Charlie Kirk Murdered and the Right-Wing Calls for War

Summary

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IHIP News – Episode Summary

Episode: Charlie Kirk Murdered and the Right-Wing Calls for War
Date: September 11, 2025
Hosts: Jennifer Welch & Angie "Pumps" Sullivan

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Main Theme & Purpose

This deeply emotional episode responds to the shocking assassination of conservative figure Charlie Kirk at a public event. Jennifer and Angie reflect on the attack, condemn political violence from all sides, and spotlight what they perceive as a coordinated, incendiary reaction from right-wing media and conservative leaders—many of whom use the murder to demonize the political left and escalate culture war rhetoric. The hosts use both personal stories and political analysis to stress the need for de-escalation and to critique responses from the Trump administration and conservative influencers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Immediate Reaction to Charlie Kirk’s Murder

• Condemnation of Political Violence:
  The hosts express horror and empathy in response to the murder, making it clear that no one should be killed for their political beliefs, regardless of partisan differences.
  • “I abhor gun violence. I don’t think anybody should be shot and killed for having an opinion that is different…” (Progressive Commentator, 01:10)
• Personal Connection:
  Jennifer recounts the loss of a team member to gun violence in 2024, underscoring their personal stake in the debate.

2. Gun Violence and Policy in America

• Systemic Problem:
  Both hosts note how gun violence continues to devastate families and express frustration that legislative action has not followed high-profile killings.
  • “We have a gun violence problem in America and we need legislation and gun control to address it.” (Progressive Commentator 2, 05:29)
• Empathy for Victims Across the Spectrum:
  The episode reiterates a consistent position—the lives lost to gun violence are a universal tragedy.

3. Right-Wing Response: Calls for Retaliation and “War”

• Sampling of Right-Wing Rhetoric:
  The hosts summarize aggressive social media and public figures’ reactions, highlighting a slew of war-like language from prominent right-wing influencers:
  • “This is war.” (Libs of TikTok, 03:10)
  • “The Democrat Party must be classified as a domestic terror organization…” (Joey Manorino, 03:16)
  • “The left is the party of murder.” (Elon Musk, 03:33)
  • “Charlie Kirk getting shot is the shot heard around the country. I’m ready for civil war.” (Brian Eastwood, 04:26)
• Concerns Over Escalation:
  The hosts lament the rapid politicization and compare the rhetoric to incitement, expressing fear it will fuel more violence.

4. Double Standards and Aggressive Narratives

• Condemnation Ignored:
  Jennifer notes that while left-leaning politicians quickly condemned the murder, the right has used the tragedy to attack Democrats, labeling them as “domestic terrorists,” despite lacking any information about the perpetrator.
• No Known Suspect:
  The conversation underscores how, absent a suspect, scapegoating the left is irresponsible and dangerous.
  • “Nobody knows who this is and what the motivation is yet. … they’re calling us domestic terrorists.” (Progressive Commentator, 06:18)

5. Use of Tragedy for Authoritarian Gain

• Authoritarian Tactics:
  The hosts criticize what they see as the “Trump regime” leveraging the incident to silence dissent, likening tactics to historical authoritarian regimes.
  • “They’re using this horrific tragedy… to advance this fascist reign.” (Progressive Commentator, 07:19)
• Critique of Conservative Media:
  Fox News and other right-wing outlets are singled out for aggressive coverage that heightens fear and partisanship, with specific mention of Jesse Waters.
  • “I don’t believe that this is responsible at all by Fox News for Jesse Waters to be using that type of aggressive language.” (Progressive Commentator, 09:32)

6. Reflection on Charlie Kirk and Political Empathy

• Acknowledgment of Differences:
  Hosts express their differences with Kirk but emphasize that civility and dissent are the heart of democracy.
  • “Nobody in the Democratic Party wants to see these people killed. We oppose with everything in us the access to guns.” (Progressive Commentator, 08:26)
• Memories of Other Attacks:
  They recall Charlie Kirk’s own comments about violence (Second Amendment “casualties”) and note the lack of empathy in conservative responses to previous left-of-center victims of violence.
  • “I understand why people do not have as much empathy. But we have to vote for empathy because we are a civilized society.” (Progressive Commentator 2, 10:50)

7. Presidential (Trump’s) Response

• Aggressive Threats:
  The sitting president uses the Oval Office to directly blame the left and promises prosecution of not just perpetrators, but organizations and supporters.
  • “Those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis… My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity...” (Conservative Commentator, quoting Trump, 11:51)
• Comparison to Authoritarian Movements:
  The hosts draw direct parallels to past fascist regimes and warn of threats to civil rights in the current climate.

