The killing of Charlie Kirk is hitting lawmakers hard.
Some, like Speaker Mike Johnson, were close with the conservative activist. For many others, his death in Utah is fresh evidence of a chilling escalation in political violence and the latest shocking reminder of their own exposure to attacks.
“Something happened on Capitol Hill,” Johnson said on CNN Wednesday night. “It’s changed the atmosphere in the place.”
The shooting has sparked “a deluge” of members calling for heightened security, Johnson said in the interview. He had already been raising an alarm, warning in recent days of rising threats against members of Congress. He said earlier this month that Capitol Police had tracked close to 14,000 assessments of threatening and concerning behavior this year, up from 9,000 in 2024. Lawmakers were already working this year on ways to enhance their security.
“I don’t know why anybody would want to serve when this is what you’re staring down the barrel of,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday.
Congressional leaders are emerging from the tragedy united in calling for an end to the rise of political violence, without pointing fingers at each other. But emotions briefly boiled over on the House floor Wednesday, with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) yelling “silent prayers get silent results” after a moment of silence for Kirk. Democrats shouted about a school shooting in her state that also occurred Wednesday, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) hurled expletives at her colleagues across the aisle.
“That was a reflection of the emotion of the moment, the real sense of shock that people were feeling,” Johnson said later on CNN. “I think justifiably, understandably. But I think after that, I think a lot of people will reflect upon things they said and did in that moment, and they probably regret it.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) told MSNBC Wednesday that the recent string of political attacks — Kirk’s killing, the shooting of state legislators in Minnesota and the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump — is a threat to America as we know it.
“Our entire democratic experiment is going to crumble if people don’t believe they are safe when they express their political views,” he said.
Some members also see risks in the pressure to put more distance between themselves and their constituents because of safety concerns.
“We’re all in different places every day. There’s no way you lock that down,” GOP Sen. John Curtis of Utah said on CNN Wednesday night, as he responded to Johnson’s comments about growing calls for enhanced member security. “And that would be a terrible thing for the American people. I mean, we would lose the closeness that we cherish with our constituents if we even tried to do that.”
What else we’re watching:
— Government funding developments: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will discuss government funding at 8:45 a.m. ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline. The meeting was initially scheduled for Wednesday evening but was pushed to Thursday morning.
— ACA talks: The weekly lunch meeting of House Ways and Means Republicans got heated Wednesdayas members debated whether to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at year’s end. The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus also discussed the ACA credits during a separate meeting Wednesday, including whether an extension should include a new income cap on who can qualify for the subsidies.
— Russia sanctions legislation: Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday there’s “intensified interest” among senators to pass Russia sanctions legislation amid escalating aggression from Moscow. He stopped short of saying he was ready to put Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal’s (D-Conn.) secondary sanctions bill on the floor.
Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.
