Gov. Josh Shapiro made the case Tuesday during a speech in Pittsburgh that President Donald Trump has something to learn from Pennsylvania amid rising political violence.
Trump has escalated rhetoric about his political opponents in response to the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He quickly blamed the “radical left” before there was a suspect. He’s called on his supporters through official White House correspondence to “counter radical left violence” with “revenge” at the ballot box. His administration has threatened a federal crackdown on left-leaning groups bolstered by unsubstantiated claims.
In an impassioned speech to the The Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh, Shapiro contrasted the president’s response to how Pennsylvania leaders have dealt with political violence.
The matter is personal for Shapiro, who with his family survived an arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg in April.
That attack, Shapiro noted, was one of many.
He recounted the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, which claimed 11 lives and led to the founding of the summit.
He also cited the attempted assassination Trump in Butler. The murder of the United Health CEO in New York City, in which the suspect was arrested in Altoona. The assassination of former Minnesota House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk in Utah.
“Different places, different people, different perspectives,” Shapiro said. “One common thread: people using violence to settle political differences.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or from the other, directed at one party or another, one person or another. It is all wrong, and it makes us all less safe,” said Shapiro, a potential contender for the presidency in 2028.
Shapiro was staying at the governor’s mansion to celebrate Passover with his family when the home was lit on fire.
The suspected attacker, Cody Balmer, told 911 he would not take part in Shapiro’s “plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” leading some politicians to believe it could be a hate crime against the Jewish governor, including U.S. Sen Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Sens. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) and Dave McCormick (R., Pa.). Balmer’s family said he was mentally ill and did not believe he was motivated by religion or politics.
Shapiro said in his speech that all the former living governors of Pennsylvania reached out to his family in support after the attack. He invited them to gather together at the governor’s mansion “to rededicate ourselves to upholding our Commonwealth’s foundational values.”
He said former Democratic Govs. Tom Wolf and Ed Rendell and former Republican Govs. Tom Corbett, Mark Schweiker, and Tom Ridge attended with their spouses, as did family members of former Democratic Gov. Bob Casey Sr. and former Republican Gov. Dick Thornburg, along with Laura Ellsworth, the summit’s founder.
“They are Democrats and they are Republicans, leaders of different generations from different parts of our Commonwealth, but they were united in speaking and acting with moral clarity, making clear that hatred and violence has no place here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.
Corbett, the state’s most recent Republican governor, introduced Shapiro‘s keynote speech at the summit and said “preventing hate-fueled violence is not a partisan issue, it is one that requires all of us around this country and around the world to work together.”
The governors of Pennsylvania, Shapiro argued, responded to the arson attack the best they could by focusing on unity and healing.
In contrast, he criticized Trump and his allies for responding to the Kirk shooting with calls for vengeance and cherry-picking which instances of violence to condemn, in turn raising the political temperature.
“I don’t care if it’s coming from the left or the right, we need to be universal in our condemnation, and the president has once again, failed that leadership test, failed the morality test, and it makes us all less safe,” Shapiro argued.
Shapiro said some people “will hear that selective condemnation” and use it as permission to be violent themselves if it goes along with their narrative or “ targets the other side.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the governor’s remarks.
Shapiro said that like the governors in Pennsylvania, political leaders should create the opportunity for respectful dialogue rather than threats of censorship coming from the White House.
“There is a better way,” Shapiro said. “That better way is the Pennsylvania way.”