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Right-wing media quickly found a wide range of people and institutions to blame for Charlie Kirk's death

Written by Gideon Taaffe, Sage Hodil & Torri Lonergan

Published

After Charlie Kirk’s killing on September 10, some in right-wing media called for retaliation against left-wing groups and other targets of their ire, and President Donald Trump’s administration has responded by attacking the left even more broadly.

Right-wing media have rushed to blame a variety of factors for Kirk’s death. Conservative media personalities called Democrats “the party of murder” while blaming “the left”, blamed rhetoric describing some on the right as “Nazis and fascists,” claimed the shooter was “radicalized” by college education and “left wing propaganda,” declared “CNN has blood on its hands,” and labeled the shooting “an act of LGBT terrorism” and an “attack on Christianity.”

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  • As authorities investigate the motivation behind the killing, the Trump administration has started attacking left-leaning organizations and right-wing media are calling for retaliation

    • The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk has been charged with aggravated murder, but authorities “have not revealed a clear motive.” [The Associated Press, 9/16/25]
    • Some right-wing media have urged the Trump administration to seek retribution for Kirk’s killing by using the government to attack left-leaning groups and individuals. Trump ally and right-wing podcaster Laura Loomer called for Trump to “shut down, defund, & prosecute every single Leftist organization”; Infowars' Harrison Smith wrote that we “need the Insurrection Act” and should “imprison radical leftists”; and Michael Savage said on Newsmax that Trump’s Justice Department needs to “unravel” the American Civil Liberties Union, and “you’ve got to bust them on the RICO.” [Twitter/X, 9/10/25, 9/10/25; Newsmax, Carl Higbie Frontline, 9/15/25]
    • The Trump administration has moved to crack down on the left in response to Kirk’s death. According to The New York Times, “President Trump and his top advisers threatened on Monday to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk’s killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents.” The Wall Street Journal provided insight into what this weaponization could look like, writing that the Trump administration is discussing “reviewing the tax-exempt status of left-leaning nonprofit groups and targeting them with anticorruption laws, according to administration officials.” [The New York Times, 9/15/25; The Wall Street Journal, 9/15/25]

  • Right-wing media personalities called Democrats the “party of murder” and a “death cult” while blaming “the left” for Kirk's killing

    • Laura Loomer: “I really do believe with all of my heart that majority of the left is like this, I do. I believe that the Democrat party is the party of murder.” She continued, “I really, truly believe that we have crossed that point where one side of the aisle has human decency and the other side of the aisle is completely far gone.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 9/11/25]
    • Fox News guest Julian Epstein: “Elements of the Democratic Party and the progressive left are moving increasingly toward a sort of a death cult.” Epstein claimed that “to compare your opponents to the world's worst actors, Hitler and Mussolini, by calling them fascists, which implies a violent response from people on the left, and the fact that Democratic leaders don’t see this connection today is beyond me.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 9/16/25]
    • Fox News contributor Kaylee McGhee White said, “It’s completely fair to pin this on the Democratic Party.” McGhee White claimed Democrats’ rhetoric “radicalized” Kirk’s alleged shooter, adding that they “never want to take responsibility when some people decide to take their rhetoric seriously.” [Fox News, America Reports, 9/16/25] 
    • Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed that because “the left … can’t win an argument, they’re trying to kill,” and said that “we have to politically destroy the sick movement that’s giving birth to these killers.” Watters continued, “I don’t care what you have to do — we can love them, but we don't give them any quarter. Enough is enough. This ends now. … It can be killed. Figuratively.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/12/25]
    • The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo suggested the “radical Left” has caused “a wave of violence and terror” and called for arrests of “all of those who are responsible for this chaos.” According to Rufo, “The last time the radical Left orchestrated a wave of violence and terror, J. Edgar Hoover shut it all down within a few years. It is time, within the confines of the law, to infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate all of those who are responsible for this chaos.” [Twitter/X, 9/10/25] 
    • Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway brought up “rising rhetoric and funding of groups that are pushing an anti-American ideology” in discussing Kirk’s death, saying he was “very powerful in speaking against it but other people need to take those threats seriously.” Hemingway added: “We have very powerful, well-funded interests really trying to destroy the country and they need to be investigated, their networks need to be rooted out, and they need to be dealt with as seriously as can be.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 9/11/25]
    • The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said Kirk was killed by “a leftist militant who had been radicalized by left wing propaganda.” Walsh: “There is now no doubt (as if there was any doubt) that this was a targeted political assassination by a leftist militant who had been radicalized by left wing propaganda. Political violence is nearly exclusively a left wing problem. It is a tool of their trade.” [Twitter/X, 9/12/25]

