‘Trump, and everyone around him, does not want civil discourse about Charlie Kirk’

Read time: 5 mins

In brief…

• The News Agents condemn the killing of Charlie Kirk, but say America, led by Trump, has created a toxic political system with violence increasing in “every direction”.
• Trump has blamed the left for calling people such as Kirk ‘Nazis’, which contradicts his own administration’s calls for a return to ‘free speech’ across the world.
• Senior political figures in the UK have spoken about the killing, including Boris Johnson, who said the far-right podcasting was murdered for holding “common sense” views on LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and other key modern issues.

What’s the story?

Charlie Kirk, who once said that deaths due to gun violence were “worth the cost” for Americans to have the right to own weapons, was shot dead on Wednesday 11 September.

The far-right podcaster and political activist was killed while making a speech at Utah Valley University.

In his time, Kirk said that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a mistake and that black people were happier and safer during slavery, suggested gay men should be "stoned to death", said empathy is a "new age term that does a lot of damage", and claimed Jewish people, and Jewish money, controlled colleges, Hollywood and more.

Some saw Kirk as a racist, a homophobe and a misogynist, but to others, he was an all-American hero.

Donald Trump has described Kirk as "great, and even legendary", and claimed he was "loved by all", and was a man who simply spoke “common sense”.

No one has been arrested for the murder, and the person responsible is still at large, but Trump and other right-wing politicians and activists have blamed Democrats and "the radical left" for the killing.

The News Agents condemn the “appalling” murder of Charlie Kirk.

“This is a very personal tragedy for Charlie Kirk, his wife Erica, and their children,” says Emily Maitlis.

“We do not know what the cause was. We do not know who was behind this, but we do know that this feels a really uncomfortable moment for some of those who are salivating to make this into a combat issue, and literally calling for civil war.

“That is the opposite of the effect that you'd ever want a gun death to have.”

Will the response to Charlie Kirk's killing affect the political temperature?

Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama have condemned Kirk's murder, with Biden saying there is "no place" in America for this sort of violence.

Emily says she is surprised to hear some US commentators saying that Charlie Kirk’s murder is not “who we are”.

"I'm sorry, this is exactly who you are," she adds.

"You defend the right of Americans to own guns. You have the most toxic political environment in the world.

"You have big money fermenting political unrest on digital platforms, and then you look surprised when people get shot in cold blood."

Lewis Goodall says the increasingly tense and divided political landscape, spurred by social media, is "increasing in every direction".

"Then the truth of the matter is, the temperature keeps going up, and let's be honest, it is often Trump and the people around Trump who have been some of the primary protagonists of that story," he says.

Other well-known figures in the MAGA movement have said the US is at “war” and that Kirk’s death must be “avenged”.

"There is a choice to be made in our politics about how we want to conduct it and whether or not we want to have a more civil discourse," Lewis adds.

"Trump and everyone around him do not want to have a civil discourse.

"It is central to their politics of aggression and division. Nothing can justify what happened to Kirk in any circumstances, but this is a symptom of a much bigger malaise that goes way beyond the left."

Is this a free speech issue?

In his message, Donald Trump also said that words used by left-wing activists to attack the right – Nazi, fascist – are “having consequences”, and believes this is to blame for Kirk’s brutal murder.

But Trump, and those who also claim the same, are self-appointed champions of ‘free speech’, claiming it is their right to say and believe what they want.

In the UK, many who have condemned left-wing rhetoric have spent much of the summer defending Lucy Connolly, and her right to call for migrant hotels to be burned down with asylum seekers inside.

"The entire centre of so much of the new radical right thinking is to say there should be no limits on free speech," says Lewis.

"It's one or the other. Either there needs to be a recalibration on every side about the sort of language that we use, and the names that are called, or there is complete free speech.

"But what you can't do, is have one side with the right to say whatever they want in the way that they want it, with the words they want, but the other has to shut up. There has never not been hypocrisy on this issue."

Following news of Kirk's death, Boris Johnson said Kirk was killed for speaking "simple common sense" and having "reasonable opinions".

"What's been slightly weird about Boris Johnson and other really senior British political figures reacting to this horrific assassination is that I would not be surprised if loads of our listeners had never heard of him," Lewis says.

He adds that while the online right spend "all day" talking to each other, critiquing the left for being in their own bubble, there is no more "hermetically sealed bubble" than that of the MAGA online right.

"They believe that Charlie Kirk's views and positions are genuinely common and mainstream," he adds.

"There is zero evidence for that in the United States, let alone in the United Kingdom."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.