In mourning Kirk, don’t further fan the flames of political violence 

The despicable murder of right-wing political organizer and pundit Charlie Kirk was unequivocally denounced by Democratic public officials and progressive leaders, myself included. 

We who rely on our First Amendment freedoms to debate policies and encourage our fellow Americans to be active participants in democratic decision-making do not believe that anyone should have to fear or face violence for making their voices heard.

Many of us in public life or progressive advocacy know that reality often falls short of that ideal. We and our colleagues live with harassment and threats against our lives and our families. 

Many of us who empathize with the sorrow being experienced by Kirk’s family have had to contemplate the possibility of our own families experiencing similar pain.

Unfortunately, many right-wing activists and pundits and Republican officials, from the president on down, have responded to Kirk’s killing with recklessly irresponsible rhetoric, declaring war on a vaguely defined “radical left” even before we knew anything about the alleged killer or his motives.  

“The Left is the party of murder,” Elon Musk tweeted.  

“They sent a trained sniper to assassinate Charlie Kirk,” Trump influencer Laura Loomer tweeted.

“THIS IS WAR,” screamed the Libs of TikTok X account. 

Other social media users more directly or indirectly threatened violence and civil war.

“It’s not a civil dispute among fellow countrymen,” wrote Virginia state Rep. Nick Freitas (R), in a social media post that racked up hundreds of thousands of responses. “It’s a war between diametrically opposed worldviews which cannot peacefully coexist with one another.” 

Freitas warned of a “reckoning,” adding, “My Christian faith requires me to love my enemies and pray for those who curse me. It does not require me to stand idly by in the midst of savagery and barbarism ... quite the opposite.”  

Joshua Haymes, a Christian nationalist podcaster associated with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s church, declared, “The left just declared war,” adding that “We can’t have a country with evil, hateful demons. We just can’t.”

These people and many others are pouring gasoline on an angry fire that threatens to spread deadly destruction across the country.

President Trump’s warning that “violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree” sadly comes across as gaslighting rhetoric coming from the man who sets the tone for the MAGA movement’s relentless demonization of its opponents.

This is a man who calls his opponents communists and “vermin.” His supporters regularly denounce people they disagree with as evil and demonic.  

The president who is now deploring political violence is the same man who freed every criminal who violently attacked Capitol Police and ransacked the U.S. Capitol to try to keep Trump in power after losing the 2020 election.

Trump and his right-wing media allies are peddling a one-sided narrative that ignores political violence carried out and cheered on by those on the right: the attempt to overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021, the attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, the assassination and attempted assassination of Democratic legislators in Minnesota, and others.

This narrative is meant to advance a dangerously anti-democratic and authoritarian agenda. Trump and others are setting the stage to use Kirk’s murder as justification for an attack on civil society organizations that have been mobilizing resistance to the destructive Project 2025 presidency.  

Loomer, who had recently accused Kirk of stabbing Trump in the back, responded to the shooting by calling for the administration to “shut down, defund, and prosecute every single leftist organization.”

She claimed “More people will be murdered if the left isn’t crushed with the power of the state.” 

Right-wing propagandist Christopher Rufo called on the government to “infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate all of those who are responsible for this chaos.”

There is of course no evidence that progressive funders or advocacy organizations had anything at all to do with the recent acts of political violence. This is the crassest political opportunism, exploiting a tragedy to advance a preexisting step in their ongoing authoritarian project.

Where do we go from here? 

Kirk was revered by millions for his skills as a communicator and his success at organizing and mobilizing conservative young people. He was detested by many for the contempt he demonstrated for political opponents as a proponent of racism, nativism and anti-gay and anti-transgender bigotry. 

Kirk was a deliberately divisive figure. When his shocking murder was caught on camera, people of all political stripes responded poorly in the heat of the moment. Some celebrated the violence or threatened more violence in retaliation. Both reactions are reprehensible. 

We can and must do better.

This murder, already catastrophic for Kirk’s family, friends and admirers, could lead to more catastrophe for the country. The goal of all our political leaders and all people with public platforms should be to avoid that.  

Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way.