By Nicholas Fondacaro

Copyright newsbusters

ABC’s The View
September 15, 2025
11:03:36 a.m. Eastern

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, whose message is going to take — make more of a dent here?

SARA HAINES: I would hope the governor of Utah. Because this pointing of fingers and pendulum swinging is history just doing it. If you don’t get off the ride and stop doing the pointing when it comes to politics, because I don’t think our political division right now is what is driving a lot of these violence act.

I think what the problem is, there are studies showing the decline of third spaces, which is, you know, you have your family and then you have work or school, and then communities used to be based on churches, the local sports store, hobby place. We used to interact with each other. It’s not a coincidence that the arch goes up at the same time as social media and smart phones. We have stopped connecting with people.

And the – Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General had – he issued a warning to the world of pandemic loneliness. And he said, “When we are less invested in one another, we’re more susceptible to polarization and less able to pull together to face the challenges that we cannot solve alone.” Relationships, service and purpose. That is the root of these deep problems we’re at.

11:05:26 a.m. Eastern

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: In this rush that people have to point and say, ‘Well, it’s the left or it’s the right and it’s only one side.’ It’s not true, guys. I remember — no one at this table said that. I remember where I was during this Steve Scalise shooting. I was working on Capitol Hill, several of my bosses were there. We didn’t know if they were okay for hours. And then I remember where I was when Paul Pelosi was attacked and then there were two attempts on Donald Trump’s life. There has been political violence – Josh Shapiro was attacked and the Minnesota law makers, against Democrats and against Republicans.

And when we swear it is just one side, we’re not being part of the solution. I would rather never have a place in public life again and call the truth of what I see, which is that the rhetoric, the radicalization, the lonely places and deep, dangerous places people go on social media is driving people into the most dangerous corners and dangerous actions.

It is bigger than politic and if we don’t acknowledge that, we are contributing to the problem.

11:07:58 a.m. Eastern

ANA NAVARRO: Look, you know, a lot of people are out there trying to portray Charlie Kirk as if he was spreading pixy dust around the country. A lot of people, to use the word of Governor Cox, found what he said inflammatory or worse. But that’s not the point. The point is we are in America. He has the right to say it. I have the right to disagree and find it abhorrent. But our weapon in this country is debate. Our weapon is freedom of speech. Our weapon is organizing. Our weapon is our vote. Our weapon should never, ever be a gun.

SUNNY HOSTIN: I think that all of what you just said is absolutely correct. It’s enshrined in our constitution. We have the right to have debate. We have the right to speak freely about our opinions and our views and no one should be assassinated because of that.

And I think that the Utah governor — I appreciate that he’s trying to turn the temperature down. I think that’s really important. But there was something that he said at the same presser on Friday that struck me as not helpful in that he said, “Bad stuff happens and for 33 hours I was praying if this had to happen here that it wouldn’t be one of us. That somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country. But it did happen here and it was one of us.”

And I think that while definitely not intentional, I think his comments re-enforce the narrative that violence in this country is not home grown.

We remember that the FBI agent, Christopher Wray, said the number one area of attack and terrorism is domestic terrorism. So, American politics has long been haunted by political violence, home grown. And I think — I hope if anything can come out of this horrible tragedy, because it is a tragedy, that a young man was assassinated and leaves two children behind, that we take a look at ourselves and our actions and try to change our country from within. Because we need to be very reflective at this point in time.

11:10:27 a.m. Eastern

GOLDBERG: You know, we — We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen it before. It’s awful. It’s awful when it’s a Kennedy or when it’s a Lincoln or a Garfield. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. And what assassins should always remember is just because you take somebody out doesn’t mean the message is going to stop.

And it’s important to keep that in mind because when you look at our loss of Martin Luther King or – name anyone who has been assassinated in this country – we continue to fight on. And that’s what America offers. It says listen, ‘You have the right to say and feel however you want.’ That is a birthright. You’re born with that right. So, taking somebody out is not the way to do it. You want to fight about something, then go to the ballot box. Go elect different people. Killing people doesn’t do anything except make it a horrible world for their children.

We’ll be right back.