USA Today

By Aysha Bagchi and Christopher Cann

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, criticized remarks by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance that blamed liberals in particular for U.S. political violence and extremism. She noted data from a Sept. 11 Cato Institute report indicating that politically motivated U.S. killings in the past 50 years more often came from one side over the other.

The study, by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, found that terrorists motived by extreme slices of right-leaning ideology killed six times more people than those on the other side of the political spectrum between 1975 and Sept. 10, 2025. Since 1975, 391 murders were motivated by extreme ideology on the right, compared to 65 murders backed by extreme ideology on the left, according to the report.

The study titled “Politically Motivated Violence is Rare in the United States” was written by Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute.

"I actually don't want to go tit-for-tat on this, but what I am asking for is that this rhetoric of blaming one side or the other stop," Klobuchar said, asking Patel to share her message with Trump.

In Sept. 10 remarks following Kirk's murder, Trump said "radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives." As he hosted "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Sept. 15, JD Vance condemned what he called an "incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism."

Patel agreed to convey her message to the president and work with her on finding solutions.