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On Friday, I sat down with Matt Glassman to talk about the politics of government shutdowns and our general take on what’s happening in politics these days. Matt is one of the smartest, most level-headed analysts that I know, so I was pretty excited to have him on the show. The video is above, and please check it out. It was a great conversation.

You can also read my latest piece for MSNBC on why a Democratic government shutdown is a terrible idea.

The Good and the Bad of Charlie Kirk’s Memorial

YouTube/NBC

On Sunday, tens of thousands of mourners gathered in Arizona for a memorial tribute to Charlie Kirk.

I want to pick up on two statements from the event. One came from Erika Kirk, who is Charlie Kirk’s widow.

That man, that young man … I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.

I’m astonished that Kirk could feel this way toward the man who killed the father of her children. But more than that, I am impressed that she would use the pulpit of her husband’s memorial service to call for love and understanding and urge his supporters away from hate. That is magnanimous in a way that I, frankly, can’t imagine.

You can watch the video here, and I encourage you to do so.

And there was Donald Trump, who said this:

He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry.

It’s honestly hard to imagine a less honorable and more shameful thing for the president of the United States to say, particularly at a time of great national division. Rather than try to mend fences, bridge divides, or lower the temperature, which presidents have long done at times like this, Trump chose to throw red meat to his followers. He is encouraging them to do as he does and hate his political opponents. A man this petty and this filled with personal grievance is not just uniquely unequipped to serve as president — he is a direct threat to the country.

The only thing more repulsive than Trump saying what he said is that the audience laughed and cheered. (You can listen here.)

As if the president’s statement was not bad enough, there was also this bon mot from the president’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller:

The light will defeat the dark. We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us. Because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.

And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity.

I apologize for making an obvious point … but statements like this are incredibly dangerous. They risk fomenting and encouraging political violence.

As I argued the other day, by describing the president’s political opponents as evil forces of darkness that produce “nothing” of value for America, Miller is dehumanizing and delegitimizing them. How are Trump’s supporters supposed to hear this? How are they supposed to interact with those whom Miller demonizes?

He is encouraging them not just to hate “the left” but to see them as lesser humans. It’s not just appalling rhetoric, but it’s the kind of language that could potentially incite violence. At the very least, it is language that widens the nation’s already broad political divisions.

Is The Left Responsible for Charlie Kirk’s Murder?

Miller and his ilk have tried to justify their dehumanizing description of the left by using the old childhood refrain of “they did it first.” In the aftermath of Kirk’s murder, Republicans, including the president, have repeatedly argued that Democratic demonization of Trump led to Kirk’s death. But did it?