On September 10th, local time, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing conservative political activist, was assassinated while giving a speech at a university in Utah. US President Trump, a close political ally and personal confidant, ordered flags to be flown at half-staff across the country.
Reuters reported that Kirk’s death infuriated many American conservatives, who blamed the attack on liberals. Before the shooter’s identity was identified, many prominent right-wing figures, including Trump, framed the incident as part of a “broader attack on conservatism by the left.” Democrats, on the other hand, focused on condemning gun violence. The “left-right sparring” once again exposed the deepening political divide in the United States.
Conservatives are furious
Trump has often called his political opponents “far-left lunatics” and promoted rhetoric that they posed an existential threat to the United States. After the shooting, he continued to blame the incident on the “excessive rhetoric” of liberals.
In a video posted on his own social media platform, TruthSocial, Trump said, “Day after day, year after year, you demonize those who disagree with you in the most hateful and despicable manner, and violence and murder are the tragic consequences of that behavior.”
He also linked Kirk’s death to his own assassination attempt last year and vowed to take further action to combat political violence.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, followed suit, also posting on social media, “America has lost one of its greatest defenders… Now, we must all commit to defeating the evil that would take Charlie’s life.”
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist who has exerted considerable influence on Trump, also criticized the administration. She directly called on the Trump administration to “crack down on the left” and stated that “every left-wing group funding violent protests should be ruthlessly shut down and prosecuted.”
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has been out of touch with American politics for some time since leaving the White House, has become the latest focus of public attention with a series of more blunt posts.
After seeing Shaun Maguire, a partner at venture capital giant Sequoia Capital, write, “The left has been promoting the threat of right-wing violence for over a decade, but now the danger comes from the left,” he retweeted and replied, “The left is the party of murder.”
Musk’s statement echoed the prevailing sentiment among his Republican allies. The latter believes that Democrats’ rhetoric and left-wing media narratives have long fueled hostility toward conservative figures and encouraged a climate of violence against them.
This prompted Mike Cernovich, a right-wing commentator and self-proclaimed “nationalist” with nearly 700,000 followers, to put aside their dispute over immigration and echo Musk, saying, “It’s not just the ‘left,’ but also the people who fund them, like George Soros, Bill Gates, and (LinkedIn co-founder) Reid Hoffman. No sensible person would believe that an old fool, brainwashed by inflammatory propaganda, is truly responsible for what happened today.” Musk responded, “Indeed.”
Musk also liked another post that said, “Left-wing mainstream media and those like (Governor) Newsom who claim ‘Trump plans to be a dictator’ have created a climate of fear against right-wing figures, which could radicalize countless unstable individuals and lead to political violence.”
House mourns farce: Bipartisan lawmakers exchange insults
Kirk, a gun owner, was shot dead. Faced with this irony, Democrats responded more restrainedly, generally condemning the political violence while reiterating calls for stricter gun control laws.
As Musk made his remarks, key Democratic figures, including former President Biden, former Vice President Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and California Governor Newsom, issued statements condemning the attack and declaring that neither political nor gun violence has a place in the United States.
Former President Barack Obama also spoke that day, saying, “We don’t yet know the motives of the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this despicable act of violence has no place in our system.”
Gibby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman currently active in gun control groups, also emphasized that political divisions are normal in society, but the United States cannot “become a nation that resolves differences with violence.”
Giffords herself was a victim of a shooting. In 2011, she was shot at a campaign event, suffering a severe head injury and a speech impediment that ultimately forced her to resign from the House of Representatives.
The only exception is Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has recently been locked in a heated dispute with Trump over the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
Speaking about the shooting, Pritzker directly blamed Trump for the political violence. He told reporters, “This has to stop. I believe there are people in this country who are inciting violence, and the president’s rhetoric is constantly inciting violence.”
An even greater division is occurring in Congress
According to the latest reports from Fox News and The Hill, on Wednesday local time, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson led a moment of silence for Kirk in the House chamber, then allowed Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert to speak. Boebert spoke.
Boebert, choking up, said, “Silent prayers yield silent results,” then asked, “Will someone lead us in a loud prayer for Charlie and his family…”
The moment of silence soon devolved into a quarrel and recriminations, with groans and shouts of discontent erupting from the audience. Johnson repeatedly banged the gavel and yelled, “Keep order!”
According to a member of the House who was present, some Democrats questioned why other deaths involving less prominent individuals weren’t receiving the same attention. They felt that approving Boebert’s prayer proposal “violated standard House procedure.”
According to the latest news from Axios, New York Democratic Representative Joe Morelle, the minority leader of the House Administration Committee, explained, “We don’t hold a special prayer service in the chamber, even for deceased members.”
“We have a process that applies to everyone. When you break that process and make exceptions, it creates unrest, and I think that was exactly what happened,” he added.
According to Politico, as Johnson slammed the gavel in an attempt to calm the situation, Florida Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna suddenly stood up and yelled at the Democratic members, “This is all your hate speech!” Her words were interspersed with profanities.
Luna previously served as the director of Latin American business affairs for Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organization in the United States, founded by Kirk.
This sparked a further reaction from Democrats. Connecticut Representative Jahana Hayes, who leads the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, immediately shouted back, “Then pass gun control!”
Two years ago, Congress painstakingly passed the first comprehensive gun control bill in 30 years. However, while this bipartisan bill closed legal loopholes and strengthened background checks, it had little impact on shootings.
U.S. political divisions deepen
Reuters believes the drama unfolding in the U.S. House of Representatives provides a stark illustration of a nation divided by political animosity. The heated debate between the two parties means Kirk’s death will only further deepen the already deep political divide in the United States, much like the impact of the two failed assassination attempts against Trump last year.
The report lamented that since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States has not seen a moment of national unity over tragedy in nearly 25 years. The United States is experiencing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s. Since the violent storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, Reuters alone has documented over 300 acts of politically motivated violence.
Ruth Braunstein, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University who has long studied right-wing groups in the United States, believes the shooting could exacerbate already tense political conditions in the United States.
Braunstein said, “On a personal level, this is obviously a tragedy; but on a political level, it has the potential to further inflame an already heated political environment. That possibility is real, and the risk is real.”
Christian Heyne, chief policy officer of the gun violence prevention organization Brady, named after former White House press secretary James Brady, who was shot and seriously wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on Republican President Reagan, called for a bipartisan consensus on gun control.
Heyne posted on the social media platform BlueSky, “Gun violence knows no partisanship. It is indiscriminate, and the American people are always the ones who suffer. We know change is possible, and we must stop talking about ‘divisive camps’ and work together to build a safer future.”
Representative Susie Lee, a Democrat from Nevada, told Axios that the incident “reminds us that we must cool down the political heat in this country.” She noted that “political violence scares us all, and such intense confrontation does nothing to resolve the issues.”
Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, also sought to defuse the situation, saying Kirk’s death should not be used as an excuse to further escalate the conflict.
Tillis said in an interview, “Anyone who encourages an aggressive response rather than a civilized dialogue bears some responsibility for the death of Kirk and the other victims.”
However, few in either party are likely to heed Tillis’s call. The veteran politician has announced he will not seek a third term in 2026 and will officially retire from politics when his term ends in January. As one of only two Republican senators to oppose Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill, he has recently come under intense attack from the Trump camp.
