Post-Kirk Observations
I've been watching interview clips of people who attended the Charlie Kirk rally where he was killed. Some things struck me.
This happened on a school campus. It was yet another school shooting. Many school shootings are targeted, with the shooter selecting specific people to attack. Many school shooters are disgruntled. Many have mental health issues. We may not have the shooter in custody with his motives laid out but we definitely have another school shooting. After every school shooting the Right always says the same thing after T+P: it is not the time politicize this. Well they aren't following their own advice. But have they do have a knack for hypocrisy, so why should this be any different?
The witnesses are traumatized but nothing will change to reduce gun violence. Nothing. I found myself asking if their words will have an impact? But then I remembered the 2017 Las Vegas shooting occurred with over 400 people injured, 60 killed. A concert was targeted from a nearby hotel. The crowd leaned conservative, a country music show, many in attendance were gun advocates, definitely a right leaning crowd. Here we have a campus in Utah, a Republican stronghold, with a throng of conservatives gathered to watch a performance by one of their own. I suspect that the response will be the same: Nothing. No real changes to regulate guns. Nothing but a TP'd over response: thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers, same shit, different day, same response: TP.
Immediately before the shot rang out Kirk was asked, "Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?" Kirk replies, "Counting or not counting gang violence?" And the shot rang out, punctuating the answer. It does not matter to 2nd Amendment All-Or-Nothing Proponents whether the Second Amendment allows any regulations. And another telling thing is the choice of "gang violence" by Kirk. We see you, we hear you even now. We know what that means. Kirk is wanting to turn this into a race issue, an "urban issue". He wants to turn and deflect from it being a gun issue to a race issue, an us versus them issue, a city/urban versus country/rural divide. He wants a culture war response. But that gunshot stops his words. Motives aside, it is a gun issue.
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Trump wants to TP over the reality of this by claiming all the blame lies with the liberals when our history speaks volumes about the hateful rhetoric and violence from Trump and Kirk's side of the aisle.
2025: Gov Josh Shapiro's gubernatorial home fire bombed during Passover. In Minnesota a RWNJ former preacher murdered Melissa Hortman, the former House speaker of Minnesota, and her husband. He also shot State Senator John Hoffman and his wife who were severely injured. They were Democrats and that's why they were selected.
2022: A man broke into Democratic Senator Pelosi's home and bashed her husband's skull with a hammer. 2021: Kirk, Trump, and others fuel the flames which brought about the January 6, 2021, insurrection attack on the Capitol. 2020: FBI foils a plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan.
And it goes on and on. The Charleston Rally where neo-Nazis shouted, "Jews will not replace us," was based in the same Great Replacement Theory promoted by Charlie Kirk. Trump repeatedly called for violence and attacks at his rallies against individuals in attendance or against political opponents. Kyle Rittenhouse takes up guns and shoots three, two fatally, and gets away with murder based on people who ramped up urban fear of the black man. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” May 29, 2020, posted on Twitter by Trump during the protests and riots in Minneapolis after George Floyd was murdered.
Charlie Kirk was part of the violence. He lead with it. He got clicks and likes with it. He was responsible for inciting violence. He was an abhorrent person with horrible beliefs.
You may not like the truth but the now-fired journalist Matthew Dowd, a political analyst stated it succinctly: “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
Charlie Kirk was no hero. He was an advocate for violence and division. His lies, conspiracy theories, and blatant misrepresentations left many in the crosshairs.
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| H/T to D.A. for this |
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One of the worst aspects of Kirk's career is that he helped put Trump in power. Here are a few of Trump's remarks which reinforce the fact he is an instigator of violence and division.
TRUMP IN HIS OWN WORDS
“If I don’t get elected … it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” March 16, 2024, during a speech about the U.S. auto-manufacturing industry in Ohio (Trump’s campaign later said that he was referencing a “bloodbath” for the automaker industry)
“Well, revenge does take time. I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil, I have to be honest.” June 6, 2024, in an interview with Phil McGraw, host of Dr. Phil
“If you had one really violent day … one rough hour—and I mean real rough—the word will get out, and it will end immediately.” September 29, 2024, proposing a violent crackdown by police to deal with crime, during a rally in Pennsylvania
“I always say, we have two enemies … We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries … We have some very bad people; we have some sick people, radical-left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard—or, if really necessary, by the military.” October 13, 2024, in a Fox News interview
"It is the enemy from within. And they’re very dangerous—they’re Marxists and Communists and fascists … They’re dangerous for our country. We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosis, these people, they’re so sick; they’re so evil.” October 15, 2024, during a Fox News town hall
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, okay? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise.” February 1, 2016, at a rally in Iowa
“I would bring back waterboarding. And I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” February 6, 2016, at a Republican-primary debate
“I’d like to punch him in the face.” February 22, 2016, about a protester who disrupted a Las Vegas rally
“They said to me, ‘What do you think of waterboarding?’ I said, ‘I think it’s great, but I don’t think we go far enough.’ It’s true, it’s true—right? We don’t go far enough. We don’t go far enough.” February 22, 2016, at a rally in Las Vegas
“I think you’d have riots.” March 16, 2016, on what would happen if he wasn’t nominated at the upcoming Republican National Convention
“You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.” August 15, 2017, speaking at a press conference about the white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
“Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my guy!” October 18, 2018, referring to then-Representative Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for physically assaulting a reporter
“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump—I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.” March 12, 2019, in an interview with Breitbart News
“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” June 2020, according to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s memoir, which described Trump having said this about protesters outside the White House
“And I’ll tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.” September, 12, 2020, in a Fox News interview, praising police for killing the antifa supporter Michael Reinoehl, who was accused of killing a right-wing protester
“Stand back and stand by.” September 29, 2020, addressing the Proud Boys during a presidential debate
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” January 6, 2021, in claiming that the election was stolen and urging supporters to march to the Capitol
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” January 6, 2021, in a tweet, while rioters at the Capitol were chanting “Hang Mike Pence”
“People are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help, because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.” August 15, 2022, in a Fox News interview about the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago residence, which uncovered boxes containing classified documents
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country.” December 16, 2023, referring to illegal immigrants during a New Hampshire rally
“I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” March 4, 2023, at the Conservative Political Action Committee summit
“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” August 4, 2023, in a Truth Social post that U.S. prosecutors flagged as an indication that Trump might try to intimidate witnesses in the federal election-subversion case against him
“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.” September 22, 2023, on Truth Social, suggesting that General Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be executed
“Except for day one … After that, I’m not a dictator.” December 5, 2023, during a town hall in Iowa, in response to the Fox News host Sean Hannity asking Trump if he could promise not to abuse power or seek retribution if he wins
