The Patriot Post® · Responding to Charlie Kirk's Murder
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
It is sometimes very challenging to reconcile the heart of a warrior with the heart of a Christian, and I find myself at one of those junctures this week.
A few years ago, when one of our sons commissioned as a Marine Infantry Officer, I reminded him that a warrior without a heart is just a mercenary. Only some of us are called to be warriors, and if you are not among them, that is OK. But none of us are called to be mercenaries.
Our team has covered Charlie Kirk’s murder, the justice we all seek, and the exceptional remarks by Charlie’s widow, Erika. She and their two small children were present at the event when he was murdered.
Seeking to fully understand Charlie’s murder, there are four things I know about his confessed assassin.
First, Tyler Robinson was a deranged sociopathic narcissist – as is almost universally the case with those who commit or attempt to commit high-profile murders. Second, he was clearly and irrefutably incited to violence by the now-ubiquitous hate rhetoric being propagated by leftist political leaders and their ilk over the last five years. Third, as is the case with an increasing number of high-profile murderers, he manifests gender-confusion pathology, and may have ties to a militant “LGBT” group in Salt Lake City. And fourth, he was further radicalized by the ideology of the so-called “antifa movement” of self-styled “anti-fascist” fascists – now being officially declared a terrorist organization, and not a minute too soon.
Let me start with what I believe was the most important causal factor in this murder — the chronic infusion of leftist hate rhetoric.
In recent decades, an increasing number of Democrat Party leaders have progressively become consummate hate hustlers, fomenting the division upon which their political fortunes depend. They have promoted a metastasizing culture of violence which is why the vast majority of violence across our nation is perpetrated by Demo constituents.
Donald Trump didn’t create their hate; he exposed it.
We have covered in detail over the last decade the claims launched against Trump and his “MAGA base,” first by Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi ahead of the 2016 election. They repeatedly asserted that Trump, and by extension his supporters, are all “deplorables, fascists, NAZIs, racists,” etc. That rhetoric was then amplified by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and used to incited the destructive and deadly “summer of rage” riots across the nation ahead of the 2020 election, resulting in a surge in violence in the years that followed.
Biden and Harris folded that hate rhetoric package into their endlessly repeated mantra that Trump and the MAGA movement were an “existential threat to democracy.” Former CNN commentator Scott Jennings said of the Biden/Harris slogan: “The entire thesis of the campaign was ‘democracy is on the ballot.’ And I heard Joe Biden admit that it’s all just a facade, that it’s all just a talking point.” Over the next four years, they incessantly propagated that fake incendiary facade, and the consequences have been deadly.
That talking point was subsequently adopted by Harris and Tim Walz ahead of the 2024 election, with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer spewing a background chorus of inflammatory rhetoric.
Recall that Harris, when asked in a high-profile town hall if she believed Trump was a fascist, replied, “Yes, I do. Yes, I do.” She added, “[Voters] care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
And recall how Walz repeatedly asserted Trump and his followers are fascist: “Donald Trump’s tendencies now are fascist tendencies…”
Of course, on a few occasions, Trump labeled Harris and Walz “Marxist,” but that is much closer to the truth than labeling Trump a fascist.
Since Trump’s second election, leading Democrats, including now-House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have accelerated those “threat to democracy” and “fascist” claims, and other hate rhetoric.
For the record, most Democrat constituents can’t define “fascism,” much less why we are a Republic, not a “democracy,” as claimed by Demo leaders. But the epidemic of deranged hatred for Trump and hatred for his grassroots MAGA movement has grown exponentially.
Of the resulting high-profile violence over the last year, Commentary Magazine’s Abe Greenwald offered this assessment: “The suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk is 22 years old. The perpetrator of the Annunciation Church mass shooting was 23 years old. The alleged gunman in last December’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was 26 years old. The shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was 20 years old. What happened to Gen Z?”
This is not a “Gen Z” (age 15-30) problem. It is an affliction of a subset of Gen Z, whom I defined in a column last year as “Gen N: The Narcissist Generation.”
In addition to all the other cultural garbage they ingest in their isolationist algorithm-driven false realities, his subset of emotionally unstable young people, has been infused with endless streams of hate rhetoric from the most high-profile leftists in our nation — and that is a major factor in the demographics of leftist violence.
After Charlie’s murder, Pelosi, the titular head of the Trump/MAGA hatefest, attempted to deflect any responsibility, saying: “We just have to change the rhetorical nature of our debate. People don’t have any intention of saying something that leads to something dangerous. We cannot take responsibility for the minds that are out there.”
“Change the rhetorical nature of our debate”? Really, now Pelosi figures that out? Her rhetoric has been a significant causal factor in all the leftist violence over the last decade — to include two assassination attempts against Trump.
