Sen. Deb Fischer says celebration of Kirk’s death is not free speech, criticizes Democrat obstruction

Nebraska Public Media reached out to elected officials from across the state for a series of interviews on topics important to their constituents. Those who represent the state had the opportunity to discuss a variety of topics during one-on-one interviews with reporters to share their opinions, experiences and how they’re working to represent Nebraskans.

Brian Beach: First, I wanted to ask you about the potential looming government shutdown. I know there's been a spending bill proposal from both the Republicans and Democrats, and they're, they're not similar, and so there's going to be some negotiation that needs to happen to avoid a government shutdown. And from your perspective, what is that going to look like in the coming weeks? And what would you like to see happen?

Sen. Deb Fischer: Well, right now we're waiting to see what the House does. They are going to be voting on a continuing resolution, a short-time continuing resolution that would expire before Thanksgiving. And they're doing that, and I agree with their plan here is to have that short-term one so that we can continue to work on our appropriations bills. The house is working on theirs. We're working on ours here in the Senate as well. I'm a member of the Appropriations Committee. We have sent eight bills out. Three of them have been passed in the Senate, and leader Thune has promised to put our bills up on the floor so that we can have that transparency for taxpayers to be able to watch a debate and also accountability, so they can see how we vote on how we're spending taxpayer money.

Beach: Yeah, now also in the Senate, I know your colleague, Senator Pete Ricketts, recently had an op ed in the Omaha World-Herald talking about his frustration with the lack of Senate nominees or confirmations that have come through. I know you have likewise been sort of sounding the alarm on this for a while. I'm curious, where does that process stand now? Are you seeing signs of progress?

Fischer: You know, it's been really frustrating, just really, really frustrating. And a lot of Nebraskans are frustrated by it too, because they'll want us to try and find answers for them from the administration, from agencies. But when we call the agencies, nobody's in place there, you know, and whether it's an assistant deputy to an assistant under secretary, that position in whatever agency, it hasn't been filled. And what we're seeing really, is obstruction from the Democrats. It violates all the past norms that we've had here in the Senate.

Beach: Well, now I'd like to move on to the Charlie Kirk assassination from eight days ago, and really the political climate that's been coming from that. I mean, my perspective, seeing on social media and being back here in Nebraska may be different from what you're seeing as a lawmaker in Washington. Do you feel safe? What has the security been like? What's been the mood in Washington? And then I guess we'll just start there.

Fischer: I always feel safe, especially when I'm back in Nebraska, and I think here in Washington, you, just, you need to be aware of your surroundings. But of course, dealing with the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk, everybody's a little bit on edge. I'll tell you that security has been ramped up here, around the Capitol and off in the office buildings as well. But you know, you go about your job. I do my job. Fly back and forth to Nebraska, make sure, like I said, to be aware of our surroundings. But this shouldn't happen. We should not be seeing people killed, assassinated because of their political views. I hope it's a wakeup call for everybody in this country that we stop it. You know, I get called a fascist, a Nazi, things like that. And that needs to stop, because it just heightens the divisions in this country and it needs to stop.

Beach: Yeah, and even on the topic of that needing to stop, I know a lot of folks who had celebrated Charlie Kirk's death have now been fired from a lot of places, and even Jimmy Kimmel’s show getting indefinitely postponed after some remarks that were made there. Do you worry at all about free speech and where it plays a role in the reactions to this assassination?

Fischer: Oh, I'm a strong supporter of free speech, but reactions like we've seen in some cases, where they are celebrating an assassination, celebrating a murder, that is not free speech, and those people need to be held responsible for the disgusting, horrible things that they are saying. It's not free speech to celebrate the death of someone or to encourage attacks on other people. That's not free speech. There, there is no issue that, that that kind of talk should be supported in any way whatsoever.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview transcript above was edited for time and clarity. The full, unedited conversation can be found below.