8. Personal Fear and the Climate for Progressive Voices

• Safety Concerns:
  Jennifer shares that she now feels fear just going to work, expressing that hostility toward dissenters has become dangerous even for small-scale podcasters.
  • “When I pulled out of my garage, I was scared. And this is not a way to live.” (Progressive Commentator, 15:17)
• Grief for the State of Democracy:
  The hosts end on a heavy, sorrowful note, lamenting that the nation is “disintegrating” and that open conversation in a civil society now risks lethal repercussions.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Democratic Values & Free Speech:
  “I believe in a free society where people can go out without the fear of getting shot.”
  (Progressive Commentator, 04:32)
• On Authoritarian Response:
  “They create these imaginary things and then fight these imaginary wars.”
  (Progressive Commentator, 08:06)
• Direct Critique of Trump:
  “The response from a sitting president who stoked an insurrection… and then him saying that he’s going to come out and get each and every voice… this is chilling.”
  (Progressive Commentator, 12:34)
• On Living in Fear:
  “We do what Charlie Kirk does on a much, much smaller scale. We built a community with you all, and it’s terrifying… When I pulled out of my garage, I was scared.”
  (Progressive Commentator, 15:16)

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Timestamps & Key Segments

• [00:40] – Hosts react to the shooting, connect it with previous experiences of gun violence.
• [03:00 – 04:30] – Review of right-wing social media reactions calling for “war.”
• [06:00] – Emphasis on the lack of information about the shooter and condemnation of scapegoating.
• [07:00 – 09:30] – Discussion of the incident being used to escalate authoritarian rhetoric; parallels with historical abuses.
• [10:03] – Comparison of current reactions to political violence in recent U.S. history (e.g., January 6th).
• [11:51] – Excerpt: President’s speech and hosts’ critical analysis.
• [15:16] – Jennifer’s personal fear as a progressive commentator in the wake of politicized violence.

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Closing

The episode closes on a somber, fearful note, with the hosts expressing deep concern about the direction of American society and the safety of dissent in the current climate. They reinforce their unequivocal condemnation of all political violence and their commitment to continue advocating for empathy, dialogue, and gun reform—even as threats and polarization reach new heights.

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Transcript

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[Progressive Commentator]

Audible.Com wondery the country is reeling after Charlie Kirk was murdered yesterday at one of his events by an assassin that clearly had to shoot like 200 yards away. One shot all over social media. The scenes are horrific. Political violence must be condemned all the way across the board. You can disagree with somebody politically and I disagreed with almost everything that Charlie Kirk says. And I fundamentally abhor gun violence. I abhor it. I don't think anybody should be shot and killed for having an opinion that is different from somebody else's. I this has been, this has shaken us here at I've had it to our core. It's terrifying. It's terrifying to see this. And I sometimes think when something like this happens, can we talk about gun violence? A lot of you know who followed us for a long time last October, a young man that works for us, Javier, was shot and killed on October 12, 2024. And it was devastating. I still think about it 15 times a day. Gun violence is horrific. Yesterday, right after this story broke, there was another shooting at a school in Denver. Guns in schools in America always seems to be a problem, but much to my surprise, there seems to be a coordinated response on the right that is really terrifying. And Midas Touch compiled a lot of it here. Midas Touch tweets Deeply disturbing rhetoric is spreading from influential MAGA figures, including the President of the United States and the owner of this website. He's referring to Elon Musk there, owner of Twitter. They have no idea who the shooter is. And many of these same people mocked Democrats when they were victims of political violence in the past. In moments like this, we should be lowering the temperature and finding our shared humanity, not fueling more hatred and violence. And here's just a sampling. Libs of TikTok Caps lock this is war. Joey Manorino the Democrat Party must be classified as a domestic terror organization and their members leaders treated accordingly. Enough is enough. Trump goes on blaming the radical left. Gutner, Engelman they've declared war. Another account there's no going back after this. There's no words to be said. The only way this ends is with complete annihilation of the Democratic Party. Elon Musk the left is the party of murder. One of the richest men in the world that owns this saying the left is the party a murder. Shaun Davis the Democrat Party is a domestic terror organization whose most fanatic fanatics will not hesitate to murder their political opponents. This was not a one off event. It just goes on another page here. Brian Eastwood Charlie Kirk getting shot is the shot heard around the country. I'm ready for civil war. You want to fight, you're going to get it. When Democrats lose elections they couldn't steal, they murdered the people they were unable to defeat. This is just, this seems to be a coordinated response to this. This, what happened to Charlie Kirk isn't civilized and this response is not civilized. There is any progressive like I and most progressives I know, every progressive I know is for gun control, gun regulations, I mean Robert F. Kennedy, Kennedy Jr. S dad was shot by an assassin. And since the shootings of people, Ronald Reagan and others, people have more access to guns. And the response to this, to declare war on the left when we had a president that campaigned about defeating the enemy from within. While all of this stuff is going on geopolitically, Russia's advancing into Poland, Israel is bombing Qatar. This is just, this is whiplash. What happened to Charlie Kirk is horrific. I have so much empathy for his wife and children. Somebody I love was shot cold blooded and it just, it is a very difficult, very difficult thing to move past. Regardless of what people think. I believe in free speech and I believe in a free society where people can go out without the fear of getting shot.