Similarly, the frontline spewer of hate in the new generation of congressional Democrats, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), claimed, “Me calling you, you know, ‘wannabe Hitler,’ all those things are like, not necessarily saying, ‘Go out and hurt somebody.’” Well, not necessarily…
Notably, immediately after Charlie was shot, there was a call for a moment of silence on the House floor, but Democrats loudly objected with “NO!”
Of such fallacious claims, commentator Clay Travis correctly concludes, “You cannot call your political adversaries Nazi fascists and modern-day Hitlers and then say political violence is wrong when your deranged lunatic supporters act on your statements and kill or attempt to kill the people you’ve attacked.”
Notably, the constant flood of Demo hate rhetoric is now reflected in public opinion polls. An ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that “half of Americans see Donald Trump as a fascist.” And those who make such specious claims about Trump are, by extension, also calling the half of America who voted for him “fascist.”
There is now ample bloody evidence that the Demo hate rhetoric has deadly consequences, but will they be held accountable.
Only one Democrat in Congress has admitted the connection between their incendiary rhetoric and Charlie’s assassination. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), condemned the Demo/leftist rhetoric: “You just don’t ever, ever compare anyone to Hitler and those kinds of extreme things. [Trump] is not an autocrat. This is a product of a democratic election. … A lot of Americans happen to disagree with you, that does not mean that they are fascists, or now they want to shred the Constitution.”
Notably, former Democrat now Independent West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin declared: “This is not normal, it’s not who we are. We’re responsible as elected officials. When the people we represent [hear this from us], it says it’s OK for me to do it too. If that’s where the Party leaders are going … then it must be OK. It’s not OK. … The Democrat party has gone extremely left. I told Biden ‘I can’t believe how far left your administration is.’ …I’m asking the Democrat Party, you better start looking at how you lost people like me. I’ve been a Democrat all my life. … I can’t identify with the far left ideology. … The national Democrat party has [gone] to the far far left…”
Charlie Kirk’s blood is on the hate rhetoric hands of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, et al.
This is the terminus of years of leftist hate rhetoric, and Charlie’s murder is the new cancel culture. As Charlie would say, “PROVE ME WRONG!”
Further, indicative of how empowered leftists have become — believing they can spew hatred with impunity like their party protagonists, there are now numerous cases of leftist haters being fired for posting public assertions that Kirk deserved to be murdered.
The offenders are school teachers, school board members, and college professors. They are federal, state, and local “public servants.”
Celebrities are getting checked: Stephen King is trying to salvage his future book sales by apologizing for his incendiary comments about Kirk.
Of course, among the fired are Leftmedia talkingheads and scribes, including MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd.
WaPo fired one of its prominent leftist scribes, Karen Attiah, after her derogatory comments about Kirk. Naturally she claims, “What happened to me is part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media — a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful — and tragic.” Right – now WaPo is racist.
And one post by a media executive with our local CBS affiliate here in Chattanooga, (who has since ben fired), is typical of the hate being posted by thousands of others: “If you don’t have something nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. So, about Charlie Kirk…man what a marksman! 200 yards away, directly in the left carotid artery…impressive.”
Beyond the hate rhetoric from Demo leaders, what seems to have lit the fuse on the delusional slide of Kirk’s assassin were online posts by leftist Antifa radicals. Utah Gov. Spence Cox told The Wall Street Journal, “It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”
The FBI is investigating those leftist groups to determine what they knew about this assassination and when they knew it. The second most powerful thing prosecutors can do in this case is go after those who had knowledge of or inspired Robinson’s plans — arrest and charge them as accessories or co-conspirators. That example needs to be set in stone.
And the last factor I mentioned: the alleged assailant was in a relationship with a “transgender” man, who believes he is a woman. Gov. Cox also confirmed that relationship. Notably, the association between an increasing number of high-profile murderers and gender pathology, those connected to the gender-confusion cult, is now casually established. Recently, AG Pam Bondi has raised the issue of whether this pathology should fall under the mental health prohibitions to purchase firearms.
Notably, Gov. Cox has been an amazing voice of reason and calm in the wake of Charlie’s murder. In 2024, Cox delivered a speech on “How To Disagree With Respect — Not Hate.” We have posted his remarks immediately following the attack, and his remarks on the arrest of Robinson are equally measured.
Bottom line: There are deranged sociopaths on both sides of the political spectrum, but the deranged legions on the “far left” are now more mainstream. Political analyst Ben Domenech observed that the “far left” is now actually more mainstream in the Democrat Party: “I think the really dangerous thing here is that I don’t know how much this really is the far left anymore. I think it is a much larger portion of the base of the political left…who believe all the things that have been said about the NAZIs in the other side, the fascists on the other side, ant that’s a very dangerous thing…” And Ben provided data to back up that concern.
