Even as the suspect and motive remain unknown, incendiary rhetoric from major political commentators spread rapidly online and Trump blamed the left
Even as the suspect and motive remain unknown, incendiary rhetoric from major political commentators spread rapidly online and Trump blamed the left
Within hours of Charlie Kirk being shot dead at a college event in Utah, he’d been turned into a far-right martyr in the US’s raging culture war. Many prominent rightwing voices and influencers quickly characterized his murder, in no uncertain terms, as an act of war from the left – and have vowed to respond in kind.
“We have to have steely resolve,” said conservative political strategist Steve Bannon on his show War Room. “Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.”
Even as the suspect – and any information about their motivations or political leanings – remained at large and unknown, incendiary rhetoric from major political commentators spread rapidly online, blaming leftist violence for Kirk’s death. Many called for swift retribution in the form of an aggressive crackdown against their political enemies.
“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,” wrote Elon Musk on X.
“They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. What are we gonna do about it?” Fox News host Jesse Watters said on air Wednesday night. “Everybody’s accountable… the politicians, the media, and all these rats out there. This can never happen again. It ends now. This is a turning point and we know which direction we’re going.”
“We are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell,” wrote commentator and podcaster Matt Walsh on X. “This is existential. A fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.”
While all three living former presidents released statements addressing Kirk’s death, condemning political violence while calling for calm, introspection and civility, Donald Trump put out a video statement Wednesday night saying that rhetoric from “the radical left” was “directly responsible for the terrorism we are seeing in our country today”.
Trump vowed to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence”.
