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The right is treating Charlie Kirk’s death like it’s another 9/11 [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-09-11
Conservatives are treating the killing of right-wing pundit and activist Charlie Kirk, who espoused bigotry and conspiracy theories, as an event on par with the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands of innocent people.
The disproportionate treatment is coming from the top. On Thursday, the White House announced that Vice President JD Vance would skip the 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City and would instead visit Kirk’s family in Salt Lake City, about 45 miles from where he was killed. Vance also plans to escort Kirk’s body back to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two.
Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick compared Kirk’s killing to Americans facing evil on 9/11 in an op-ed column in the New York Post, which, like Fox News, is owned by conservative mogul Rupert Murdoch.
“On Wednesday, as a deranged gunman murdered my great friend Charlie Kirk for his political views, we were reminded that the battle against evil is never over. But just as we did after 9/11, we will endure, we will fight on, and we will never, ever surrender,” Lutnick wrote, even though the shooter was not captured at the time of the article’s publication, nor was their motivation known. (Those two facts remain the case as of this article’s publication.)
The column was promoted by the White House’s official X account, which is followed by 2.5 million other accounts.
At the ceremony in New York, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth equated Kirk’s “sheer courage” with the courage of first responders and others who were killed during the 9/11 attack.
“Full heart, clear eyes—like those on 9/11, you will never be forgotten,” Hegseth added.
On Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked scandal-plagued New York City Mayor Eric Adams to address “the hate that caused the death of Charlie Kirk” alongside “the hate that caused 9/11.”
In the same interview, Adams told Fox, “It’s the same hate that drove two planes into the World Trade Center that drove a bullet through the neck of Charlie Kirk.”
On Wednesday night, during a broadcast of “Fox News @ Night,” Fox political analyst Gianno Caldwell noted, “In less than 10 minutes, it’s going to be 9/11 for many of us on the East Coast, where we remember people have died, heroes that we salute. We salute Charlie Kirk in a very similar way.”
In a post recapping the latest episode of conservative activist Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Kari Donovan wrote of Kirk, “Likened to a ‘third tower’ on 9/11, his loss symbolizes ideological war.”
The comments add to the whitewashing of Kirk’s record as a public figure. He promoted racism, misogyny, conspiracy theories, and outright falsehoods.
Nearly 3,000 innocent people were killed on 9/11. They were parents, children, siblings, and friends. They weren’t hatemongers, and they aren’t the same as Kirk at all.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/11/2343045/-The-right-is-treating-Charlie-Kirk-s-death-like-it-s-another-9-11?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_5&pm_medium=web
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