As friends and political allies, including Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance, mourn the death of Charlie Kirk, some on the right have jumped on the conservative activist’s assassination to call for a crackdown on the left.
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What was meant to be a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening soon gave way to flashes of a vitriolic political divide that would escalate in the aftermath of the 31-year-old’s death.
As the moment of silence passed the 30-second mark, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert called for a spoken prayer for Kirk, who at the time was reportedly in critical condition, saying, “I believe silent prayers get silent results.” The request was met with boos from some Democrats who pointed out that a Colorado school shooting on the same day had not received the same ceremony.
Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, shouted above the commotion from across the room, “You all caused this,” to which one Democrat could be heard responding, “Pass some gun laws!”
“When a politician tries to blame words for an action, they need to look at their action and their record,” New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the Capitol. “The assassination of Charlie Kirk risks an uncorking of political chaos and violence that we cannot risk in America.”
Read More: The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Political Violence Haunting America
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned the killing of Kirk and political violence more broadly, but while many Democrats have highlighted the lack of gun control measures in the U.S., a number of figures on the right, including President Donald Trump, have insisted that the left is to blame.
In an address about Kirk’s death, Trump claimed that “radical left” rhetoric of comparing “wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals” is “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
Trump didn’t just pin Kirk’s death on the political left—he also blamed the left for the attempt on his own life in July 2024, the killing of a healthcare CEO in New York in December, and the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice that injured Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. “Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Trump said.
The President declared that his “Administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.”
It’s an apparently widely shared sentiment on the right, as popular right-wing figures on social media have echoed messages of resentment for the left after Kirk’s death, and some have called for a heavy-handed response, even likening the current moment to “war.”
‘The party of murder’
Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted on X, “It’s a real treat to see all these Liberals condemn political violence now. You called us Hitler. You called us Nazis. You called us Racists. You have blood on your hands.”
“The Left is the party of murder,” Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul who has frequently espoused right-wing views, posted on his social media platform X.
Musk shared his comment alongside a post by venture capitalist and political activist Shaun Maguire, who said: “The Left lectured us for the last decade about the dangers of violence from the Right … The danger was actually on the Left.”
“The Left are terrorists,” posted far-right political activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer. Loomer added that Kirk’s death only portends “more targeted” assassinations. “You could be next,” she warned. “We must shut these lunatic leftists down. Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat,” she said in another post.
“The Democrat Party must be classified as a domestic terror organization and their members & leaders treated accordingly,” posted conservative political strategist Joey Mannarino. “Enough is enough.”
In the wake of Kirk’s shooting, some social media users posted content apparently celebrating it. “This is NOT OK!” posted Kali Fontanilla, a former public school teacher turned “anti-woke” educator, who shared a compilation of such posts she claimed were from leftists. “The left is VILE!”
British conservative broadcast personality Piers Morgan also criticized what he claimed to be “shameful” coverage of Kirk’s death, posting that it “confirms everything I’ve always suspected about the woke left — they’re repulsive.”
Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of right-wing media outlet the Federalist, focused blame on the Democratic Party, which he called “a domestic terrorist organization whose most fanatics will not hesitate to murder their political opponents.”
Actor James Woods, a vocal Trump supporter, said the left “murdered” Kirk. “The left says they want ‘national conversations,’” Woods posted on X. “Charlie Kirk actually did just that. In the lion’s den, no less, at left leaning venues, hoping facts and common sense would prevail. And they murdered him for it.” Woods had posted hours earlier, “It’s not gun violence. It’s Democrat violence.”
‘This is war’
Several on the right have likened Kirk’s death to a declaration of war.
“The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war. And they want it. Just like the democrat party wanted our 1st civil war. The gloves are off,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden posted on X. “May the mighty wrath of vengeance fall upon the Brown Shirts who are responsible for this,” Van Orden said in another post. “The democratic Party has been fostering, a 21st century Civil War. I would encourage them if you look at the results of the last one that they started,” he said in another.
Far-right radio show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was ordered in 2022 to pay more than $1 billion to the families of Sandy Hook over his claim that the 2012 school shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 children, was fake, said in a livestream on his InfoWars channel: “This is a war, this is a war, this is a war.”
“The left’s coming with their violence. They’re coming with more attacks. And we can imagine the hell it’ll be if we let them win and if we submit to them. So we’re not scared of their attacks,” Jones said in another video posted on X. “I guess the answer is we all have to go out,” Jones added, though he cautioned, “we all have to peacefully hit the streets. We all have to speak out at city councils, colleges. Everybody’s got to be Charlie Kirk now.”
The language of war has run rampant among far-right influencers since Kirk’s shooting.
