Gov. Josh Shapiro Calls for ‘More Speech’ in Response to Kirk Assassination

PITTSBURGH—Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Sept. 16 delivered a speech calling for “more speech” in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and opposing retribution against those who celebrated his death.

Shapiro spoke at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in 2025, in the City of Pittsburgh, which is an annual event formed in the aftermath of a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in that city in 2018 that killed 11 people. In his keynote speech, Shapiro—himself the survivor of an arson attack on the Governor’s Mansion in April of this year—said that odious speakers should not be suppressed, but instead countered with debate.

“When you hear speech you disagree with, the answer to that is more speech, not violence,” said Shapiro, a Democrat. “Our democracy is stronger when more Americans participate in it and can make their voices heard.”

Shapiro also criticized the use of censorship and “cancel culture” to suppress the speech of speakers.

“Censorship—using the long arm of government to silence people, to silence businesses and nonprofits, to restrict their right to free speech—that will not solve this problem,” said Shapiro. “Prosecuting constitutionally protected speech will only further erode our freedoms and deepen the mistrust. That is un-American. There is a better way.”

Shapiro’s remarks at the summit come amid statements by figures such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller suggesting that institutions that celebrate Kirk’s assassination may be dismantled, and that individuals who do so may be sanctioned for use of “hate speech” or may have their lawful status in the United States revoked if they are foreign nationals.

“I am desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the actions and the ideas that killed my friend,” Vance said while hosting a special edition of “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Sept. 15.

“We can only have it with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable and when we work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country.”

Meanwhile, during a public discussion on Sept. 16, Bondi said, “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

The statement was widely criticized by conservatives as being contrary to their values as well as Charlie Kirk’s personal views. Bondi has since issued a statement clarifying that she was only referring to “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence.”

“You cannot call for someone’s murder. You cannot swat a Member of Congress. You cannot dox a conservative family and think it will be brushed off as ‘free speech.’ These acts are punishable crimes, and every single threat will be met with the full force of the law,” she wrote on X.