Charlie Kirk
Credit: Reuters Photo
President Donald Trump on Wednesday, September 10, blamed the “radical left” for the fatal shooting of his close ally Charlie Kirk, promising swift action against those he said were fueling political violence in the United States.
In a four-minute video address from the Oval Office, Trump described Kirk’s death as an act of “terrorism” born out of liberal hostility toward conservatives. “Radical-left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Trump said, adding that criticism of conservatives was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
31-year-old Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA, the country’s most prominent right-wing youth organisation. He was fatally shot on Wednesday while addressing about 3,000 people on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem. Officials said he was struck about 20 minutes into the event, with the shot fired from more than 100 yards away, possibly from a rooftop.
Law enforcement initially detained two people in connection with the shooting, but both were later released without charges. FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media that one person had been “released after an interrogation,” and that the investigation was ongoing.
Trump, who called Kirk a “martyr” and a “patriot,” pledged to pursue not only those directly involved in the killing but also “the organisations that fund it and support it.” He linked Kirk’s assassination to other violent incidents targeting Republicans, including the attempt on his own life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the 2017 shooting of Representative Steve Scalise, and attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Notably, Trump did not mention attacks that have targeted Democrats, such as the June killing of Melissa Hortman, former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
“Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country,” Trump said in his address. “An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together we will ensure that his voice, his message and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.”
Leaders from across the political spectrum expressed horror and anger online after the shooting, even as debates broke out in Congress over how the conservative leader should be honored. Videos of the attack circulated widely on social media, showing the moment he was shot and the seconds before it.