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A police officer walks out of a building at Utah Valley University as authorities investigate the fatal shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk. Conservative influencers have reacted with grief and anger to Kirk's killing. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images North America hide caption
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Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images North America
As news of the death of Charlie Kirk broke yesterday, conservative journalist Megyn Kelly was interviewing Glenn Beck, a prominent political commentator on the right.
"There are news outlets reporting the worst now Glenn," Kelly said, choking back tears. "They're reporting that Charlie has died."
"There's no way he survived that," said Beck of the bullet that struck Kirk in the neck as he spoke at a college campus in Utah. He then began weeping.
Across social media conservative influencers have exploded with a mix of grief and rage. Some mourned the loss of Kirk as a martyr, while others, without evidence, quickly blamed the left and Democrats for, at the very least, provoking the unknown shooter. Some went further still, suggesting that malevolent forces had orchestrated the killing. Their feelings were echoed by President Trump himself, who on Wednesday released a brief video that began by praising Kirk, before wheeling to attack.
"For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murders and criminals," Trump said. "This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today."
The 31-year-old Kirk was a prominent member of the political right who, at age 18, started an organization for like-minded college students during the presidency of Barack Obama. He went on to build that group, Turning Point USA, into a political organization that, among other things, helped President Trump to victory in 2024.
Kirk championed long-standing, Christian conservative causes: large families anchored by a husband and wife, regular church attendance and a prohibition on abortion. He also believed that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ultimately led to discrimination against white Americans and was a regular critic of Martin Luther King, Jr. He sometimes used his social media presence, podcasts and speeches to amplify far-right voices and discredited claims, some of which cast people including immigrants, transgender people as threats.
It was during a Turning Point event at Utah Valley University in Orem, where Kirk was assassinated.
In the hours that followed, graphic footage of the killing circulated widely on X, along with reactions from conservative activists. "The lord God has called his servant Charlie Kirk home. Charlie is now a martyr," wrote pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson on X.
A photo of Charlie Kirk is displayed during the vigil at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City following the killing of the conservative activist. The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images North America hide caption
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The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images North America
"All of us will miss him, and I can't imagine the pain of his beautiful young family, and we must all pray for them," wrote podcaster Ben Shapiro. "We must fight for a better America - an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet."
For many influencers, the news of Kirk's death was "deeply emotional," said Nicole Hemmer, a political historian at Vanderbilt University. Kirk had many connections within conservative media. "He was one of those figures who a lot of people would text and would go on the road with."
Kirk was also beloved by many ordinary conservatives, and those people should be called to action by his death, said Glenn Beck on his show Thursday. "There were a thousand Charlie Kirks created yesterday. The tyrant dies and his rule is over. The martyr dies and his rule begins."
Anger towards the left
But even as conservatives mourned, many railed against Democrats and the left. "The Left lectured us for the last decade about the dangers of violence from the Right, From the assassination attempts of President Trump, To Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO, being murdered, Now to Charlie Kirk The danger was actually on the Left," wrote Shaun Maguire, a venture capitalist and conservative political activist. "The left is the party of murder," wrote billionaire Elon Musk, reposting Macguire. "If they won't leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die," he added in response to another poster.
Such statements came even as the authorities continue to search for the shooter and there is no information about the assassin or the motives behind the attack.
"Without more information, many on the political right naturally look at those they perceive as their political enemies," said Shannon McGregor, who studies media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "The easy answer is, 'Why would someone do this? It's because they are opposed to us.'"
Katie Gaddini, a sociologist at the University College London who studies Christian support for Trump, said that the narrative may stick regardless of what facts emerge.
"It has already been cast as an attack from the left, and I think it's going to be hard to shift that narrative regardless of what we find out about the shooter," Gaddini said.
Some are already blaming the Democratic party and claiming prominent donors were directly responsible for the killing. "It's not gun violence, it's Democrat violence," wrote actor and conservative activist James Woods. "The Democrat Party must be classified as a domestic terror organization and their members & leaders treated accordingly," wrote podcaster Joey Mannarino.
Many Democratic politicians condemned the killing. "The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form," wrote Gavin Newsom on X. "Political violence is absolutely unacceptable and indefensible," wrote U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn). Kirk had attacked Omar both personally and politically in the past.
But statements like those did little to quell the anger. "This has been a very radicalizing week," wrote conservative firebrand Laura Loomer. "A message to the Left: Debate time is over. You ended it."
Loomer and other conservative commentators have begun posting names and posts of individuals they say are celebrating Kirk's death, often demanding retribution. A website called "Expose Charlie's Murderers" also invited users to submit links to individuals celebrating his murder. "We seek to collect and archive instances of individuals promoting or glorifying of political violence, much like archive.org or archive.is," the website read. "We firmly denounce all political violence and criminal activity."
But in the wake of such a gruesome public murder, Hemmer worries that more violence will come.
"Violence begets violence," she said. "When that imagery is out there, I think it expands people's capacity for violent revenge."
NPR's Shannon Bond contributed to this report.
