Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Ford School's Javed Ali joined CBC and ABC News, among other news outlets, to discuss the event and the pattern of political violence the U.S. has experienced in recent years.
"CBC News Network's Andrew Nichols speaks with former FBI officer Javed Ali" CBC, September 10, 2025 - Speaking with CBC, Ali stated that the U.S. is not unfamiliar with political violence of this nature. "Just another terrible example of the type of violence we are seeing in the United States... This isn't necessarily new; unfortunately, we have seen waves of this kind of partisan-driven political violence in the past." Ali also mentioned that the execution of Kirk's attack is also becoming a pattern of method for perpetrators of political violence. "Another one of these patterns we've been seeing for several years now here in the United States, these types of attacks are coming from lone offenders or lone individuals. And they're not part of organized groups, they are not operating in a cellular structure, there's no command and control. They're just sort of out there," Ali said. He argued that one of the most disturbing implications of these attackers is that "Almost always, at least in this relatively more recent sample, they have not been subjects of previous law enforcement or even FBI investigation or interest. That's what makes it really difficult to find these people in advance and stop them before they try these types of attacks."
"Charlie Kirk killing: Former FBI agent says US political violence is rising" ABC News, September 11, 2025 - Javed Ali confirmed with ABC that yesterday's tragic incident seems to be "A political assassination, or politically motivated violent action." Ali also brought forth the two attempted assassinations of President Trump last year. He argued that those events and Kirk's assassination seemed to use the same attack model. "Now we don't know who the shooter is [Charlie Kirk's killer], but it's the same type of attack, and whether that attack [Trump's] influenced this particular shooter's thinking, that's just a question we don't have the answers to right now."
"Targeted political violence 'not new', says former National Security Council official" Channel News Asia, September 11, 2025 - Ali sat down with Channel News Asia to discuss the FBI's next steps to reveal Kirk's attacker. "The FBI does not know who that person is specifically, so that's why putting the reward out, having the image out, will potentially bring in more tips and clues and help build the evidentiary picture that is being developed right now." He also expressed uncertainty that they will be able to pinpoint the assassin anytime soon. "But these things take time... So, it's just so hard to know how even these steps that have emerged since yesterday, whether it'll accelerate the end state to finding this individual," Ali stated.