Chaya Raichik, who runs the pro-Trump, anti-left account “Libs of TikTok,” posted, “THIS IS WAR.”
Ian Miles Cheong, a conservative commentator from Malaysia, posted, “Charlie Kirk wasn’t the first victim in this war. He was the second. The first victim was Iryna Zarutska,” referring to a Ukrainian woman who was killed in a stabbing in North Carolina on Aug. 22 and has become the face of anti-crime rhetoric largely from the right. “This is war,” he added.
Far-right influencer Andrew Tate, a self-described “misogynist,” posted on X: “Civil war.”
Kristan Hawkins, founder of anti-abortion group Students for Life of America, posted: “This is a new civil war.”
“I’m ready for civil war,” Brian Eastwood, another conservative influencer, posted. “You want a fight and you’re going to get it.”
“They’ve declared war,” conservative political commentator David Freeman, who goes by the social media handle Gunther Eagleman, posted.
Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate?”
‘The left must pay’
Meanwhile, others on the right have called for retribution—from a federal crackdown on the left to outright violence.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X before Kirk’s death was confirmed: “I’m praying that [Kirk] survives. And I’m praying that this country rises up and ends this.”
Joel Webbon, a conservative Texas pastor, posted on X: “The Left will not stop until they are forced to. The Right must gain power, keep power, and wield power righteously.”
Patrick Casey, host of conservative podcast Restoring Order, posted, “It’s time to bring the hammer down on the left.”
“I don’t want the National Guard sent to Democrat cities anymore. I want the Air Force sent,” posted anonymous right-wing X account Oilfield Rando to its 220 thousand followers.
“Charlie Kirk being assassinated is the American Reichstag fire,” Matt Forney, a right-wing journalist and influencer, posted, referring to an arson attack on the German parliament in 1933 that the Nazis blamed on communists and used as a pretext to suspend a swath of civil liberties. “It is time for a complete crackdown on the left. Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned under RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]. Every libtard commentator must be shut down. Stochastic terrorism. They caused this.”
In another post, Forney said: “The left must pay. Ban the Democratic Party. Shut down CNN and MSNBC. Military tribunals. If you are to the left of Lindsay Graham, you belong in prison. YOU CAUSED THIS.”
Conservative influencer Christopher Rufo invoked former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s crackdown on leftist groups and the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, urging, “It is time, within the confines of the law, to infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate all of those who are responsible for this chaos.”
Stewart Rhodes, who founded the far-right anti-government militia Oath Keepers, said on InfoWars that he would be “rebuilding the Oath Keepers and we will be doing protection again” in light of Kirk’s death, Wired reported. Rhodes urged Trump to “do what’s right, what’s necessary,” including invoking the Insurrection Act to “declare the left in this country is in obvious open rebellion against the law of the United States.” Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol but his sentence was commuted by Trump earlier this year.
U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin, a conservative activist who formerly served as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C., quoted Bible verse Romans 12:19 in a post on X: “For it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’”
Jonathan Keeperman, a far-right publisher who goes by the pseudonym “Lomez,” said, “Nothing is off the table. This is how I feel. This is how I feel right now. Nothing is off the table.”
Calls for a “Democrat extinction event” popped up on far-right website Patriots.win, according to the New York Times.
Some right-wing influencers sought to cool tensions. Nick Fuentes posted, “The violence and hatred has to stop.” James Lindsay posted, “We have two options, and only two. They are catharsis and civilization. Charlie Kirk lived that we would have civilization. May Charlie Kirk not have died such that we spiral into catharsis and evil.”
But others suggested that with Kirk’s death, any possibility of peacefully bridging the divide between the right and left was now off the table.
“Let it be remembered that that we tried debate first, and this is what happened,” far-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos posted.
“No more discussion with these people. No more chit chat,” a Canadian white nationalist who goes by the social media handle “captive dreamer” posted, alluding to Kirk’s brand of debating liberal college students on controversial topics. “They need to be crushed – forever.”
“They shot the voice of reason through the throat,” Auron MacIntyre, a host at right-wing media company the Blaze, posted. “So now it’s time to become unreasonable.”
“Tomorrow I want to see lists,” MacIntyre added in another post. “Domestic terror leaders in organizations like Antifa and BLM scooped up in the middle of the night Doors kicked in, the FBI swinging through their windows.”
William Wolfe, a former first-term Trump Administration official and the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, posted, “The. Left. Must. Be. Destroyed.” He added in another post, “The Democrats and the Left must be crushed. The goal for Republicans in the next ten years shouldn’t just be to win elections, but to destroy the Democrat Party entirely and salt the earth underneath it.”
Davis of the Federalist posted, “If Democrats thought Charlie was radical, they have no idea what’s coming next.”