The Trump administration is using the assassination last week of fascist mouthpiece Charlie Kirk as an opportunity to launch a far-reaching campaign targeting democratic rights. The US government is seizing on the killing of Kirk to arrogate to itself new powers aimed at silencing dissent and establishing police-state rule.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in Utah unveiled multiple charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk’s killing. The charges include aggravated murder, which carries with it the possibility under state law of the death penalty by firing squad or lethal injection.
The documents do not assert that Robinson was part of a far left-wing network or a member of “antifa.” In the documents, prosecutors allege that Robinson, in front of family members, accused Kirk of “spreading hate.” They allege that following Kirk’s death, Robinson admitted to his roommate, “a biological male who was involved in a romantic relationship with Robinson,” that he killed Kirk.
Text messages produced in the charging documents do not point to a coherent political ideology or program. In interviews and in Discord messages shared by journalist Ken Klippenstein, Robinson’s friends indicate that he was heavily immersed in online video games and internet meme culture but not overtly political. One of Tyler’s friends told Klippenstein, “Obviously he’s okay with gay and trans people having a right to exist, but also believes in the Second Amendment.”
These facts have not prevented the Trump administration from using Kirk’s killing to wage war on its political enemies, using the power of the state and the mass media, and relying on the cowardly silence of the Democrats on Kirk’s fascist politics.
On Monday, September 15, Vice President JD Vance hosted the first edition of The Charlie Kirk Show since Kirk’s passing and spelled out the coming McCarthyite crackdown on all political dissent from his office inside the White House complex. The hosting of the podcast by Vance from inside the White House underscores Kirk’s adoption by the ruling class, his promotion as a hero and martyr, and the deceased white supremacist and antisemite’s utility in spreading state-sanctioned propaganda. Days before hosting the show, Vance flew to Utah and transported Kirk’s casket on Air Force 2.
Vance began the podcast by hailing Kirk as “a joyful warrior for our country,” noting that he was “critical” to the election of Trump and himself. In virtually every public appearance, Kirk regularly spouted the same “Great Replacement” theory and racist talking points that have become commonplace within the Republican Party and among anti-immigrant political movements all around the world.
In this clip filmed less than two months ago with fellow racist and Trump supporter Tucker Carlson, Kirk lamented that London was “conquered” by immigration:
When I go walk through Piccadilly Square and there is just more Muslims than native born whites there is something wrong about that, that is a metamorphosis you have to wonder, did you vote for this? Did you want this? Did you invite it?
Venerating Kirk’s promotion of fascist politics and appealing to Christian nationalists, Vance said Kirk taught “us ... to have faith, to have faith in the Lord and to be bold in how we glorify him, to be bold in our pursuits as Charlie was in his.”
Vance proceeded to bring on as his first guest Trump’s fascist White House senior adviser Stephen Miller to talk about “How to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream.”
Vance added, “We are going to go after the NGO (non-governmental organization) network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence.”
Making clear that these discussions had been ongoing well before Kirk’s killing, Vance said:
Walk me through at a high level, like, what you and I have been working on, what the whole administration has been working on to try to make sure that we don’t reward and promote this craziness?
Miller replied:
Yes ... I have said this before ... but it bears repeating. The last message that Charlie sent me was, I think it was just the day before we lost him, which is that we need to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country.
Miller added:
We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.
Without presenting a shred of evidence, Miller said:
It is a vast domestic terrorist movement. With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks…
Vance concluded the podcast by claiming that celebrating and promoting political violence was overwhelmingly the purview of the left, declaring that “the data is clear, people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.” This is a lie that is contradicted by history and facts.
Literally the same day that Trump posted a video on his social media platform gloating that the US military under his command had executed three people without trial in international waters, Vance declared, “This is not a both sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth that must be told.”
On the insufferable podcast Monday of Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened the First Amendment rights of every person in the US: “There is free speech and then there is hate speech. And there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society.”
Miller asked Bondi if she saw “more law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people so we show them that some action is better than no action?”
Bondi replied: “We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything. And that’s across the aisle.”
In a Fox News interview Monday evening, Bondi asserted that “employers ... have an obligation to get rid of people. You need to look at people who are saying horrible things and they shouldn’t be working with you.”
Referencing the firing of an Office Depot worker in Portage, Michigan, who courageously refused to print posters intended for a vigil for Kirk, Bondi threatened to prosecute workers for conducting similar actions.
She said:
Businesses cannot discriminate. If you want to go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that. I have Harmeet Dhillon (assistant attorney general) right now in our Civil Rights unit looking at that immediately that Office Depot had done that. We are looking at that.
Going beyond the crackdown on teachers, professors, workers and students opposed to the genocide in Gaza, led first by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, Trump and the Republicans are criminalizing dissent by those who do not properly venerate Kirk and extending the witch-hunt to all groups on the left. Hundreds of teachers, workers and students have already been fired, placed under “investigation,” arrested or expelled from school for expressing opposition to Kirk’s politics.
Camryn Giselle Booker, an 18-year-old student at Texas Tech University, was arrested last week on simple assault charges for interrupting a vigil for Kirk held near the Student Union Building, a designated “free speech area.” She was promptly expelled by the school administration.
Charging documents do not indicate why Booker was charged with assault. In an edited video of the incident that went viral on right-wing social media, Booker is seen taunting Kirk’s supporters, noting that Kirk is “dead, he got shot in the head.”
Fascist Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted a photo on his social media account showing Booker being arrested by police. Abbott captioned the photo: “This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech. [Fuck Around and Find Out].”
In another social media post on Monday, Abbott confirmed that the Texas Education Agency is investigating teachers for their social media posts concerning Kirk, and “more than 100” will have their “teacher certification suspended and be ineligible to teach in a Texas public school.”
An employee in the 23-campus California State University system spoke to the WSWS about how he was doxxed and is facing targeted harassment following Kirk’s assassination.
“They are saying they’re going to get me fired for what I said about Charlie Kirk,” the worker said, adding, “It’s innocent people who are being harassed and targeted.”
In an email the employee shared with the WSWS, a fascist threatens the worker by name, stating he will “not rest until you are terminated from your position.”