Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday said President Donald Trump and his allies are making America less safe by making partisan claims over who is responsible for acts of political violence.
“ What we’re seeing now from the president of the United States and some of his allies is by cherry-picking certain violence that is okay, and certain violence that is not okay, that is making everyone less safe, and it’s raising the temperatures instead of lowering the temperatures,” Shapiro said at the 2025 Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh.
Shapiro condemned all political violence regardless of its ideological origin, and alluded to the many Republican politicians and commentators who blamed “leftists” for the killing of Charlie Kirk last week. That response, Shapiro said, “only divides us and makes it harder to heal.”
The governor’s comment was a direct criticism of Trump’s remarks on the evening of Sept. 10, hours after Kirk was shot and before law enforcement made an arrest or had evidence of motive. That evening, Trump released a prepared video statement in which he blamed the “radical left” for vilifying Kirk and inspiring his killing. Trump further mentioned cases dating back to 2017 of violence attributed to attackers on the ideological left, without mentioning any incidents of violence in the last several years committed by people on the right.
Shapiro called for calm in his remarks Tuesday, and said, “We cannot allow violence to be used as a pretext of more violence.”
Shapiro was introduced by Tom Corbett, a Republican who, like Shapiro, once served as state attorney general and governor.
“Preventing hate-fueled violence is not a partisan issue,” Corbett said. “Progress is possible if we do come together.”
Shapiro also criticized what he said are efforts by Trump and his allies to censor political speech. “Prosecuting constitutionally protected speech will only erode our freedoms and deepen mistrust. That is un-American,” he said.
Responding to Shapiro’s remarks, the White House noted that President Trump is the survivor of two assassination attempts. The statement defended Trump’s Sept. 10 remarks as “unifying” and said the administration, again focusing only on language and action from the left, “will not hesitate to speak the truth — for years, radical leftists have slandered their political opponents as Nazis and Fascists, inspiring left-wing violence. It must end.”
Condemning political violence, having survived political violence
Shapiro was invited to speak at the conference because he and his family have personal experience with political violence. A man set fire to the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg in the early morning hours of April 13, 2025, after the first night of the Jewish holiday Passover, when Shapiro and his family were inside.
In the wake of that attack, every living former Pennsylvania governor reached out to express support, Shapiro said during his speech. Shapiro said their support led to a gathering of all those governors and their first ladies, as well as family members of former and now-deceased governors Robert Casey and Dick Thornburgh. At the gathering, Shapiro said, attendees “were united in speaking and acting with moral clarity, making clear that hatred and violence has no place here.”
Shapiro said the government needs to listen more, act faster, and get more work done to restore faith that government can be a force for good in people’s lives. That, he said, could prevent people from becoming disillusioned with institutions and starting down the pathway toward political violence.
He then criticized the General Assembly missing the July 1 deadline, set by the state constitution, for setting a state budget. Though the two sides have said negotiations have made progress, the budget remains unresolved.
“ Lawmakers need to show up and do their job. I introduced my budget about 250 days ago. They’ve been in session less than 30 days,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro also pointed to his administration’s work to educate children on how to tell fact from fiction online, and he pointed to online spaces where people are often radicalized toward violence.
“ The way these algorithms are set up on all the various platforms is it rewards the rage, and that’s dangerous for all of us,” Shapiro said. “ These people screaming and yelling online, this is not real. This doesn’t reflect the reality in our communities.”
Hate-fueled violence on the rise, but preventable
Experts at the Eradicate Hate conference noted a range of metrics, from efforts to encourage violence online to threats against elected officials, to underscore the fact that political violence is on the rise.
Between 2013-2016, there were an average of 38 federal charges brought per year for threats against public officials, according to research from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
That rate rose to 68 charges per year from 2017 – 2022. In 2024, there were 108 federal charges brought for threats against public officials, and this year is on pace to see even more, according to Seamus Hughes, a senior researcher for the center.
Threats online have also seen an increase this year. Moonshot is a private company that monitors online targeted violence for governments and other clients. Their data shows that online threats from March to June 2025 were being made at a rate 18% higher than 2024’s average. June was the first month in which threats against women, Latin American, Jewish and Muslim communities all peaked simultaneously since tracking began in August 2022.
Brette Steele, president of Eradicate Hate, said hate-fueled violence is preventable. Her organization runs several prevention programs. Under the Trump administration, federal funding for several of those programs have been cut. Organizations like hers are now being asked to do more with less, she said.
Eradicate Hate Global Summit brings together experts in preventing hate-motivated violence. Eradicate Hate typically does not have current elected officials attend, but made an exception this year after the arson at Shapiro’s official residence, said Natalie Pavlatos, a spokesperson for the conference.
Eradicate Hate began in response to the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, killing 11 congregants and injuring two, as well as injuring five police officers, making it the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in the U.S. in history.
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