What Drives Political Violence in America

In the midst of a cascade of violent acts against political figures in the United States, a few questions keep coming up — how did we get here, and how much worse could it really get? Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago and one of the country’s leading voices on political violence, discusses why violence is on the rise and what it would take to stop it. Guest: Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Background reading: Is the United States in a politically violent age ? This is what the data and history say. Here’s how to understand claims about U.S. political violence and threats to presidents . Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times, Kenny Holston for The New York Times and Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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What Drives Political Violence in America is an episode from The Daily by The New York Times.

This episode is 00:38:23 long.

This episode was published on May 4, 2026.

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