  • Right-wing media suggested college “radicalized” the alleged shooter with “left-wing ideology” and made him “primed for violent acts”

    • Podcast host Megyn Kelly said, “He went to college. Guess what college does? It radicalizes young people.” Kelly continued, “I don't know what happened to this particular man, but that is what college does.” Later in the episode, Kelly added, “It doesn't look like this kid was political one way or the other, and then he went off to the indoctrination factory that is college and appears to have had a mental break. … The left-wing ideology that is pushed on students on every college campus in this country is radicalizing millions of them.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 9/12/25, 9/12/25]
    • Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed the suspected shooter was “radicalized” in college. Campos-Duffy stated, “You heard the family members say that this man became more political — this young man became more political in recent years. Well, what did he do in recent years? He went to college. That’s where kids are getting radicalized. It’s not just online — our campuses are where a lot of radicalization, hate, intolerance starts from.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 9/12/25] 
    • On his radio show, Sean Hannity advocated for defunding universities, calling them “liberal indoctrination centers” that teach students “nothing except how to be a crazy radical leftist.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 9/11/25] 
    • Fox News host Mark Levin suggested Marxist “influence in our colleges and universities” contributed to Kirk’s killing. Levin stated, “We have influence in our faculty, influence in our colleges and universities, influence now in our public schools of alien ideologies. Now, Marxism preaches violent revolution. … Radical Islam preaches violent revolution.” [Fox News, America Reports, 9/12/25] 
    • Fox Noticias co-host Julie Banderas said, “The assassination exposes the intolerance toward free speech and new ideas that has grown on college campuses.” [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 9/12/25]
    • Conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza claimed “we need to put radical academia on trial” for radicalizing Kirk’s alleged shooter. He posted: “Tyler Robinson is every conservative parent’s worst nightmare. Send your kid to college where he is radicalized into a violent ‘antifascist’ by the sly, scheming leftist professors. We need to put radical academia on trial along with its cherished product, Tyler Robinson.” [Twitter/X, 9/12/25]
    • Infowars host Alex Jones claimed Kirk’s alleged shooter was “Radicalized By The Left While At University & Primed For Violent Acts.” He posted: “Photos/Videos Emerge Of Charlie Kirk's Assassin As His Social Media Presence Is Scrubbed From Internet Evidence Suggests Tyler Robinson Was An Intelligent, Middle Class Kid Who Was Radicalized By The Left While At University & Primed For Violent Acts.” [Twitter/X, 9/12/25]

  • Right-wing media blamed trans people, calling Kirk’s shooting “an act of LGBT terrorism”

    • The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh: “The assassination of Charlie Kirk was unequivocally an act of LGBT terrorism.” Walsh insisted, “Already, the evidence is overwhelming — Charlie was murdered by a leftist who was in a relationship with a man who identifies as transgender, a man who identifies as a woman.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 9/15/25]
    • On Fox, former Secret Service agent Charles Marino suggested “the transgender community” could be responsible for Kirk’s shooting because they wanted to “silence” him. “We’re told that in the area of opinions, people should not have differing opinions in this country,” Marino stated. “Now, the dangerous thing here with the transgender community is the way they are moving to silence those opinions. It is becoming more and more violent.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 9/15/25] 
    • Newsmax host Greg Kelly claimed “a transgender situation” may have been the motive for Kirk's killing. [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 9/15/25]
    • Right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong: “A transgendered mutant murdered Charlie Kirk. Transgenderism must be banned, all trans people rounded up and forcibly institutionalized.” [Twitter/X, 9/11/25] 
    • Self-described “prophet” Amanda Grace said Kirk’s killing “had to do with transgenderism” and the “false god” Ishtar. “Ishtar, the ancient entity that attempted to utilize Kamala Harris to put her in the highest seat of our land back in 2024, was involved in this attempt,” Grace argued. “Ishtar is a false god and a demon tethered to men dressing as women. Demons are violent. Transgenderism comes from that pagan, violent route. To serve their principality and powers and drive their agenda, they seek to shed blood.” [Rumble, Ark of Grace Ministries, 9/11/25; Media Matters, 5/30/24]

  • Some claimed the shooting was an “attack on Christianity,” arguing that Kirk was killed “because he was a devout Christian”

