Right-wing anger surges as Kirk’s killing fuels calls for vengeance

By Joseph Tanfani, Ned Parker and John Shiffman

(Reuters) -As the manhunt for the killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk stretched into Thursday evening, his death ignited a wave of fury on the far right, where some Trump supporters cast the murder as a political flashpoint and threat to conservative power amid a broader reckoning over rising violence.

Some supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump blamed the political left, casting Kirk’s murder as the culmination of years of hostility toward Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. On social media, they pointed to posts that appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death as evidence of conservatives increasingly being targeted. 

“They couldn’t beat him in a debate, so they assassinated him,” Isabella Maria DeLuca, a pardoned January 6 rioter and conservative activist, wrote on X. 

Mike Davis, a Republican lawyer and prominent Trump supporter, said in an interview Kirk’s ability to galvanize a new generation of conservatives posed “an existential threat to the future of leftist ideology and power.”

Jen Golbeck, a computer science professor at the University of Maryland who studies right-wing online activity, analyzed more than 3,000 posts on two websites – X and the pro-Trump forum Patriots.Win – in the 24 hours following the shooting. She found a volatile mix of grief, rage, and signs of growing radicalization. With the shooter’s identity and motive still unknown, Golbeck said Trump supporters were “grabbing on to a narrative that fits what they want.”

On Patriots.Win, calls for vengeance surged. “The entire Democrat party needs to fucking hang now!” one anonymous poster wrote. “This is the Reichstag Fire,” another anonymous user said, referencing a 1933 arson attack that helped usher in Nazi rule in Germany. “It’s time to end democracy.” Reuters was unable to reach a representative of Patriots.Win for comment.

One anonymous user on X called Kirk’s death a breaking point, warning that the nation was “teetering between a political rupture and civil war.” “We’re past words,” the post read.

Amid the fury, some voices urged restraint. “Stop trying to stoke violence,” one Patriots.Win commenter wrote. 

Kirk, 31, founder of Turning Point USA, was a prominent figure in the MAGA movement, known for his ability to mobilize young conservatives. 

Trump has blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder and told reporters on Thursday that “we just have to beat the hell out of them.” Trump also said that Kirk “was an advocate of nonviolence — that’s the way I’d like to see people respond.” U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, told reporters after the shooting on Wednesday that “Democrats own what happened today.”

Trump added that law enforcement was making “big progress” in the investigation. While officials have not disclosed a motive, Trump hinted he had insight into the suspect’s intentions. “We’ll let you know about that later,” he said.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who decried the shooting as “horrific,” pushed back on criticism that Democrats needed to tone down their political rhetoric. "Oh, please. Why don't you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he's posted and every ugly word," she told reporters.

Numerous Democratic leaders urged for calm and condemned Kirk’s murder. “Political violence is NEVER acceptable,” U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on X. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the attack on Kirk “disgusting, vile and reprehensible,” and urged Americans to “reject political violence in EVERY form.”

“WE CANNOT BACK OFF”

On his War Room podcast, far-right commentator Steve Bannon called Kirk “the America First martyr,” claiming Kirk had been under constant threat from “evil people” on the left. “We cannot back off. We cannot flinch,” Bannon said.

Some chapters of the Proud Boys, the far-right organization that played a leading role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, refrained from calls to arms but posted accusations on the Telegram messaging app that left-wing activists were mocking Kirk’s death. The Tennessee chapter of the Proud Boys shared a video montage of people laughing at Kirk’s death compiled from social media sites. 

Chaya Raichik, a right-wing influencer known for her Libs of TikTok account, posted screenshots of social media users who allegedly celebrated Kirk’s death. Ryan Nichols, a January 6 rioter pardoned by Trump, urged followers to identify and harass those individuals. “Tag them, their employers, and make it so uncomfortable for them to even leave their house,” he wrote on X. “This is the way!”

Nealin Parker, executive director of Common Ground USA, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce political violence and polarization, said she worried that radical voices on the fringes were stoking hate and fear, with potentially violent consequences.

“Right now people are willing to believe terrible things about the other side,” she said. “What’s happening online really matters.”

(Editing by Jason Szep)