58 House Democrats Vote Against Resolution Honoring Charlie Kirk

thepoliticalsignal.com
The Signal:

The House approved a resolution honoring Charlie Kirk on Friday in a stark show of the chamber’s partisan divide.

“It would be it would be great for the country if Republicans and Democrats could stand together to call out political violence,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said prior to the vote, according to Politico.

But the 310-58 vote showed it was not to be.

According to the House Clerk’s website, of the 213 Democrats in the House, 95 voted for the resolution, 58 opposed it, 38 voted present, and 22 did not vote. That means 118 Democrats — a majority of House Democrats — did not support the resolution.

On the Republican side, 215 of the 219 Republicans voted for the resolution. Four Republicans did not vote.

Democratic opposition included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Al Green of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Maxine Waters of California.

Some said they regarded Kirk as the enemy.

“As a black woman, the verbal assault on so many black women coming out of his mouth stunned me,” Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida said, referring to Kirk’s criticisms of affirmative action, according to NBC. “He insulted so many. This country stands on the shoulders of black women.”


However, Johnson said Kirk was “never motivated by hatred.”

“And so even though he could defeat anybody in a debate so often — and I saw this myself when he would vanquish someone in a policy argument — he was the first person after that to reach out a hand of friendship or offer an arm around the shoulder of someone who he had just defeated in a contest,” Johnson said.

“Why? Because it wasn’t about winning … the policy arguments. It was about the people. And Charlie loved vigorous debate, but he loved people more,” he said.

Related:

Senate Passes National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk

The resolution said Kirk “personified the values of the First Amendment, exercising his God-given right to speak freely, challenge prevailing narratives, and did so with honor, courage, and respect for his fellow Americans.”

Kirk’s assassination “was not only a heinous act of violence, but a sobering reminder of the growing threat posed by political extremism and hatred in our society,” the resolution said.

The resolution offered the hope that “the tragic loss of Charlie Kirk must not be allowed to deepen the divides in our Nation, but instead serve as a turning point to recommit ourselves to better angels, and to the timeless American principles of liberty governed by truth and the virtues of peaceful dialogue.”

The resolution said Kirk “would not have us respond to his death with despair, but rather with renewed purpose — to speak truth with courage, to stand firm in faith, to seek unity while standing firm in principle, and to serve as living reminders of the values he championed: faith, family, and freedom.”

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