General Discussion

Asked of Kirk's wife, it was never going to lead to a serious discussion of the impact of hate rhetoric including that on the right. It also subtly set up the idea that many people on the left were happy or " thought he had it coming".

Anyone reading DU that day would have seen a mix of reactions. The main one was that the right would make him a blameless martyr and the blame for his death would be assigned to us.

It ignores that the motive of the man, raised in a very red, gun loving family was Kirk's hateful rhetoric against the shooter's partner. That rhetoric was not as Weiss described it just something he disagreed with, but rhetoric driving actions including legislation that harmed trans people.

I agree that I do not expect Weiss in later questions to address that, especially as it would be unseemly to ask those questions of a crying widow. Instead, the question may be whether she is exploiting his widow or, more likely, giving her a platform. Either way, I doubt it will be a serious effort to look at the danger of the increasing political hate speech.

If Weiss were interested in questioning the increase in partisan hatred, the way to question it is not an interview with the widow of a murdered man who used hate speech against others.