[Progressive Commentator 2]

I completely agree. And when you look at this situation, I have the same response and the same outrage to this as I do when we see school shootings. We have a gun violence problem in America and we need legislation and gun control to address it. Regardless of my differences with Charlie Kirk, this cannot be condoned. This is an awful act. No one should have to be murdered, period in the United States of America. But it continues to happen because our leaders are more worried about gun lobbyist funding than they are the lives of Americans. And the way the left, the right is attacking the left when we don't even know who did. This is chilling, to say the least.

[Progressive Commentator]

It's incredibly chilling. And here's just a little compilation of how there is no suspect identified. Nobody knows who this is and what the motivation is yet. But I just showed you a compilation of tweets where they're calling people on the left, that's you that are watching the show, that's Pumps and me, they're calling us domestic terrorists. And every single US Left leaning politician, former sitting president, governors have come out and condemned this unilaterally. And here is again some video of the right wing's response to this. It's not to lower the temperature. This is bone chilling.

[Progressive Commentator 2]

No war.

[Conservative Commentator]

The left has been saying, put a bullseye on Trump, a bullseye on his supporters. Charlie Kirk's a casualty of war in this country.

[Progressive Commentator]

We are. They are at war with us.

[Conservative Commentator]

Whether we want to accept it or.

[Progressive Commentator]

Not, they are at war with us.

[Conservative Commentator]

What are we going to do about it?

[Progressive Commentator]

I mean, this to me, you guys, this is just absolutely a defining moment in this fight against what I believe the Trump regime is wanting to do to silence dissenting voices. They're using this horrific tragedy, the cold blooded murder of Charlie Kirk, to advance this fascist reign. And when authoritarians get power, everything in them is to cling onto it and to make us fight each other here and use horrific, violent language after a violent attack. Murder, cold blooded murder on Charlie Kirk is beyond the pale. And they create these imaginary things and then they fight these imaginary wars. Nobody in the Democratic Party wants to see these people killed. We oppose with everything in us, the access to guns. When I saw the video, unfortunately, of Charlie Kirk getting shot, I thought about those kids in that Sandy Hook closet. And there was one kid that survived. And what that child saw with the blood, it's. All of this shocks the conscience. This is not, this is not a civil society. This is. He was at a campus, on a school campus, and he was shot in cold blood. And to put the burden on the left for calling out what we see. When you hear people talking about, even Charlie Kirk talking about stoning homosexuals, I'm always going to call that out. When I hear, when I heard Charlie Kirk say that we have to have casualties to protect the Second Amendment, I disagree with that. And that's my right, and it's his right to have another position. But I fundamentally, with everything in me, do not believe that we should live in a society where an assassin can get up in a nest and shoot somebody and terrorize the American Public. And I don't believe that this is responsible at all by Fox News for Jesse Waters to be using that type of aggressive language. Because this is going to spawn more killings of people who have a different opinion than one another. You, you square it up in the voting box. You smack talk on podcasts, you smack talk on cable news. You don't take guns to kill people who disagree with you.

