Hill.TV host Krystal Ball responded to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s claim that liberals have not distanced themselves from groups such as Antifa on Wednesday, calling the comments offensive.
“It’s hard for me not to be offended when he says ‘oh liberals never kick out the radicals, and we always do,’ ” Ball told co-host Buck Sexton on “Rising,” before denouncing Antifa’s tactics. “Anybody who wants to attack someone, throw something at them, I mean this is not the way we should be operating in America, especially not at a time right now when things are so tense.”
Ball was referring to an incident involving Kirk, founder of conservative group Turning Point USA, earlier this week in which left-wing Antifa protesters surrounded a Philadelphia restaurant where Kirk was eating with the group’s communications director Candace Owens.
The left-wing protesters followed Kirk and Owens out of the restaurant, hurtling insults at the duo. Someone also poured water on Kirk.
Kirk accused liberals of not distancing themselves from groups such an Antifa in an interview with Sexton that aired on Wednesday.
“We as conservatives take pride in kicking out right-wing identitarians, or people that get too much on the fringe,” Kirk said. “Whether violence comes involved or when they cross the line. The liberals never kick out the radicals in their ranks.”
“They embrace them, they encourage it, and that’s something that needs to be talked about more is that we as conservatives, we aren’t forced to do it even though there’s always pressure put on us to do it, but we say, no, no, that person does not identify with us.”
Ball said liberals have also been targeted in protests, referring to the deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Va. last year that was spurred by a white supremacist rally.
“Let’s not forget about the fact that Donald Trump, after a person was murdered in Charlottesville a year ago, could not call out the blatant racists marching in Charlottesville,” she said.
“I also think it’s a bit much to tie this group of unacceptable individuals to Democratic leadership,” she added. “This is not organized by the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee].”
— Julia Manchester
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