In a lengthy video statement released on social media late Thursday by the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump blamed rhetoric from the “radical left” for political commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination and said “demonizing” opponents “must stop now.”

Speaking from his desk in the Oval Office, Trump pledged to find everyone who “contributed to this atrocity” and to other political violence, including organizations that he said funds and supports it.

He called Kirk, a political supporter and ally, a “martyr for truth and freedom” and said “there has never been anyone who was so respected by youth.”

“For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murders and criminals,” Trump said, speaking into a camera from his desk in the Oval Office.

“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today and it must stop right now."

The president said “radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” and cited the assassination attempt against him in Pennsylvania last year, attacks on ICE agents carrying out his immigration crackdown and the near-fatal shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise during Trump’s first term.

He did not mention political attacks against Democrats, like the Minnesota state lawmaker who was killed at her home in June.