the "radical left" and said political violence and murder are the "tragic consequence of demonizing" those with opposing political views.
"For years, those on the radical left he compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals," the president said. "This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now."
Jeffries echoed Schumer's call for unity.
"This moment requires leadership that brings the American people together, as opposed to trying to further divide us," he said. "Political violence in any form against any American is unacceptable, should be denounced by everyone. And moving forward, we he to figure out a better way to come together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans."
— Melissa Quinn and Alan He