Americans watched in real time as a seasoned Republican cut through cable-news spin and exposed an uncomfortable truth the anchors didn’t want to face. On CNN’s panel Joe Borelli calmly read polling data showing a stark partisan divide on attitudes toward political violence, and the usually confident host Abby Phillip visibly faltered and tried to change the subject when confronted with the numbers.
The polling Borelli cited wasn’t invented by right-wing talkers; it was YouGov’s own research showing that 16 percent of self-identified liberals and a shocking 24 percent of those who say they are very liberal said it can be acceptable to feel joy over the death of a political opponent, compared with single-digit figures on the right. Those same respondents were far more likely to say violence can sometimes be justified to achieve political goals, a dataset that should alarm every patriot who believes in civil discourse and the rule of law.
This exchange came in the aftermath of the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, a moment that should have united leaders across the spectrum in condemning political violence. Instead, too many in the mainstream media rushed to lecture conservative America while skirting uncomfortable polling and failing to reckon with the real cultural rot that celebrates bloodshed when it targets their political enemies.
That evasiveness is the problem conservatives keep pointing out: a media class that reflexively blames the right while excusing or obscuring the fringes on the left is part of why Americans feel betrayed and unsafe. Polls taken after Kirk’s killing show broad public concern about political violence and sharp partisan disagreement over who bears most of the blame, which is precisely the debate Borelli tried to force on-air instead of letting the host offer a convenient moral equivalence.
Make no mistake: condemning violence is universal and required, but pretending the data doesn’t exist is dishonest and dangerous. Law enforcement has had to respond to a wave of threats and copycat incidents since Kirk’s murder, and the answer is tougher enforcement of threats and prosecutions—not more lecture tours from anchors who selectively apply outrage.
Patriots should be grateful when elected officials and commentators refuse to be gaslit by the cable newsroom chorus and instead call out hard facts. Joe Borelli’s on-air moment was a reminder that conservatives will keep pushing the country to face uncomfortable truths about who is celebrating violence and why, and we will not let the media’s moral preening distract us from demanding accountability and protecting innocent Americans.
