Photo: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images News / Getty Images
President Donald Trump and his allies are calling for a crackdown on the left following the death of Charlie Kirk, a conservative figure who they're framing as a target of political assassination.
On Wednesday (September 10), Kirk, 31, was fatally shot during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. The shooting unfolded on the same day as a separate shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado, where a teen gunman died from self-inflicted wounds after injuring two others.
Flags flew at half-mast in Kirk's honor. While lawmakers on both sides condemned the killing, Trump and other high-profile conservatives accused the left of inciting violence.
On Wednesday, a moment of silence for Kirk on the House floor became a flashpoint of partisan hostility.
Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert interrupted the silence, saying, “I believe silent prayers get silent results,” and called for a spoken prayer. Some Democrats booed, pointing out that the Colorado victims had not received a similar tribute.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) shouted across the aisle, “You all caused this,” to which a Democrat responded, “Pass some gun laws!”
Trump suggested that Democrats were "directly responsible" for Wednesday's gun violence.
“Radical left rhetoric — comparing wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst criminals — is directly responsible for the terrorism we’re seeing in our country today,” the president said in a speech following Kirk’s death.
Trump went on to blame the left for the 2024 assassination attempt against himself, the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, and the 2023 murder of a healthcare executive in New York.
“Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Trump said. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity — including the organizations that fund and support it.”
Prominent right-wing voices took to social media to call for federal crackdowns and retribution against Democrats, with some even invoking "war" rhetoric.
“The Left is the party of murder,” Tech billionaire Elon Musk posted.
Political activist Laura Loomer declared, “You could be next... The Left is a national security threat.”
Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, accused liberals of hypocrisy.
“You called us Hitler. You called us Nazis. You called us Racists. You have blood on your hands,” she wrote.
Tributes for Kirk turned into vengeance plots against the left.
“This is war,” posted the account for “Libs of TikTok.”
“Charlie Kirk being assassinated is the American Reichstag fire,” right-wing influencer Matt Forney wrote.
“The left must pay,” he added.
Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, urged authorities to “infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate” left-wing activists.
Blaze Media host Auron MacIntyre wrote, “They shot the voice of reason through the throat. So now it’s time to become unreasonable.”
“The Left must be destroyed," William Wolfe, a former Trump administration official, wrote. “Salt the earth underneath it.”
An investigation into Kirk's death remains ongoing. The shooter remains at large.
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