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In the immediate aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder on Sept. 10, Republican politicians and influencers jumped to lay blame on the political left with a blanket insinuation: “They did it.”
“They assassinated our nice guy who actually talked to them peacefully debating ideas,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote on X alongside a call for a “peaceful national divorce.”
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“They couldn’t silence him so they killed him,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) told the Albany Times-Union.
“They’re killing us in our churches. They tried to kill our president. They killed Charlie, one of our greatest advocates,” conservative podcaster Matt Walsh said on X.
“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die,” billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X.
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“They are at war with us!” Fox News anchor Jesse Watters said on Sept. 10.
“The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, said. “They should all know this: If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea what you just have unleashed across the country and this world.”
“They almost killed Donald Trump, they killed Charlie Kirk, both outdoors,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told Fox News Digital.
Who “they” is is rarely said explicitly, though it is heavily implied — some blurry coalition or Venn diagram encompassing Democrats, liberals and political opponents; but also institutions that are already right-wing targets such as think tanks, donors and higher education, with some conservatives blaming the one semester of college suspect Tyler Robinson attended for radicalizing him.
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Conservatives’ efforts to blame some vague “they” for these attacks are not a slip of the tongue: It crafts a narrative of victimhood aimed at enacting retributive repression or violence against their political opponents. This is made explicit in calls to indict billionaire liberal donor George Soros, investigate and dismantle liberal nonprofits and target media companies, none of which appear to have had any involvement, as a response to Kirk’s murder.
Vice President JD Vance made this clear in a furious speech stating that the country cannot be united unless the institutions of the political opposition are dismantled and destroyed.
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While hosting Kirk’s podcast on Monday, Vance stated that the “far left” is statistically more likely to support political violence, appearing to cite a YouGov poll. (Actual data shows right-wing political violence is far more prevalent than left-wing violence.) He pivoted to criticize online posts that celebrated Kirk’s death and articles that noted what Kirk actually said in life. He specifically took aim at an article in the left-wing magazine The Nation that castigated Kirk’s political rhetoric.
“Did you know the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups that funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie’s death, do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me — the American taxpayer,” Vance said, implying that the administration would target the tax-exempt status of liberal nonprofits. “And how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.”
He went on to say that the country can only have “unity” after “we work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country.”
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“They’re already under investigation. They’re already under major investigation,” President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday about what liberal organizations would face following Kirk’s death. Nowhere did Trump say who “they” are.
Robinson’s motives and political beliefs are, at the moment, unknown. What appears clear is that he acted alone and when he confessed to his family, they forced him to turn himself in.
Nevertheless, this blanket insinuation that a nebulous “they” killed or attempted to kill conservative political figures has become a tic on the right after tragic events.
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Just as Mace did this week, back in 2024 conservatives blamed the two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump on an amorphous “they” to insinuate that all of the Democratic Party, liberals and the left were to blame.
“They want to do everything that they can to silence Donald Trump, and they send that signal with every action that they take,” Vance said in 2024. “Well, if you’re trying to silence Donald Trump and you’re sending the message we have to do everything that we can to silence Donald Trump, a crazy person is eventually going to take that message to heart.”
“They tried to smear us. They came after us. They impeached him twice, and then, guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because of the Democratic Party. They can’t do anything right,” Eric Trump, the president’s son, said at a 2024 rally at the site of the first assassination attempt against his father.
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Thomas Michael Crooks, the perpetrator of the first assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a registered Republican who was found to have no ideological motive for his actions. A social media account believed to belong to Crooks posted comments that “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes” and “espouse political violence,” then-FBI deputy director Paul Abbatte told Congress in 2024.
The second would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, stated a strong dislike of Trump, but was a registered independent who voiced support for various Democratic and Republican candidates. Perhaps more notable is Routh’s long criminal record of eight arrests and more than 100 criminal charges filed against him. He also attempted to volunteer to fight for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, but was seen by volunteer fighters as “delusional” and “disconnected from reality.”
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Their political beliefs aside, these were all lone wolf actors. There was no network or political party apparatus supporting them. These shooters, or would-be shooters, did not have connections to politics, except that they read or watched the news like most other Americans.
Instead of grappling with underlying problems for radicalizing violence, like the easy access to firearms, nihilistic online death cults or mental health issues, the right seek to cast all tragedies that befall them as perpetrated by their political opponents. Blaming a stated “they” enables the right to use this tragedy as a means to achieve what they were already working toward: crushing their political opposition and forcing “unity” on the country on their terms alone.
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