{"id":13416,"date":"2025-09-18T16:17:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T16:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/pence-we-need-to-resist-putting-america-on-trial-in-wake-of-kirk-killing\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T16:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T16:17:38","slug":"pence-we-need-to-resist-putting-america-on-trial-in-wake-of-kirk-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/pence-we-need-to-resist-putting-america-on-trial-in-wake-of-kirk-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pence: \u2018We need to resist putting America on trial\u2019 in wake of Kirk killing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence urged the country to \u201cresist putting America on trial\u201d in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, adding that democracy depends on a \u201cheavy dose of civility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pence, speaking on CNBC on Thursday morning, said the person suspected of killing Kirk should be \u201cbrought to justice,\u201d and acknowledged that Americans can improve the way they engage in political discourse. But he asserted that First Amendment rights should be defended in the wake of Kirk\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think democracy depends on heavy doses of civility,\u201d he said in the interview. \u201cBut Charlie Kirk was a champion of the First Amendment, a champion of free and open debate. He ultimately died defending it. And I think on that principle, we should stand and ensure that it&#8217;s part of his legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Handfuls of individuals have been targeted online for their comments on Kirk\u2019s death, sparking firings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/09\/15\/washington-post-karen-attiah-kirk-00564027\" target=\"_blank\">across media<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ClemsonUniv\/status\/1967635814717984836\" target=\"_blank\">and education<\/a>. In recent days, the Pentagon has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/09\/17\/dod-kirk-pentagon-speech-00569926\" target=\"_blank\">cracked down on employees<\/a> accused of mocking Kirk\u2019s death online, leading to firings and suspensions surrounding their posts.<\/p>\n<p>Pence noted that the First Amendment does not protect &#8220;entertainers&#8221; from being fired, after Disney moved to pull Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late-night show from its programming Wednesday, saying the comedian \u201ccrossed a line, and he answered for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s how a private marketplace works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Kimmel came under fire from the right this week after saying on his show that conservatives were \u201cdesperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Pence pointed to the Black Lives Matter protests in Minnesota in 2020 as a moment of political turmoil, when he said individuals were delivering supplies like bricks and crowbars to vandalize the windows of local store owners \u2014 reports that the Anti-Defamation League has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adl.org\/disinformation-suspicious-piles-bricks\" target=\"_blank\">claimed are disproven<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there are organizations, interests or resources that are supporting anarchy in this country, I think they need to answer for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Pence continued, saying he believes America doesn\u2019t have a \u201cpolitical\u201d problem, but instead a \u201cmoral\u201d one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should follow the facts, and I think we need to resist putting America on trial every time evil claims the heart of someone and they do violence against one of our countrymen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence urged the country to \u201cresist putting America on trial\u201d in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, adding that democracy depends on a \u201cheavy dose of civility.\u201d Pence, speaking on CNBC on Thursday morning, said the person suspected of killing Kirk should be \u201cbrought to justice,\u201d and acknowledged that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}