    • America First host Nick Fuentes argued, “He would go to these college campuses and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. And ultimately, that is why he was killed.” Fuentes said, “When you look at his most vicious detractors, the people celebrating his death now, possibly, probably the gunman that killed him, they hated him because of his defense of Christian morality.” [Rumble, America First with Nick Fuentes, 9/11/25]
    • On The Will Cain Show, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy repeatedly declared Kirk’s killing was “an attack on Christians.” She added, “Make no mistake: The kind of attention that Jewish students are feeling — that kind of attacks that they feel and unsafe how they feel on campus — that’s been happening to college conservatives for a long time, which is why Charlie Kirk was on campus.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 9/12/25] 
    • Fox News political analyst Lisa Boothe claimed Kirk was “assassinated because he was a devout Christian.” Boothe stated, “Charlie wasn't murdered, wasn’t assassinated just for his political beliefs. He was assassinated for his faith. He was assassinated because he was a devout Christian, which was the basis for all of his beliefs. That is why he was assassinated.” [Fox News, America Reports, 9/15/25]  
    • Rumble host Vince Coglianese argued, “This was also an attack on Christianity.” Coglianese explained, “Charlie Kirk was a spokesman for the word of God in everything that he did.” He continued, “Any attack on Charlie and the ideas that Charlie expresses is an attack on his innate Christianity. That is a hate crime insofar as anyone can establish one. There you go. It's an attack on a Christian for being Christian and for expressing that truth out loud. That man hated him for that.” [Rumble, Vince with Vince Coglianese, 9/12/25]

  • Others blamed Democratic rhetoric that described some conservatives as “Nazis and fascists”

    • During an appearance on Fox News, Republican strategist Matt Whitlock said, “It's not a coincidence” that people “resort to violence” after hearing Democrats’ rhetoric about Donald Trump. Whitlock argued that when prominent Democrats refer to Trump as a fascist or compare him to Hitler, “That trickles down through social media, through the massive sort of wormhole of disinformation, to radicalize young people like this shooter who then wrote that on a bullet.” [Fox News, America Reports, 9/15/25]
    • On his radio show, Sean Hannity claimed that the shooter may have been radicalized by people calling conservatives “Nazis and fascists” and “Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini.” Hannity: “I think that all of us around this country really need moments of reflection, quiet reflection and introspection. And really need to dig deep into, you know, the words that are being used that we’ve become, as I say, numb to and that I would argue, at times, I believe for the weak minded or mentally ill people or people that, you know, can be convinced and indoctrinated into a belief system that they think they’re doing good if they harm the people that they’re being told repeatedly are Nazis and fascists and Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 9/12/25]
    • The Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito claimed that referring to a conservative as a “Nazi” is “a straight line to telling someone this person is bad and you can have a free-for-all with them.” Zito told Fox’s Will Cain: “If you call someone a Nazi or a fascist, you are invoking a term that means that this person is evil and bad and will do you harm and you better get to them first before they get you. It is a straight line to telling someone this person is bad and you can have a free-for-all with them. That’s just the facts. That is what they are doing.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 9/12/25]
    • Watters argued that Democrats are intentionally “brainwashing an online army” when they refer to conservatives as fascists. Watters stated, “They know exactly what they're doing. They’re giving the crazy wing of their party permission to take a shot. They’re brainwashing an online army. The message is, these men are dangerous fascists, be a hero, take them out.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/12/25] 

  • Right-wing personalities blamed the mainstream media for “dehumanizing” conservatives like Kirk, saying “CNN has blood on its hands”

    • Real America’s Voice host Grant Stinchfield said “CNN has blood on its hands” for vilifying Kirk. “They encourage this kind of behavior,” Stinchfield added. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that somebody shoots and kills him after the left-wing media vilified Charlie Kirk for nearly 24 hours yesterday? I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” [Real America's Voice, America's Voice Live, 9/10/25] 
    • Fox News host Greg Gutfeld: “If you subtract the media’s influence, this wouldn't have happened.” Gutfeld continued, “They were brainwashed. And the way that you brainwash somebody is through repetition. Nazi, Nazi, Nazi, fascist, fascist, fascist. That’s how you brainwash. So it’s almost like, shouldn't be surprising, that these things happen.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/11/25] 
    • Right-wing talk show host Liz Wheeler claimed Kirk’s killing was due to hateful speech against Republicans from “MSM, the left, and Democrat politicians to the highest echelons.” She wrote: “Charlie Kirk was murdered because the MSM, the left, and Democrat politicians to the highest echelons—led by former President Biden & Vice President Kamala Harris— have spent the past decade dehumanizing & vilifying all Republicans, constantly, viciously, falsely accusing us of being Hitler, fascists, dictators, authoritarian, hateful, homophobic, xenophobic, transphobic bigots.” [Twitter/X, 9/13/25]