Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killing

The shooting death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk during a rally at Utah Valley University yesterday has thrust the United States into frightening political waters reminiscent of the violent civic unrest of the late 1960s. While the shooter remains at large and their motive is, for the time being, unknown, Kirk’s death has nevertheless prompted waves of commentary from across the political spectrum, as lawmakers and pundits grapple with the implications of what appears to be the public assassination of a high-profile MAGA figure.

Untangling the ‘Gordian knot of political violence’

Across much of the political left and center, responses to Kirk’s death have focused largely on calls to reverse America’s slide toward political violence. The shooting has left a “polarized America” in its wake, said Politico. The country is now “left to reckon” if the “Gordian knot of political violence can be untied.”

The nation must “reject political violence in EVERY form,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a potential 2028 presidential contender, on X. Newsom’s recent podcast appearance with Kirk angered many in his own party for finding common cause against transgender athletes. Americans need to “think about where we are and where we want to be,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) on Wednesday at a press conference. “Is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? I pray that that’s not the case.” Kirk’s death is “shocking and horrible” and an “example of political violence that has no place in our country,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), whose wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was wounded in a mass shooting in 2011, said on X. While we will “always have political disagreement,” Giffords said on X, we can “never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”

Progressive influencer Hasan Piker, who was scheduled to debate Kirk later this month, urged his followers to “stop making jokes about the shooting,” for fear, among other things, that “he could be similarly targeted,” said The New York Times. Kirk’s death is “terrifying,” Piker said on Twitch. “The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome.”

‘This is war’

While many elected officials advocated for cooling the heated national rhetoric, some of Kirk’s fellow far-right figures (many who enjoy direct access to the innermost circles of MAGA power) espoused a wholly different message: “The left is the party of murder,” said former White House adviser and tech billionaire Elon Musk on his X platform. “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die,” he said in a separate post. “THIS IS WAR,” said the popular conservative LibsOfTikTok X account whose manager, Chaya Raichik, has become one of the White House’s preferred “new media” influencers. “Whether we want to accept it or not,” said Fox News host Jesse Watters on air Wednesday, “they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?” If “the left” isn’t “crushed with the power of the state,” said conservative influencer and alleged unofficial White House adviser Laura Loomer on X, “more people will be murdered.”

Many of the “most incendiary” messages from right-wing figures have called for the White House to use “every available tool for legal and political retribution,” Mother Jones said. But allegations from conservative figures on X that a “critical mass of left-of-center people” were celebrating Kirk’s death on the more liberal-skewing Bluesky platform as a sign of their “political movement’s decay and the irredeemability” are “not true,” said Slate. Moreover, creating an artificial link “between a killer and a movement or even a social media platform,” is “playing with matches over a gasoline puddle.”

“There’s always a way back,” Kelly said to Politico. While the country can “find our way back from this,” people must “reevaluate” to get there.