Warren County’s Congressional representative is speaking out strongly against political violence in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Just this year, there have been an attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro in the governor’s mansion, the assassination of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, while a related shooting injured Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Then Kirk was assassinated earlier this month.

“There is no place in America for political violence” said U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Bellafonte. Thompson, who represents Warren County in the House of Representatives, was in the area this week for a visit.

“I think back to Steve Scalise’s attempted assassination on a field where a group of member Congress were just practicing baseball,” Thompson said of the 2017 shooting of four including the then U.S. House Majority Whip during a practice session for the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Alexandria, Va., “to most recently the young man at a leading Turning Point’s assassination and two assassination attempts on President Trump.” Thompson also acknowledged the recent killing of one Minnesota lawmaker and shooting of a Minnesota state senator. Thompson said he prefers to model the behavior and respect he wishes to see in the political arena during his interactions with fellow lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

“I really work hard everyday to bring people to the table,” Thompson said. “I don’t ask people to compromise their principals and values that define who they are. We talk about not what we disagree about but what we agree upon and make that the basis for effective solutions. My members on both sides of the aisle in the Agriculture Committee are very kind with the things that I’ve heard and been told they say. That showed in the fact that we, in pretty tough circumstances passed the Farm Bill last congress. It was bipartisan votes. (It was) truly a bipartisan bill in a divisive time.”

Thompson tries to make everything he does bipartisan and “find at least one Democrat to come to the table with projects. Only a handful of times I couldn’t find a Democrat interested in engaging in a topic. I think my style works. My philosophy works.”

With the political temperature continuing to rise Thompson said the increase in nationwide violence is cultural and fueled by social media.

“(There are) no filters and you can be anonymous in what you do and say and what you express. I think that’s the gasoline that fuels these types of divisiveness to begin with.” Thompson went on to say “In just a few short years that I’ve served we’ve seen it elevate to a higher level of political violence.”

When asked how the nation comes together during his visit to Warren this week, Thompson said earnestly, “We need a healing.”