Cox, who called for reconciliation and warned against social media \u2014 a \u201ccancer on our society\u201d \u2014 evoked Lincoln roughly an hour after Trump, on Fox News, promised that the \u201cradical left\u201d would pay for Kirk\u2019s death. Kirk had been a close ally of Trump and a key factor in his strong performance among young voters in the 2024 election. Trump also called for the death penalty for the killer and ignored Democratic victims of the recent surge in political violence in the United States<\/a> \u2014 a list that includes the two assassination attempts Trump survived last summer.<\/p>\n In one of those moments of mourning meant to inspire unity, Trump and his main allies chose instead to turn it into a new argument for the political persecution of their opponents: they announced retaliation against the so-called \u201cradical left\u201d<\/a> \u2014 to which early evidence does not link Robinson, who was raised in a Republican household and was a gun enthusiast in Utah \u2014 and promised purges of officials, as well as threats against foreign citizens who might celebrate or justify Kirk\u2019s death. The 31-year-old MAGA activist was a controversial figure for his staunch defense of gun rights; xenophobic, Islamophobic, and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric; and his involvement in an exclusionary Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n Millions of followers<\/p>\n Kirk was also an extraordinarily influential figure, not only in the United States and not only in life: his accounts, and those of Turning Point, the conservative advocacy organization he founded at just 18, have gained millions of followers since a bullet fired from a hunting rifle struck him in the neck during an outdoor debate event on the Utah Valley University<\/a> campus.<\/p>\n His widow, Erika Kirk, remembered her husband on Friday with a speech in which she extended blame beyond Robinson, who, according to authorities, acted alone. She said that \u201cthe evildoers responsible\u201d for her husband\u2019s murder \u201chave no idea what they\u2019ve done.\u201d \u201cThey killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and God\u2019s merciful love. If you thought my husband\u2019s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, and this world.\u201d<\/p>\n The following day, it was announced that Kirk\u2019s funeral will take place next Sunday in a stadium in Glendale, Arizona, near the home of his wife and two children. The stadium has a capacity of 63,000, and Trump has confirmed he will attend.<\/p>\n Kirk\u2019s death has once again highlighted the deafening divide between the two Americas. Republicans blame Democrats for the climate of tension that led to his murder \u2014 or even for the murder itself, as South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace suggested in a meeting with reporters at the foot of the Capitol.<\/p>\n Democrats, for their part, insist that the problem comes from both sides, and that Trump bears responsibility for the confrontational rhetoric that floods public discourse in the United States, amplified by social media. Elon Musk, owner of one such platform, X, posted last week that \u201cthe left is the party of murder.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the current situation, legislators on both sides of the aisle seem to agree on only two things: concern for their personal safety and anxiety about participating in public events.<\/p>\n Liberal columnist Ezra Klein <\/a>defended Kirk on Friday, adopting a conciliatory tone, praising the activist\u2019s \u201cright way\u201d of doing politics and highlighting his willingness to talk \u201cwith anyone\u201d in the university debates he organized across the country \u2014 the very type of events where he ultimately lost his life in Utah.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the progressive side of the Democratic Party stresses that mourning his death is not the same as celebrating his life, as Elisabeth Spiers writes in The Nation<\/a>, and insists that the left should not fall into the trap of \u201cmoral superiority.\u201d<\/p>\n Dozens, possibly hundreds, of people have been fired by private companies for making comments celebrating or excusing the murder. A website called Expose Charlie\u2019s Murderers encourages reporting citizens who celebrated the crime. It also promises that the site \u2014 a true monument to doxing \u2014 \u201cwill soon be converted into a searchable database of all 30,000 submissions, filterable by general location and job industry.\u201d It adds: \u201cThis is a permanent and continuously-updating archive of Radical activists calling for violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the fierce debates that have emerged in recent days, one issue has been surprisingly sidelined: gun control. Perhaps because the country \u2014 or at least the part of it advocating for a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment \u2014 has lost hope of effecting change. Or perhaps because on the same day Kirk, a staunch supporter of that amendment, died, there was also a school shooting in Colorado. A 16-year-old boy, \u201cradicalized by an extremist network,\u201d according to investigators, shot two classmates, leaving them in critical condition.<\/p>\n![\"Erika](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4U7WH6AULFPBND3XKDJVVH2YNE.jpg\")
Erika Kirk during her message published on September 12, 2025.Turning Point Usa (EFE)<\/p>\n