And that leads me to the stark contrast between how conservatives have responded to Charlie’s murder versus leftists responses to perceived injustice.
Patriot feature writer Samantha Koch noted: “When George Floyd died, a man with a history of drugs, crime and violence — the Left took to the streets to burn cities to the ground. When Charlie Kirk died, a man with a history of service, love of God, and open conversation — the Right took to the streets to pray. We are not the same.” Our friends at The Daily Wire posted a visual representation of that stark contrast.
So, how do I choose to respond to Charlie’s murder?
As I noted in the opening paragraphs above, “None of us are called to be mercenaries.”
Last year, a week after the first assassination attempt against then-candidate Trump, I wrote a column titled “Hate, Division, and a Resolution to Rise Above.” It was a reflection on a resolution passed by our Republican Tennessee legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Lee, calling for Americans to rise above the moment, “Seeking God’s blessing and humbling ourselves to receive His Grace and Mercy, transforming ourselves, our communities, our State, and our Nation.”
I believe this again, is one of those moments — and it will not be the last.
Another fellow American, who was martyred for speaking the truth, declared: “Hate is too great a burden to bear. … Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” That, of course, was Martin Luther King.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Charlie could speak to us right now, he would advise the same, and that is the only conclusion one could draw from his prolific testaments about his faith over the years.
As for Tyler Robinson, I am wrestling with forgiveness, a measure of which should be extended to a mentally deranged sociopath. That does not mean we don’t seek a full measure of justice, but embracing hatred for him is a burden on our hearts.
Finally, let me remind you that Rush Limbaugh was an icon and irreplaceable, but the conservative movement continued to grow after his death in 2021, and will continue to do so. That is true in the wake of Charlie’s murder. As clear evidence of his legacy, in the days after his death there were more than 37,000 requests to start Turning Point chapters.
Both of these men laid strong foundations for their mission in support of American Liberty to continue long after they departed. Both were hated for it. As political analyst Selwyn Duke wrote, “The further a society drifts from Truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
Fellow Patriots, join me in a prayer I send up every morning for the Lord’s blessing upon our nation, that good and righteous leaders would rise and prevail, and that division would be healed so we would be united as Americans.
Updates:
On 21 September, Charlie’s widow Erika delivered a powerful message of faith and hope at his memorial service, to an audience of 110,000 people, and tens-of-milions more around the nation and worldwide. She concluded: “My husband, Charlie — he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life. … On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know, from the Gospel, is love and always love. Love for our enemies, and love for those who persecute us.”
On 14 October, what would have been Charlie Kirk’s 32nd birthday, President Donald Trump hosted a ceremony at the White House to posthumously award Kirk with America’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kirk’s widow, Erika, accepted the medal on her husband’s behalf and stood with Trump as he officially proclaimed the day a national day of remembrance. Erika said: “He believed that liberty was both a right and a responsibility. And he used to say that freedom is the ability to do what is right without fear. And that’s how he lived.” Trump wrote, “Today, our Nation honors the immortal memory of Charlie — a father, a husband, a Christian martyr, and a titan of the American conservative movement. … Every day, Charlie devoted himself to a set of simple causes: Defending the truth, encouraging debate, and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was gracious and articulate beyond measure, always welcomed opposing perspectives, and never deviated from his noble goal of bridging our political, cultural, and philosophical divides.”
Regarding the hateful rhetoric that has incited violence across the nation, and clearly was a factor in Charlies murder, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has been consistently critical of hateful Demo rhetoric about Trump and his supporters. He insists: “Democrats have forgotten one of the reasons why we lost in 2024. … Clearly, we’ve lost the argument. … We’ve really lost our connection with American voters in ways.” On the leftist assertions that Trump is a fascist and NAZI, Fetterman declared: “We have to turn the temperature down. It’s like we can’t compare people to these kinds of figures in history. And this is not an autocrat. This is a product of a democratic election. It’s like, I participated in that. It was safe and it was secure. We lost, and the American people put us in the minority. That’s democracy. I revere democracy. I may not like the outcome, but I have to respect that.”
Much to the objection of congressional leftists, Fetterman doubled down regarding Kirk: “I am the only Democrat in my family. I grew up in a conservative part of Pennsylvania. I know and I love people who voted for President Trump. They are NOT fascists, they’re NOT Nazis, they’re NOT trying to destroy the Constitution. … I REFUSE to call people Nazis or fascists. I would never compare anybody – anybody to Hitler. If that kind of extreme rhetoric is going to continues [it will be] likely to result in extreme king of outcomes and political violence…like Charlie Kirk… It’s like, my God, he’s a father that [was murdered]. Have people forgotten: President Trump was in my state – was shot in the head. Could you imagine where our nation would be if he were hit in the same way as Kirk? We really got to turn the temperature down.”
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776