Poll: 2 in 3 Americans say harsh political rhetoric fueling violence

Roughly two out of three Americans believe that harsh rhetoric used in talking about politics encourages violence while over 70 percent say that the "American society is broken," according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the days following the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

The three-day poll, which closed on Sunday, was conducted online and surveyed 1,037 U.S. adults. It had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points. The poll revealed a nation unnerved by partisan divisions and worried over a spike in political violence that also included the June slayings of a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband.

Some 63 percent of respondents said the way Americans talk about political issues did "a lot" to encourage violence. Some 31 percent said the country's approach to political discourse was giving "a little" boost to violence and the rest saw no impact or didn't answer the question.

A clear majority of Americans – 79 percent – think people in the country have become less tolerant of viewpoints different from their own in the last 20 years. 

Some 71 percent of respondents said they agreed with the statement that "American society is broken," while a similar share – 66 percent – said they were concerned over the prospect of violence committed against people in their community because of their political beliefs.

Political violence is showing signs of increasing, experts say. In the first six months of the year, the U.S. experienced about 150 politically motivated attacks – nearly twice as many as over the same period last year, according to Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, which has tracked such violence in a terrorism database since 1970.

Republican President Donald Trump, himself the target of two assassination attempts last year, has attacked political rivals over the incident, saying on Thursday that "we have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them."

Kirk, whose Turning Point USA political organization helped mobilize young voters to support Trump in the 2024 presidential election, was shot in the neck when he was speaking at a college campus in Utah.

(With input from Reuters)