Conservative activist Charlie Kirk may have been murdered for expressing opinions, but he wasn’t murdered by opinions — he was murdered by a rifle-wielding assassin. That’s important to keep in mind as the national debate that Kirk’s murder has spawned over issues of free speech and violent rhetoric continues unfolding.
Even in America there is such a thing as unprotected speech; shouting “fire†in a crowded theater is the classic example. But on the political right are suggesting this heinous assassination should become grounds for stifling left-leaning speech that comes nowhere near that standard.
This is dangerous and more than a little ironic, given that these are many of the same voices that have long claimed free speech as a conservative mantra. It also twists the fact that violent rhetoric is an overarching problem these days that comes from all points on the political spectrum.
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Kirk, 31, co-founder of the young conservatives’ organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Wednesday as he sat on an outdoor stage giving a speech to an audience of students at a Utah college campus. The assailant apparently fired from the roof of a nearby building with a high-powered rifle.
Authorities on Friday the arrest of suspect Tyler Robinson, 22, and presented evidence the shooting was politically motivated. This reportedly includes an inscription on a bullet casing that read, “Hey fascists! Catch!â€
We agreed with virtually none of Kirk’s often-provocative rhetoric. But, as we said in this space last week, violence in response to expressions of opinion is never valid and is, in fact, an attack on the very concept of free speech.
High-profile Democrats from Barack Obama to Kamala Harris to Sen. Bernie Sanders to party leaders in the House and Senate roundly and properly decried Kirk’s murder without caveat — and without bringing ideology into it in any way.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of President Donald Trump. In initial comments after Kirk’s assassination, Trump decried “demonizing†political rhetoric, then promptly engaged in it.
Instead of calling for the country to come together, Trump alleged that political violence today is the purview of “the radical left,†citing several examples, including his own attempted assassination. He pointedly ignored recent examples of violence against Democrats, like the murders in June of Minnesota’s former state House speaker and her husband and the 2022 hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
Trump vowed to find “each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.†He didn’t specify what organizations he was referring to, but others on the political right offered some ideas.
“It’s time for the Trump administration to shut down, defund, & prosecute every single Leftist organization,†tweeted far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has emerged as an unofficial but influential adviser to Trump in his second term.
“They are at war with us,†declared Fox News host Jesse Watters, defining the “they†as the political left generally.
Federalist co-founder Sean Davis was more specific. “The Democrat Party Is A Domestic Terrorist Organization,†he tweeted.
Others are suggesting that those on the left who have taken to social media to celebrate Kirk’s murder — a despicable but generally protected form of speech — should face official sanctions for those expressions. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said school teachers in his state who engage in such celebration will be fired. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., said he will seek to suspend social media accounts and revoke driver’s licenses of those who “belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk.â€
Cheering any assassination is disgusting and Kirk’s fellow conservatives’ grief and outrage is no doubt real. But that doesn’t excuse these schemes to punish protected speech. Nor does it excuse Trump’s chillingly open-ended threats against “the radical left.â€
Trump, of course, is hardly in a position to lecture anyone about . But the problem here is bigger than hypocrisy and bigger than a president who, in a time of national division, eagerly deepens the rifts.
The real danger is that Trump and his backers will use Kirk’s death as an excuse to crack down on protected speech, disgusting or otherwise.
As Kirk himself once said, “It’s OK to hear something you disagree with.†On that, we should all agree.
