Commentary
On Wednesday, a cowardly assassin’s bullet accomplished what the liberal media have been trying to do with words. To stop Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point organization, advocates for free speech.
While the left attempted to block his appearances where he tried to have an open dialogue with attendees at his events, left-leaning columnists like the Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini, who after Kirk’s appearance at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, wrote that Kirk “preached the MAGA gospel of conspiracy, intolerance and bigotry.”
Of course, it was Kirk’s relationship with President Trump that made it easy for Montini to pile on Kirk. It bothered Montini that Kirk, like Trump, was able to attract large audiences and access to multiple media platforms, but more so, it bothered him that he viewed Kirk as someone with “sexist, racist ugliness with Arizona ties.”
Regular readers may recall my criticism of the Arizona Republic which still refers to itself as a newspaper, yet today’s headline unbelievably read, “Conservative leader dies,” when it should have read, “Charlie Kirk Assassinated.” Even in death, they couldn’t be journalists.
The fact that Kirk’s body and his family were flown from Utah to Phoenix his home aboard Air Force Two with Vice President Vance and the Second Lady must have caused Montini to gird his loins.
He was assassinated in front of the young people he devoted his life to empowering, an inspiration to a generation who will be remembered as someone who unapologetically shared his faith as a Christian.
At a time when college students were facing liberal orthodoxy and intolerance, he energized a generation of conservative students going to campuses to encourage the debating of issues. He believed in engaging in dialogue rather than violence.
With signs reading, “Prove Me Wrong,” he welcomed dissent, and he made students feel comfortable as he engaged with them on issues. They liked Kirk because he encouraged them to be open with their views.
When the chant, “Prove Me Wrong,” began to echo across the grassy park like Utah Valley University campus, Kirk, wearing a T-shirt with FREEDOM emblazed across the front, sat with a microphone under a sunshade, inviting students to come down and dialogue with him as was his custom.
He barely got started when a shot rang out and Kirk was bleeding from his neck, later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Not long after word of his passing was made known, leftists at MSNBC and CNN blamed Kirk’s harsh rhetoric, and that of the president, and of course a lack of gun control legislation for the killing.
The left is well aware of the popularity Kirk had with young people and recognize that he contributed greatly to Trump’s win in 2024. They know, too, that the Democrat Party doesn’t have anyone with the political instincts of Kirk or his charisma.
Kirk’s young conservatives see right through Ocasio-Cortez, Crockett, Tlaib, or Hakiem.
The president has announced that he will soon present Kirk posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well-deserved.
May God bless the family of Charlie Kirk.
