MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday at a college in Utah is just the latest in a series of politically motivated violent acts just in recent months. They've spawned the political spectrum - the killing of a Democratic state lawmaker and her spouse in Minnesota and the shooting of another and his spouse, the Democratic Pennsylvania governor's residence fire-bombed while he and his family slept, two Israeli embassy staffers murdered after an event at a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., Tesla charging stations set on fire, shootings at a campaign office for Democrat Kamala Harris in Arizona. And, needless to say, two assassination attempts of President Trump during the 2024 campaign. And as we said, that's just some of the incidents that we know about in just the past 14 months. We wanted to hear from NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro about what he makes of this political moment. And he's with us now. Good morning, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So what's happening here?
MONTANARO: You know, I mean, we're in a tremendous time of political volatility. You know, and we should say, we don't know the motivation behind this killing yet, but Kirk was someone who was provocative and eager to have all of the political debates. He was a key and prominent figure in Trump world and in helping get a lot of younger voters, especially younger men, to become Trump voters. And any politician or public person who puts themselves out there right now will tell you that they've faced increased threats over the last several years.
MARTIN: So we're seeing that people in the public eye are saying that they're seeing increasing threats. But what about - let's just, for the sake of argument, use the term average Americans. How are they viewing this and the viewing of the country's division?
MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, from conversations I've had and our reporters have had during the last few campaigns in the Trump years, you know, people see their ways of life under threat. You know, conservatives chafed under what they saw as a liberal lurch under President Obama, and they saw the culture, the media, whether it's the news, TV, movies, what have you, as too liberal, weak and enabling. And they feel too many talk down the good qualities of the country. Meanwhile, for the - for those left of center, it's very different. I mean, they see threats to the marginalized - women, immigrants, minorities - because of leaders who they see as having given license to meanness, intolerance, conspiracy, and they see democracy itself as under threat with Trump's strongman tendencies. So very strong feelings, but in very different directions, and there's a lot of hopelessness people feel for different reasons about this political time. And that can lead to violence, even if it's a small few who might go that far.
MARTIN: Do we have some polling that speaks to that? What does it say?
MONTANARO: It's interesting 'cause you see this kind of dichotomy that emerges. You know, Georgetown University poll found that overwhelming numbers of people say they want civility and compromise and believe respect for each other is the first step in having a government that works. More than 8 in 10 felt that way on those things. But they also are very dug in in the same polling on what they believe. You know, more than 8 in 10 said that they're tired of leaders compromising their values and ideals. What's more, 72% said that those personal values are under attack.
And when it comes to violence, three-quarters of people in our NPR/PBS News/Marist poll from earlier this year said that political violence is a, quote, "major problem." On acceptance of it, a University of Chicago survey that I looked at just before last year's election found 6% supported the use of force to restore Trump to the presidency, 8% supported it to prevent Trump from getting back to the White House. Small numbers, but it does represent millions of people. And when you have that kind of environment, mistrust of the system...
MARTIN: Yes.
MONTANARO: ...And institutions, all of it unfortunately takes is a few radicalized people, as we've seen in either direction.
MARTIN: Briefly, and we really need to talk more about this, but what - is there a way out of this?
MONTANARO: You know, experts say there really needs to be a unified message from political leaders and influencers on social media to call for calm and stop dehumanizing each other. But too often, we've just seen the opposite.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thanks.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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