[Progressive Commentator 2]

Very well said. I was thinking about when Trump made his statements and I saw how Fox News, Sean Hannity, Jesse Waters specifically, were spinning this. It took me back to the insurrection on January 6th. And throughout the course of that next year, Trump kept saying, the people are mad. The people are angry. After the election, before January 6th, I'm sorry. Because they've been lied to. And I'm like, because they were lied to by you. You created the situation where they're angry. There was never a call, stop the violence. We have got to stop political violence. And it continues that we have a situation where we are still stoking the flames of violence so that Trump can call Democrats the enemy from within. And the. This is war. It, it does. As much empathy as I have for Charlie Kirk and his family, I did not agree with him. But the way he talked about people dying, children dying, I understand why people do not have as much empathy. But we have to vote for empathy because we are a civilized society. How he responded to Paul Pelosi's attacks, how he responded to how the whole Republican Party reacted to a Minnesota senator laying in her bed with her husband and being shot. We cannot allow this, period, no matter what side you're on, left or right. And to stoke the fires in this is irresponsible and it is going to have consequences. Political violence has to stop and we have an administration that is stoking it.

[Progressive Commentator]

And then here is the sitting President of the United States. Here's his response from the Oval yesterday. Highlight.

[Conservative Commentator]

Here's Those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today. And it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement.

[Progressive Commentator]

All right. People that go after judges. You guys was him. And this is just complete made up hypocrisy that the left is always doing this. There are, there are so Many examples of political violence, the majority of them coming from the right. And I condemn all of it. Charlie Kirk should be alive. He should be able to run Charlie Turning Point. He should be at home with his wife and kids. I disagree with almost everything he says, but I fundamentally support free, fair, safe elections. The town square where you can have con, you know, dissenting opinions. This is what life is about. He is far right. I'm much, much further left. I don't want these people being shot and killed. The response from a sitting president who stoked a insurrection where his supporters wanted to kill his vice president, and then him saying that he's going to come out and get each and every voice. Who is he talking about? You guys, this is chilling, because what they want to do next is erode civil rights. And I'm talking about the First Amendment. I'm talking about dissenting voices against his administration. And it is the stuff that we've seen in the comparisons of Nazi Germany with this administration have been confirmed by his own vice president, J.D. vance, have been confirmed by Mitch McConnell. So this is an attempt, the response of this isn't leadership, to call for coming together, for calling, for lowering the temperature. Every other former sitting US President called for that, but not this guy. And then finally, I want to leave you all with Laura Loomer. Of course, she tweets, it's time for the Trump administration to shut down, defund and prosecute every single leftist organization. She goes on, and Micah Efron says every prominent Democrat is speaking out against this monstrous attack. Every prominent Republican is calling for Democrats to be imprisoned en masse. And that's the difference. That's the difference right there. And this is a. This is an absolute tragic thing that has happened. Political violence is horrific. Gun violence is something that. I don't care who was shot, that if you live in America long enough, somebody you love will get shot. That is the fundamental problem here. I, I think Charlie Kirk had security. I think he even had on a bulletproof vest, and he still got shot and killed by an assassin. And I condemn it with everything in me, but I support every American's right to disagree with one another. And sadly, the rights response from the president trickling all the way down. What I'm reading from this is now they want to punish people who disagree with them. That's what my take is from this. And so it is with a heavy heart that we do this episode. It's terrifying right now. I'm going to be really honest with you all. I did not want to come in here today. I didn't want to film. We do what Charlie Kirk does on a much, much smaller scale. We built a community with you all, and it's terrifying. When I pulled out of my garage, I was scared. And this is not a way to live. Our country is disintegrating before our very eyes, and it is so incredibly sad. So we'll hopefully see you all around later today for more news. But I'm not gonna lie with you guys. This is. This is really, really provoked a lot of fear and sadness in us to see this happen to somebody who does a similar job than what we do. Even though I disagree with. Disagreed with him on almost all of his points, I do not think there is any space in a civilized society for somebody to be shot on a campus sitting under a tent, expressing their opinions. All right, we'll see you all later.