“When America needed a hero, God sent Charlie Kirk”
Tracking the instant reactions to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
There are rare moments in this business that truly shock me. Today shocked me. I got pinged over Slack to get back to my desk because the architect of the right-wing youth movement was shot. The video proliferated quickly — if you’ve managed to avoid it, stay diligent on that, it’s horrific.
In case you’re coming here in an abundance of curiosity but without the full background, let me just say this. It would be completely fair to argue that 31-year-old Charlie Kirk is the reason Donald Trump is in the White House. For some of you, that may be an eye-widening, worldview-shattering realization. For others, it’s a fact — one that elevated Kirk and his conferences, college tours, and content machines to unrivaled stardom. The 3,000+ TPUSA chapters nationwide are a testament to that.
As I write this, Michael Knowles, who seems to be the first of the heavy-hitters to go live in the wake of this news, called Charlie “the pre-eminent political talent of our generation.” In a hat tip to the “Debate Me” culture he popularized, I will never argue the impact he had on modern political media.
FROM THE RIGHT WING:
There was a brutal back and forth between reports of his death and assurances of life. Glenn Beck, Tim Pool, The Daily Caller — all posted their intel from unnamed sources. These reports faced off against typical early death announcements coming from accounts trying to be first to break the news.
Far and away, the number one target of fury as this evolved: a clip from MSNBC speculating that the shooter could’ve been a “supporter” shooting “in celebration.” Bizarre thing to say. Posts popped, with 1.8M views, 9.5M views, 17M views, and many calling the network “evil” and “demonic.” Dave Portnoy chimed in adding another 5M views. A campaign is forming to force advertisers to withdraw their ads from the network.
Tons of the most well-known accounts pushed their belief that this shooting is proof of violence innate to the Left. Many are sharing their fear of holding public events in the future. They say liberals want conservatives “dead.” The “commies” are “hunting” conservatives. The Dems are a “domestic terrorist organization” and “war” has officially begun. Mike Cernovich, an influencer with 1.4M followers, has posted increasingly cryptic and tweets referencing what he’d like to do to left-wing billionaires, specifically 18 posts about LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman:
Some want Nouveau McCarthyism, in the form of “a new House Un-American Activities Committee.” Others want public executions at the National Mall. This one features a suspect that has since been determined not to be the shooter.
The thing I am most astounded by is the legion of influencers who credit Charlie for getting them politically active, for advising their careers, for introducing them to their spouses.
FROM THE LEFT WING:
Top creators spoke out immediately: Brian Tyler Cohen said he’s “disgusted.” Mehdi Hasan mentions all the names Kirk called him, followed by “nothing justifies killing him.” Dean Withers adds, “If you do not condemn this, fuck you.” MeidasTouch named it a “stain on our democracy.” I watched a segment of Hasan Piker’s stream, because I knew he was scheduled to debate Kirk later this month. He was visibly shaken and stumbly in a way viewers rarely see him:
“The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this incident is genuinely worrisome.”
In a surprise to literally no one, there was a ton of outright celebration from young leftists. Most of the TikToks I saved for you have since been deleted, including one girl who “wanted to twerk on his grave.” This one is wondering if the bullet that hit him is ok. I had the wherewithal to screenshot this tweet though:
This is the “reap what you sow” faction, which boosted a video of Kirk from April 2023 saying death is the cost of preserving the Second Amendment. A screenshot of an article about it made the rounds with comments like “thoughts and prayers.”
I don’t even know what to do with this but Jezebel is leaving up this article from two days ago: “We Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk.” Interesting choice.
Not beating the scripted allegations. This is an incomplete list of as many Democrats I could find (before I had to move on to other things) who said something along the lines of “political violence has no place in this country”: Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Zohran Mamdani, JB Pritzker, Josh Shapiro, Kathy Hochul, Andy Beshear, Eric Adams (twice), Andrew Yang, Rahm Emanuel, Ro Khanna, Ritchie Torres, Joaquin Castro, Mark Kelly, Mark Warner, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Pete Aguilar, Lucy McBath, Alex Padilla, Ron Wyden, Ken Martin, Nydia Velasquez, Maria Cantwell, Doris Matsui, Robert Garcia, etc.
The Recount will be tracking developments in this story closely as I start thinking about tomorrow’s newsletter. But now would be a great time to upgrade to a paid subscription so you can hop in the group chat when breaking news happens.
Stay sane,