Democrats will do anything to ignore the fact that their side of the political aisle is responsible for the most high-profile acts of political violence, even if that means minimizing, whitewashing, or even justifying the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Democrats have spent the last nine years or so comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, comparing Republicans to Nazis, and calling everyone they dislike a fascist. Listen to Democratic rhetoric over the past few years, and you would think that Democrats were at war for our basic freedoms and that the country is about to be plunged into a Nazi-esque dictatorship.
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ADL’S SURVEY ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE IS CRIMINALLY MISLEADING
Here is an exact quote from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) one day before Kirk was murdered: “We’re in a war right now to save this country. And so you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the country.”
It is precisely this kind of rhetoric to which you can trace back the assassination attempts of Trump (twice), Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), and multiple congressional Republicans at the congressional baseball shooting.
The violent impulse of the Left is reflected in polling as well. A YouGov poll found that 24% of “very liberal” adults think being happy about the death of a political opponent is “always or usually acceptable, including 22% of 18-44 year old liberals. A similar proportion of both demographics (25% and 26% respectively) say political violence is justified “in order to achieve political goals.”
The idea that the Left and Right are on equal ground with political violence is being disproven right now. After all, there are no riots from Kirk supporters burning down Utah Valley University or any American city. The only high-profile riot from the Right was on Jan. 6, 2021, which pales in comparison to the Black Lives Matter summer riots of 2020 in cities across the country, the violent and illegal “pro-Palestine” encampments on college campuses across the country after Oct. 7, 2023, and the Antifa riots and “autonomous zones” in cities such as Portland and Seattle.
In the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s death, you could see Democrats trying to distance themselves from their side’s political violence. The New York Times obituary section, famous for glorifying terrorists and dictators and disparaging Republicans, tacitly justified Kirk’s death by calling him a “provocateur.” On MSNBC, while Kirk was still bleeding out, Matthew Dowd claimed he might have been shot by a supporter shooting a gun off in celebration (remember that for later) and said that “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
Dowd was fired for all but saying that Kirk’s “hateful words” brought the shooting on himself. But host Katy Tur did not even bother to push back on it at the time. Karen Attiah of the Washington Post fabricated a quote from Kirk to justify his shooting by painting him as a racist, and she was fired for it. For upholding the basic journalistic standard of not making up quotes to justify assassinations, the Washington Post then earned the backlash of former President Barack Obama and the Washington Post staff union.
POLITICAL VIOLENCE ON THE RISE IN THE US: A TIMELINE OF KEY INCIDENTS
Democrats have since taken two parallel approaches to this topic to avoid talking about left-wing political violence, both based on assigning right-wing motivations to violent acts. “What about the killing of a Minnesota Democratic legislator?” and “What about the firebombing of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-PA) home?” have been the common refrain here, including from Shapiro himself.
The problem here, of course, is that those were not acts of right-wing political violence. The man who shot and killed Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and shot state Sen. John Hoffman was a madman with no discernible political motives. He even claimed in a letter that Gov. Tim Walz (a Democrat) asked him to commit the murders, among other delusional ramblings. Shapiro’s home was firebombed by a “pro-Palestine” terrorist, which, to Tucker Carlson’s chagrin, is not exactly a right-wing position.
The more vile version of this has been the attempts to pin Kirk’s death on some angry MAGA right-winger who thought Kirk wasn’t right-wing enough, or some such nonsense. That impulse started with Dowd on MSNBC, who argued just after the shooting that we knew nothing about what happened and that the shooter could have been “a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.”
Dowd’s brain-dead comment gave way to a more sinister theory, even as details came out that showed that the shooter was, indeed, a left-wing extremist. The Los Angeles Times turned to “disinformation expert” and Boston University professor Joan Donovan, who tried to tie the killer’s messages on bullet casings to “more extreme right-wing movements.” She all but outright claimed that Kirk was killed by a neo-Nazi. Jemele Hill, the disgraced former ESPN anchor who is now the pride of The Atlantic, parroted that same talking point.
Teacher’s union president and top Biden administration ally Randi Weingarten similarly argued that it was a “right-winger” who shot Charlie Kirk. Formerly taxpayer-funded NPR claimed that “there is no evidence” that Kirk’s shooter was left-wing on immigration or labor unions, so who could say where his motivations truly lay. Jimmy Kimmel mocked Republicans for “trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
It went as far as a Democratic congressman openly lying about Kirk’s shooter. Rep. Dave Min of California confidently and loudly claimed on Twitter/X that “the Charlie Kirk assassin has been identified as MAGA” and that “insane GOP politicians” must “shift their focus to stopping the toxic violence of the RADICAL RIGHT.”
The shooter was never “identified” as such. In this case, the most obvious answer — a leftist shot the most popular conservative personality in the country — was the correct one. The man who shot Kirk thought Kirk was hateful, called him a fascist, and had a transgender “girlfriend.” There has been nothing to suggest that Robinson was remotely right-wing, let alone anything so certain that The Atlantic, Jimmy Kimmel, and a member of Congress could confidently claim as much in public.
The purpose of all of this is to refuse to reckon with the fact that Democrats have spent the last decade calling people like Charlie Kirk fascists who must be stopped at all costs. If the Kirk shooter was right-wing, Democrats wouldn’t have to reckon with their over-the-top rhetoric, the multiple high-profile acts of left-wing violence, or that Democrats have enabled rioters and created an atmosphere of lawlessness that left-wing activists know will be defended or tacitly endorsed by Democrats in power.
It took just a couple of days after Kirk’s murder for Democrats to shrug off any self-reflection about their side’s rhetoric and political violence, just the same as it was after the congressional baseball shooting or the first attempt on Trump’s life. Democrats settle on the same “both sides must tone down their rhetoric” cop-out, and then refuse to tone down their rhetoric. Nothing changes, no matter how many times Republicans get shot.