Speaker Mike Johnson will lead members in a moment of silence on the House floor following the shooting of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday afternoon.
“We ask everyone to pray for him and his family,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters. “Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are.”
Kirk, a conservative organizer and founder of Turning Point USA, was shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The university said in a statement that a single gun shot was fired at the event and that a suspect is in custody.
“It violates core principles of our country today, our Judeo-Christian heritage, our civil society, our American way of life,” Johnson said of political violence. “And it must stop.”
“We need every political figure, we need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner,” he added. “Political violence … has to stop.”
