Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) late Sunday criticized President Trump’s use of the word “scum” in his latest remarks criticizing left-wing groups and pushed back on the suggestion that political violence is a problem plaguing only one side.
“No one party is immune from political violence,” Shapiro wrote in a post on the social platform X. “My family and I can attest to that.”
“Using the rhetoric of rage and calling some of our fellow Americans ‘scum’ — no matter how profound our differences — only creates more division and makes it harder to heal,” he added.
Shapiro, a moderate Democrat, was targeted in an alleged assassination attempt earlier this year, when his home was set on fire as his family slept inside.
His latest post came in response to a clip of Trump telling reporters Sunday that left-leaning groups would be investigated after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right, like some people like to share the right, the problem we have is on the left,” Trump said. “And when you look at the agitator, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place, that’s the left. That’s not the right.”
Shapiro urged Trump and the nation’s leaders to “speak and act with moral clarity” amid a rise in political violence.
“We are at an inflection point in America,” Shapiro wrote. “Violence transcends party lines — and the way to address it and have true peaceful debate is for leaders to speak and act with moral clarity. That needs to start with the President.”
The White House responded to Shapiro’s message by noting Trump “understands the dangers of political violence” better than anyone and was “absolutely right” to use the term “scum.”
“As the survivor of two assassination attempts — and now watching his dear friend Charlie be assassinated — no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump. That’s why, following Charlie’s assassination, President Trump delivered powerful and unifying remarks urging all Americans to ‘commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died. The values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God,’” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to The Hill.
“And the President is absolutely right to call out the perpetrators of left-wing political violence – they are scum,” she continued.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Wednesday during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University. The alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody by the FBI late Thursday evening.
Trump blamed the “radical left” for the shooting during an address Thursday about Kirk, who was a close ally and played a critical role in his 2024 campaign.
After the arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion earlier this year, Shapiro urged the public to refrain from making the issue political.
“I know that there are people out there who want to ascribe their own viewpoints as to what happened here and why. I know there are people out there who want to adopt their own political viewpoints, or their own worldview as to what happened and why. I choose not to participate in that,” Shapiro said in April.
“I said after the assassination attempt on the president in Butler, I said in Altoona after we captured the individual who shot and killed a U.S. health care CEO, and I said on Sunday that this kind of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it,” Shapiro continued.
Updated: 12:38 p.m. ET
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