Charlie Kirk didn’t deserve to be killed. But he spewed falsehoods and hate.

I’m sorry Charlie Kirk, a well-known right-wing activist, was killed by an assassin in Utah last Wednesday. No one deserves to die for expressing their political beliefs.

However, I’m amazed at how the Trump administration reacted to his death as if he was a former president.

The vice-president flew to Utah on Air Force Two and transported his body back to Arizona, where Kirk lived. The FBI director went to Utah to oversee the manhunt for his killer, even though Kash Patel has no experience in this area. Flags were flown at half-staff. Praise of Kirk from Republicans made him sound like a conservative Gandhi, a selfless protector of free speech and open debate.

The truth is this: Kirk was an accomplished political operative and communicator who played a large role in turning out young people to vote for Trump in the 2024 election. I give him credit for that. Yet he also spewed messages of hate and violence that belied his supposedly deep Christian values. Once he said:

Joe Biden is a bumbling dementia filled Alzheimer’s corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.

So we need to keep two thoughts about Charlie Kirk in our mind at the same time. (1) Regret that he was killed at the age of 31, leaving behind two young children and a wife. (2) Disgust at his despicable political positions.

Here’s the  Google AI result I got after asking for Charlie Kirk worst things he said.

On race and ethnicity

• Civil Rights Act: He called the 1964 Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake”.
• Affirmative action: He made numerous inflammatory statements about affirmative action and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies. He claimed prominent Black women, including Michelle Obama and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, “lacked the brain processing power” to succeed without such policies.
• Racial stereotypes: Kirk suggested that seeing a Black pilot would make him question their qualifications, fearing they were a product of affirmative action rather than merit.
• Antisemitism: He was accused of antisemitism for promoting the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which alleges that Jewish people are trying to replace white Americans with nonwhite immigrants. In 2023, he claimed Jewish philanthropy was “funding institutions that breed anti-Semites” and that Jewish people controlled many sectors of society, echoing long-standing antisemitic tropes. 

On LGBTQ+ people

• Gender-affirming care: He advocated for “Nuremberg-style trials” for doctors who provide gender-affirming care.
• Transgender identity: He repeatedly referred to transgender identity as a “mental disease” and used transphobic language. 

On gun violence

• Second Amendment: He argued that a certain number of annual gun deaths was an “unfortunate but rational” cost for preserving the Second Amendment. 

On COVID-19

• Vaccines and mandates: He spread misinformation about COVID-19 and characterized vaccine and mask mandates as “medical apartheid”. 

Other topics

• Political violence: During the 2020 election, he called for a “peaceful rebellion” against governors over pandemic lockdowns and sent buses of “patriots” to Washington, D.C., before the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
• Political polarization: Kirk often engaged in highly confrontational rhetoric, famously using the slogan “Prove Me Wrong” to provoke heated debates on college campuses. 

His contentious commentary inspired both fierce loyalty and severe condemnation throughout his career.

I’ll add some highly disturbing additional facts about Kirk from his Wikipedia page.

• He falsely claimed that George Floyd was “illegally counterfeiting currency” and had once “put a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach.”
• He was briefly banned from Twitter after falsely claiming that hydroxychloroquine had proved to be “100% effective in treating the [Covid] virus.”
• He promoted misleading claims about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
• He was a Christian nationalist who called the separation of Church and state in the United States a “fabrication.”
• He called for the imprisonment of doctors who perform gender-affirming care and demanded “Nuremberg-style” trials for them.
• He opposed abortion exceptions for rape, including for children as young as 10.
• He stated that birth control makes women angry and bitter, which he alleged suited the political leanings of the Democratic Party.
• He said “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people” in urban America.
• He blamed DEI programs for national aviation issues, saying, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.”
• He said that immigration to the United States should be completely stopped.
• He said that “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.“
• He often advanced pro-Russian talking points about the Russo-Ukrainian War.
• He opposed the U.S. sending arms to Ukraine or helping the country financially.
• He promoted climate change denial, calling global warming a hoax.