NPR’s “domestic extremism” correspondent Odette Yousef once again muddied the waters after an ideologically motivated shooting, this time in order to avoid having to blame the left for the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Yousef’s Thursday morning filing at NPR.org came with the headline: “Why was Kirk killed? Evidence paints complicated picture of alleged assassin.”
Prosecutors in Utah appear to be preparing to argue that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last week because he disagreed with Kirk's anti-trans rhetoric.
In their charging document, authorities cite text messages that Robinson allegedly exchanged with "his lover/roommate," a person they describe as "a biological male who was transitioning genders." The document also includes another text in which Robinson allegedly explains that he killed Kirk because he had "had enough of his hatred."
The presumed motive has added fire to a rash of speculation by high-reach conservatives, who have suggested that this motive equated to a political ideology. The same day Kirk was killed, President Trump claimed the shooter was a "radical leftist." Others have suggested that the suspect may have been "groomed" by a "trans terror cell" and that he was perhaps working with larger groups, including "antifa." So far, these claims have not been supported by publicly released evidence.
So the bullet casings saying “Hey fascist! Catch!” isn't a clue? Another referred to a song “Bella Ciao,” which celebrated the end of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. These scream "anti-fascist," or "Antifa."
To counter that strong argument for Robinson’s leftism, Yousef rounded up some incredibly unconvincing counterpoints. The 22-year-old is not registered to vote and hasn’t issued any statements about labor rights!
In fact, little is still known about Robinson's politics. According to the charging document, his mother told investigators that he had become more "pro-gay and trans-rights oriented" within the last year. It also includes a text message, allegedly written by Robinson, that said "since trump got into office [my dad] has been pretty diehard maga." But Robinson is not registered with a political party in Utah. There is no evidence of his positions on other issues of importance to the left, such as immigration or labor.
Why would a leftist necessarily be registered for a political party anyway?
The dearth of information about Robinson's political views has suggested to some researchers of online culture and shootings that there may not, in fact, be much more to Robinson's alleged violence than a single-issue grievance. They say that one particular piece of information shared in the charging document lends support to this theory.
"Remember how I was engraving bullets?," Robinson allegedly wrote. "The f***in messages are mostly a big meme, if I see 'notices bulge uwu' on fox new I might have a stroke…"
Yousef seemed bugged anyone would make assumptions about Robinson’s hatreds based on hard information that strongly suggests he's a left-wing radical:
Almost as soon as Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared what the shell casing engravings said at an FBI press conference last week, many were quick to assign meaning....
After a dive into online videogame culture and a thankfully brief discussion of “furries,” delivered with the strong implication that the shooter’s in-jokes and memes had no ideological content, Yousef claimed to have uncovered a pattern of mass shooters working from a "cultural script….But in those cases, the attackers typically lacked any political or ideological motive, instead striving to be remembered among figures who had committed similar atrocities in the past."
In other words: No left-wingers here!
Yet Yousef had never had a problem finding right-wing extremism and radicalization everywhere, unearthing “anti-Semitic blood libel” in the populist countrified song “Rich Men North of Richmond” (even though singer Oliver Anthony called himself "dead center" politically), and seeing anti-black racism in protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitic attacks on campus.