Tensions flared on Fox News’ The Five after co-host Greg Gutfeld forcefully rejected Jessica Tarlov’s attempt to frame political violence as a “both sides” issue in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University. Authorities arrested Tyler Robinson, 28, of Provo, Utah, who confessed to the killing and faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder.
On The Five, Gutfeld opened by noting a one-sided trend. “What is interesting here is, why is only this happening on the left and not the right? That’s all we need to know,” he said.
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Tarlov interjected, pointing to other recent incidents of political violence, including the killing of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and other attacks that have targeted Democrats.
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“Yeah, so what about Vance Boelter? What about Melissa Hortman that we just talked about?” she asked.
Gutfeld immediately cut her off, raising his voice. “None of us were spending every single day talking about Mrs. Hortman. I never heard of her until after she died. And the… Don’t play that bulls—t with me. There was no demonization, amplification about that woman before she died. It was a specific crime against her by somebody who knew her.”
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The back-and-forth escalated as Gutfeld rejected the premise of equivalence between Kirk’s assassination and other killings. “The both sides argument not only doesn’t fly, we don’t care. We don’t care about your both sides argument. That s—t is dead,” he said.
He framed the dispute as one between reality and rationalization. “On your side, your beliefs do not match reality, so you’re coming up with these rationalizations, like, ‘What about this,’ or, ‘What about that?’ We’re not doing that, because we saw it happen. We saw a young, bright man assassinated and we know who did it. We are not coming up with rationalizations. We are calm, we are honest, and we are resolute. We’re not defensive.”