“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.
With few clues as to the assassin's identity, their minds already had been made up. So had the mind of the Capitol's leading bathroom obsessive:
Nancy Mace's very first words to reporters on Charlie Kirk was "democrats own what happened today"
— Leah V. (@LeahVredenbregt) September 10, 2025
When @ryanobles followed up about if that means Republicans "own" the shooting of Minnesota lawmakers she says "are you kidding me?"
From moments ago on the House steps pic.twitter.com/H6RXJITtTv
More calmly, yet more ridiculously, we hear from a Senator from Oklahoma:
Mullin: When are the Democrats going to stand up and apologize for the hatred and the lies that they have fed their base that has led to these actions? pic.twitter.com/nXAHb2PPVC
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 11, 2025
Referring to Democrats, Mullin claims "we're not the ones out there who are trying to silence them."
Evidently, someone forgot to tell President Trump because
Sitting behind the Resolute desk on Wednesday, Trump nonetheless said: “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.
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump added.
That runs contrary to the bulk of the president’s rhetoric over the past several years. On the campaign trail, Trump said that it was impossible to get along with political rivals.
“These are horrible people. Oops, we should get along with everybody. They’re horrible people. Some people you just can’t get along with,” he said in the final days of the 2024 presidential campaign.
The guy who calls the press "the fake news" and "enemy of the people," called Kamala Harris "mentally impaired" and "mentally disabled," and declared former President Obama "guilty of treason," pardoned armed and unarmed terrorists on 1/6/21 rioters while calling them "hostages," now accuses the "radical left" of being "directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today."
But Trump knows what he's doing. According to TIME, Supreme MAGAt and unofficial, influential Trump adviser Laura Loomer responded to the assassination with "We must shut these lunatic leftists down. Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat." Conservative political strategist Joey Mannarino posted "The Democrat Party must be classified as a domestic terror organization and their members & leaders treated accordingly. Enough is enough."
Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of right-wing media outlet the Federalist, called the Democratic Party "a domestic terrorist organization whose most fanatics will not hesitate to murder their political opponents."
Other remarks were even more dangerous. Ian Miles Cheong, a well-known conservative commentator from Malaysia, referred to the right-wing cause celebre Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian woman murdered in a stabbing in North Carolina on August 22. Cheong posted "Charlie Kirk wasn't the first victim in this war. He was the second. The first victim was Iryna Zarutska. 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.
In one post, Wisconsin Representative Derrick Van Orden wrote "May the mighty wrath of vengeance fall upon the Brown Shirts who are responsible for this" and in another "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."
My personal "favorite" is from the President of Students for Life, an organization which proclaims in all caps on its website "ABOLISH ABORTION:"
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” -Judges 21
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) September 10, 2025
This is a new civil war.
One that we must fight with love to restore a Culture of Life.
No better way to restore a "culture of life" than to start a civil war, apparently. Yet, because of his prominence- a little in Hollywood and a little on social media- an even more dangerous reaction(s) came from James Woods:
I enjoyed dinners with Charlie, but worried for his safety. The left says they want “national conversations.” Charlie Kirk actually did just that. In the lion’s den, no less, at left leaning venues, hoping facts and common sense would prevail.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 10, 2025
And they murdered him for it. pic.twitter.com/CCOClwwIxN
Worse yet, he followed it up with
Charlie Kirk was 31 years old. There is no doubt he would one day have been one of our most profoundly qualified candidates for President of the United States. The unrelenting hatred spewed by Democrats took his life and the possibility of a great president for all of us. pic.twitter.com/224qMdr1iz
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 11, 2025
There are far more examples TIME lays out more right-wing rhetoric about "the party of murder;" "this is war;" and "the left must pay." As a whole, they paint the picture of a GOP base which agrees with President Trump that "these are horrible people" whose "kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today and it must stop now."
It probably was not "terrorism." (Nor everything violent which we disapprove of is terrorism.) However, that's an issue for another day. Donald is right that "it must stop now." But there will be no effort to enact gun safety legislation and little, if any, funding for mental health services cut by recent passage of the President's budget and spending megabill.
No, the hard core Trump supporters know what their god meant when he said the rhetoric "must stop now." Woods, Hawkins, Cheong, and the other prominent and relatively unknown individuals who have called for cracking down on their political opponents understand Donald Trump, as do the millions of individuals who hear and read their words. So did the violent right when President Trump in debate in 2020 recommended "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," which was followed by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
At that confrontation with fellow candidate Joe Biden, Trump added "But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem." Aided by the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Democratic Party- which is the (somewhat) "left" party of American politics is being substituted for Antifa. . And when the individual who said five years ago "somebody's got to do something," now says "it must stop now," he's hoping that his more ardent supporters translate that to "civil war."
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