News24 | Right-wing anger surges as Kirk’s killing fuels calls for vengeance

• Trump supporters blamed the left for Kirk's murder, fuelling political tensions.
• Calls for vengeance and radicalisation surged on right-wing platforms.
• Democratic leaders condemned violence, urge calm amid rising tensions.

The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk ignited a wave of fury on the far right, where some US President Donald Trump supporters cast the murder as a political flashpoint and threat to conservative power amid a broader reckoning over rising violence.

Some supporters of Trump blamed the political left, casting Kirk’s murder as the culmination of years of hostility toward Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

On social media, they pointed to posts that appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death as evidence of conservatives increasingly being targeted.

“They couldn’t beat him in a debate, so they assassinated him,” Isabella Maria DeLuca, a pardoned 6 January rioter and conservative activist, wrote on X.

Mike Davis, a Republican lawyer and prominent Trump supporter, said in an interview that Kirk’s ability to galvanise a new generation of conservatives posed “an existential threat to the future of leftist ideology and power.”

READ | Trump urges peaceful response to Charlie Kirk killing, as police hunt shooter

On Friday, Trump said a suspect in the shooting had been taken into custody. Trump did not share the suspect’s identity, but two people familiar with the investigation identified him to Reuters as Tyler Robinson, 22.

Jen Golbeck, a computer science professor at the University of Maryland who studies right-wing online activity, analysed more than 3 000 posts on two websites: X and the pro-Trump forum Patriots.Win – in the 24 hours following the shooting.

She found a volatile mix of grief, rage, and signs of growing radicalisation. With the shooter’s identity and motive still unknown, Golbeck said Trump supporters were “grabbing on to a narrative that fits what they want.”

On Patriots.Win, calls for vengeance surged.

“The entire Democrat party needs to f*cking hang now!” one anonymous poster wrote.

“This is the Reichstag Fire,” another said, referencing a 1933 arson attack that helped usher in Nazi rule in Germany.

Reuters was unable to reach a representative of Patriots.Win for comment.

One anonymous user on X called Kirk’s death a breaking point, warning that the nation was “teetering between a political rupture and civil war”. “We’re past words,” the post read.

Amid the fury, some voices urged restraint.

“Stop trying to stoke violence,” one Patriots.Win commenter wrote.

READ | Charlie Kirk fan ‘sick to my stomach’ over killing, Trump to award Medal of Freedom

Kirk, 31, founder of Turning Point USA, was a prominent figure in the MAGA movement, known for his ability to mobilise young conservatives.

Before a suspect was taken into custody, Trump blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder and told reporters on Thursday that “we just have to beat the hell out of them”.

Trump also said that Kirk “was an advocate of nonviolence — that’s the way I’d like to see people respond.”

US Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, told reporters after the shooting on Wednesday that “Democrats own what happened today”.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who decried the shooting as “horrific,” pushed back on criticism that Democrats needed to tone down their political rhetoric.

“Oh, please. Why don’t you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he’s posted and every ugly word,” she told reporters.

Numerous Democratic leaders urged for calm and condemned Kirk’s murder.

“Political violence is NEVER acceptable,” US House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on X.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called the attack on Kirk “disgusting, vile and reprehensible”, and urged Americans to “reject political violence in EVERY form.”

“We cannot back off”

READ | Police ask for help to catch Kirk killer: ‘We cannot do our job without the public’s help’

On his War Room podcast, far-right commentator Steve Bannon called Kirk “the America First martyr”, claiming Kirk had been under constant threat from “evil people” on the left. “We cannot back off. We cannot flinch,” Bannon said.

Some chapters of the Proud Boys, the far-right organisation that played a leading role in the 6 January 2021, attack on the US Capitol, refrained from calls to arms but posted accusations on the Telegram messaging app that left-wing activists were mocking Kirk’s death. The Tennessee chapter of the Proud Boys shared a video montage of people laughing at Kirk’s death compiled from social media sites.

Chaya Raichik, a right-wing influencer known for her Libs of TikTok account, posted screenshots of social media users who allegedly celebrated Kirk’s death. Ryan Nichols, a 6 January rioter pardoned by Trump, urged followers to identify and harass those individuals.

He wrote on X:

“This is the way!”

Nealin Parker, executive director of Common Ground USA, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce political violence and polarisation, said she worried that radical voices on the fringes were stoking hate and fear, with potentially violent consequences.

“Right now, people are willing to believe terrible things about the other side,” she said.

“What’s happening online really matters.”