The Assassination of Charlie Kirk
The Turning Point USA founder was horrifically murdered during a public event for espousing conservative Christian ideas, leaving behind a wife and two young children.
“Assassination culture is spreading on the left,” Charlie Kirk warned in April. Sadly, that proved to be prophetic, as an assassin took Charlie’s life yesterday while he was speaking — about transgender mass shootings and gang violence, no less — at Utah Valley University.
The killer fired from a rooftop about 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking and answering questions, striking Kirk in the neck with a single bullet. He was rushed to a local hospital for emergency surgery, but he died of his wound.
Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was just 18 years old. He hosted a popular eponymous podcast. He traveled the country, speaking to diverse audiences and using his formidable intellect and speaking skills to persuade listeners to adopt conservative ideas. He never backed down from a respectful discussion, no matter the disagreement.
He was a firm believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we take solace in knowing that when he left this earth at the age of 31, it was to enjoy the embrace of his Savior. His wife and two children, ages three and one, are surely devastated, and we pray for their comfort. Charlie quoted Psalm 34:18, just last week: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Just a few days ago, Kirk also posted, “Jesus defeated death so you can live.”
He was just launching the American Comeback Tour of college campuses to talk to young people respectfully and thoughtfully about conservative ideas. Unfortunately, college and university campuses are the front line of speech suppression.
“This is the terminus of years of leftist hate rhetoric,” says our Mark Alexander. “Now that the speech suppressors have backed off, Charlie Kirk’s murder is the new cancel culture.”
As of this writing, the unknown murderer is still at large, though authorities have leads, including video and what an FBI agent called a “high-powered bolt-action rifle.”
The Wall Street Journal reports, “Investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology inside the rifle that authorities believe was used in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, according to an internal law enforcement bulletin.”
The outpouring of love, admiration, and condolences included President Donald Trump. “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” he posted on Truth Social. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
The president released a video from the Oval Office last night, as well. “I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” he said. He squarely placed the blame where it belongs: “For years, those on the radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Still, he added a measure of hope: “Because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before.”
“I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 11, 2025
“Because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before.”
President Trump releases a statement reacting to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. pic.twitter.com/SU04CfBBfT
Today, Trump declared, “I am pleased to announce that I will soon be awarding Charlie Kirk, posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Calls for justice came, too.
“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Governor Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” He added, “I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this — we will find you. We will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.”
🚨NEW: Utah Governor Spencer’s Cox’s powerful statement on the assassination of Charlie Kirk:
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 10, 2025
“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation.”
“I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination…”
“I want to make it crystal clear right now to… pic.twitter.com/bLVZgEWnol
Across the political aisle, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, who not long ago hosted Kirk on his own podcast, posted, "The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”
Barack Obama thinks the motive is a mystery but denounced the killing: “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy.”
Joe Biden added, “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now.”
“Let me be clear,” chimed in Kamala Harris. “Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.”
House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries likewise said, “Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.”
The truth is that Democrats’ hateful rhetoric has inflamed their own base in ugly ways. Mark Alexander argues, “Charlie Kirk’s blood is on the hate rhetoric heads of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries.” This is, after all, the same crew that incited two assassination attempts against Donald Trump — one that was within an inch of succeeding.
Senator Elizabeth Warren blamed Trump, saying he has been “turning up the temperature” of political rhetoric. Illinois Democrat Governor JB Pritzker said, “I don’t know whether it’s political violence because I don’t know who did it,” but he also knows it’s Trump’s fault. “I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it,” he said, adding a nod to “the January 6 rioters.”
Democrats couldn’t hide their ugliness in the House chamber, either. When a Republican called for prayer for Kirk and his family on the floor, dozens of Democrats vocally objected, with at least one calling for gun control instead.
Various Leftmedia talkingheads were utterly reprehensible yesterday. Arguably, the worst was Matthew Dowd on MSNBC. First, he said, “We don’t know any of the specific details of this yet. We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration…” Then he called Kirk “one of the most divisive” figures in politics, “pushing hate speech.” He opined, “I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. … You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place.”
His comments were so bad that MSNBC first apologized and then fired him. I doubt it was because anyone there disagrees, but he said the quiet part out loud.
What is WRONG with some people? https://t.co/CAgGAxv5IA
— Nate Jackson | Patriot Post (@NatriotJackson) September 10, 2025
MSNBC’s Katy Tur still works there, though, despite having called Kirk a “divisive figure, polarizing, lightning rod — whatever term you want to use.” Before it was known that Kirk had died, she also worried that Trump would use the shooting “as justification for something.”
Speaking of “justification for something,” the hate-profiteering Southern Poverty Law Center falsely and mendaciously put Turning Point USA on its “hate map” earlier this year. An assassin took all of that hate to heart.
The tragic irony is that Kirk was known for sitting down for cordial dialogue with anyone who’d talk to him. He didn’t promote hate; he facilitated thoughtful discussion.
“When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts,” he recently told an angry leftist. “When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that person. What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable disagreement — where violence is not an option.”
The problem for too many leftists is that anyone who thinks or says Unapproved Things must be shouted down or punished — in this case, murdered — not dignified with dialogue.
Of dialogue, Kirk’s friend Ben Shapiro said this:
We need more thoughts and prayers. Thoughts for our political opponents: recognition that while we disagree, they are our fellow Americans; understanding that the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States can hold only if we treat each other as friends, not enemies; realization of the fact that speech is not violence, and that we must, as Americans, speak with each other. The way Charlie did.
And we need prayers: prayers for our country, which is torn apart, under attack from within and without; prayers for our own souls, that we hold ourselves accountable for the way we treat others.
Kirk himself said, again just days ago: “No civilization has ever collapsed because it prays too much. But a civilization that abandons God will deteriorate and ultimately collapse from the inside out, or because it loses the will to repel a malicious, external force.”
We in our humble shop will never shrink from the fight or lose the will to advance Liberty.
Charlie Kirk was a good man who was always willing to speak up for his beliefs. He may have been willing to die for them, but in America, he shouldn’t have had to.
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(Updated)
