STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A lot of Americans are urging a pause and some thought after the murder of Charlie Kirk in Utah. The FBI is searching for the person responsible. Vice President Vance accompanies Kirk's casket to his Arizona home. And people in law enforcement and far beyond that hope to avoid any acceleration of political violence. So what's happening so far? We've called NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef. Good morning.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What has happened since the shooting, which was not quite two days ago?
YOUSEF: Well, several campuses of historically Black colleges and universities were shut down yesterday or placed on lockdown after receiving terroristic threats. Also, police say there was a bomb threat made against the Democratic National Committee, which they deemed to be not credible. It's unclear if any of this was tied to Kirk's shooting.
But as you said, Steve, people are on edge. And a particular concern is that language we're seeing from high-profile influencers and public figures that is assigning blame to the left before we even know who the killer is. On Wednesday, President Trump himself blamed the, quote, "radical left" for the incident. We've also seen a repeat of a now-familiar move where some have claimed without evidence that the perpetrator is transgender. The fact is, until the FBI arrests someone, we know nothing. And in fact, we don't know whether any political ideology at all was involved in this act of violence.
INSKEEP: And I guess we should emphasize this - even when someone is arrested, even when someone can be questioned, their motivations tend to be obscure, to say the least. Is that possible here?
YOUSEF: Absolutely. You know, Steve, the landscape of political violence and violent extremism in the U.S., I think, is much more complex than many people may understand it to be. You know, I think we often assume political violence means right-on-left violence or left-on-right violence. But, you know, we increasingly see these instances that don't map onto those divides. And as an example, you know, we can recall what happened almost exactly one year ago on September 15 of last year. A man was arrested near Mar-a-Lago for allegedly attempting to assassinate then-candidate Trump.
INSKEEP: Right.
YOUSEF: You know, that man is now on trial, so we may learn more about his motives. But from what we know so far, if he had a specific grievance, it appears to be about the war in Ukraine. Similarly, we think back to the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. You know, many assumed that the shooter was from the left, but the FBI said he had also been looking at events where President Biden would be present. And we're also seeing an increase in what some call nonideological or salad bar extremism where people with an incoherent jumble of ideological influences carry out mass shootings.
INSKEEP: Well, given what you just said, is there information about levels of violence that do seem to be from the left or from the right?
YOUSEF: Well, the data are very clear, Steve. And the FBI has said many times over recent years, the most lethal and persistent threat when it comes to violent extremism up till now has come from violent white supremacists. Now, there is concern among extremism analysts that we may be seeing - or soon to see - a shift toward more violence from the left. There was the killing of two Israeli Embassy staff members in D.C. And in Glendale, Arizona, we saw protesters attack police outside an ICE facility. But we really don't have enough data at this point.
INSKEEP: NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef. Thanks so much.
YOUSEF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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