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Reality undermines the right’s push to censor speech after Kirk killing [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-09-17
The Trump administration is using the killing of bigoted conservative activist Charlie Kirk to justify a crackdown on a purported network of left-wing agitators in America, but a stream of evidence continues to undermine their false narrative.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller insisted on Monday that “a vast, domestic terror movement” exists on the left and that following Kirk’s death the administration would “use every resource … to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.”
But after the suspected shooter was indicted in Utah on Tuesday, no evidence supporting Miller’s specious claim emerged. According to court documents, accused shooter Tyler Robinson sent a series of messages to his roommate that cited Kirk’s bigotry as justification for the shooting.
“I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” he allegedly wrote.
Robinson was charged with murder and six other charges—but purported connections to the types of networks Miller ranted about were not made in the prosecutor’s court documents.
Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security agent, criticized Miller’s characterizations in an interview with MSNBC.
“When I see terms like disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks, the question is—Is it a criminal network that’s plotting crimes?” he asked. “If they are, then disrupt and dismantle them. We don’t just disrupt or dismantle organizations that we disagree with.”
Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 in Orem, Utah.
Contrary to rhetoric from Miller, the White House, and other figures in conservatism (like President Donald Trump), data shows that most domestic terrorism in recent years comes from the right. Following Kirk’s death, the Department of Justice purged an online report from the agency’s National Institute of Justice discussing this point.
The report noted that “the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism,” a fact that undermines the right’s current stance.
At the same time the right is doing its best to demonize and silence the left, Republican leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson have continued to excuse violent rhetoric from figures like Trump. Asked about Trump’s long history of instigating violence (like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol), Johnson said on Tuesday, “Look, there's a lot of heated rhetoric all around, and what I'm trying to advance here is this idea that we can have vigorous policy debates.”
It is unclear how, for instance, how “vigorous policy debates” could include something like when Trump told his supporters it would be “wild” at the Capitol as pro-Trump protestors sought to undermine the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden.
Conservatives are embracing a widespread censorship of the left and are using Kirk’s death as an excuse to end careers for people who, in their eyes, think and speak the wrong way.
In his life, Kirk was an unapologetic bigot and promoter of hate and conspiracies. The right is trying to criminalize people who tell the truth about one of their beloved figures, but it will not change the reality of what he stood for.
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