The Impact Of Charlie Kirk S Assassination On The Right Wing Political

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 18, 2025, 11:30 PM

the impact of charlie kirk s assassination on the right wing political

Arie Perliger, The Conversation Arie Perliger, The Conversation Alfonso Serrano, The Conversation Alfonso Serrano, The Conversation The fatal shooting of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, has brought renewed attention to the climate of political violence in America. Kirk’s death reflects a sizable increase in threats against officeholders and politicians at the local and federal level. Alfonso Serrano, a politics editor at The Conversation, spoke with University of Massachusetts Lowell scholar Arie Perliger after Kirk’s shooting.

Perliger studies political violence and assassinations and spoke bluntly about political polarization in the United States. ALFONSO SERRANO: What were your initial thoughts after Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting? We look at the political fallout of Charlie Kirk's assassination, as well as the possibility of a government shutdown as Congress considers President Trump's budget. The assassination of right-wing youth leader Charlie Kirk last week has once again shifted focus onto political violence and the increasing polarization in American society. Here's Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox speaking to the press on Friday. SPENCER COX: To my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage.

It feels like rage is the only option. But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path. RASCOE: We're now joined by NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Good morning, Mara. MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha. Wide-open gun culture and hyper-polarization are bringing the “years of lead” to the USA.

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old right-wing activist who led Turning Point USA, in Utah on Wednesday was horrifying and upsetting. Kirk was fatally shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University. His death was confirmed hours later by President Donald Trump and others. He was the father of two young children.

Yet, as shocking as Kirk’s killing was, the fact that there was this kind of assassination is sadly not that unexpected. After all, America is awash in violence, political or otherwise, every day of the year. Responding to the initial reports of the shooting, Representative Jaime Raskin wrote: “Condemning another absolutely disgraceful act of gun violence.” The word “another” captures the disturbing truth of the news: Gun violence, whether in... This violence is a product of a political system that refuses to implement gun control even as the social fabric frays. The killing of Charlie Kirk and the political violence haunting America, the deadly ‘kissing bug’ disease spreading across the U.S., and more Charlie Kirk was doing what he so often did—working a college crowd, prodding and provoking students in debate.

The 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA was at Utah Valley University near Salt Lake City on Sept. 10, surrounded by thousands of students gathered in an outdoor courtyard. It was the first stop of Kirk’s fall campus tour, and he was seated beneath a tent emblazoned with the words “The American Comeback.” Kirk became a star in these settings. Since founding his right-wing advocacy organization at 18, he proved peerless at channeling youthful discontent into political energy, shaping a movement with national reach. As Kirk fielded questions from the audience, a shot rang out, striking him in the neck. Panicked students scattered.

Kirk was rushed to the hospital. Grisly footage of the shooting rocketed across social media. Inside the West Wing, staff sat in shocked silence, scrolling to see the latest updates of news on their phones and messages on their computer screens. At 4:40 p.m., Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social. “No one,” the President wrote, “understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.” He leaves behind a wife and two young children. Click here to buy your copy of this issue

In recent years, the prospect of a political assassination such as this, carried out before a stunned crowd in broad daylight, has hung over a nation riven by factional fury. Elected officials whispered about it in green rooms and on campaign buses. When the moment arrived, it unfolded with chilling precision: a campus stage, a microphone, a single burst of gunfire. Where it will lead now is an ominous question with no obvious answers. The assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk is testing political leaders, as some meet the moment with calls for unity and others call for a fight. Scott talks with Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino, about the rise of political violence and where we go from here.

Check out Political Breakdown’s weekly newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox. Three thousand people attended the Turning Point USA event at which Charlie Kirk spoke on Wednesday, on an outdoor green at Utah Valley University. The sheer size of that crowd—in the morning, at a school in a suburb of Provo, and even if some were there to protest—is just another piece of evidence that Kirk, in his years-long... There was a Q. & A. portion, and someone asked how many transgender Americans had been mass shooters in the past decade, to which Kirk replied, “Too many.” The person next asked, “Do you know how many mass shooters there...

In the audience, heads turn: someone had shot him, apparently from an elevated position about a hundred and fifty yards away. Soon, Kirk’s spokesman announced that he had been killed. He was thirty-one, and left behind a wife and two young children. President Trump, a close ally, ordered all flags flown at half-staff until Sunday evening. Kirk’s death was brutal, and tragic. It also had the effect that terrorists aim for, of spreading political panic.

In the immediate aftermath of a killing with obvious political resonance, there is a period of nervous foreboding, as the public waits for news of the perpetrator’s identity and for any hints of what... But, as often as not, information brings no clarity. We have a fairly good sense of the politics that motivated Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of the UnitedHealthcare C.E.O., and James Fields, who sped his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at the... But attempts to define the political motives of Thomas Crooks (who tried to kill Trump last summer, in Butler, Pennsylvania), or of Cody Balmer (who has been charged with firebombing Governor Josh Shapiro’s official... Robin Westman, who stands accused of shooting and killing two children at a Catholic church in Minneapolis last month (and whose transgender identity was the focus of many right-wing media reports), had written “Kill... The motives were strange and idiosyncratic enough that they couldn’t easily be blamed on any one partisan side.

The effect of these violent acts on politics has been easier to track. Shortly after the news of Kirk’s shooting, the former Obama Administration official and liberal pundit Tommy Vietor echoed a common sentiment when he wrote on social media, “Political violence is evil and indefensible. It’s a cancer that will feed off itself and spread.” If that is right—if violence is contagious—then that is because each act generates its own responsive pattern of fear. The news itself in recent years has been a catalogue of the ubiquity of political aggression and anticipatory dread. In 2022, a man arrived at Brett Kavanaugh’s home with a Glock and padded boots; later that year, a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home and tried to murder her husband with a hammer. Threats against members of Congress have also escalated significantly in the past decade.

The Republican senator Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, said at a conference this summer, “I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real.” After the shootings of lawmakers in Minnesota, the... “It’s still in my head. I don’t think it will go away,” he said. What politicians can control is how they respond. Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, Trump denounced his perceived enemies. “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” he said, and vowed to find those he deemed responsible for...

The man sitting at the Resolute desk and blaming his enemies for political demonization—for acting “in the most hateful and despicable way”—had earlier in the week promoted a new campaign of ICE raids in... . .’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” That aggression, combined with Kirk’s shooting, seemed to be literalizing the culture war, in real time.

The Impact Of Charlie Kirk S Assassination On The Right Wing Political

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