September 17, 2025 • 11 mins
Charlie Kirk was killed on September 10th. Within hours, the tragedy was transformed into a weapon of political warfare. In this episode, I break down how Kirk’s views and rhetoric are being rewritten, how Trump and his allies are using his death to demonize millions of Americans, and why every act of violence now risks becoming fuel for more division. Because if every tragedy is weaponized, we’re not stopping the violence — we’re guaranteeing more of it.
Check out my substack page where I tackle some of the episode topics in depth and write about other issues our country and the world are facing today. https://substack.com/@ktdpodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Raheel Khan (00:01):
Welcome back to Khannecting the Dots.
Today I wanna spend a fewminutes discussing the latest
act of political violence thiscountry has endured.
The assassination of CharlieKirk on September 10th while he
was speaking at Utah ValleyUniversity.
Like so many tragedies beforeit, we're watching it get
weaponized in real time.
Let me start with what should beobvious.
(00:23):
Kirk's murder was inexcusable.
No one deserves to be gunneddown for their political views.
No matter how controversial.
His wife, Erica, and their twoyoung children have lost a
husband and father, somethingthey would have to endure for
the rest of their lives.
That human cost is real and itmatters.
(00:46):
But how we respond to politicalviolence.
Who we blame, how we frame it,what lessons we draw also
matter.
And lately our response hasrevealed everything about where
we are as a democracy.
Within hours of Kirk's death,president Trump released a video
(01:06):
calling him wonderful,legendary, and a martyr for
truth and freedom.
He blamed the assassination onyears of radical left rhetoric.
But here's the problem.
If we're going to have an honestconversation about dangerous
political speech, we can'tsanitize the very person we're
talking about.
(01:27):
Kirk built his career ondivision fueled by the great
replacement theory, the samewhite nationalist conspiracy
that inspired mass shootings inChristchurch, Pittsburgh, El
Paso, and Buffalo.
He didn't just argue policy.
He applied this worldview todemonize whole groups of
Americans (01:47):
on Black Americans.
He called Martin Luther King Jr.
Awful and dismissed the CivilRights Act as a huge mistake
because racial progressthreatened his demographic
vision; on Muslims.
He proudly labeled himself as aChristian Evangelical Zionist
and said that"Islam is the swordthe left is using to slit the
(02:08):
throat of America." Onimmigrants, he promoted Project
10 million.
Calling for the removal of 10million alien invaders over four
years.
He said doing this would launcha soft civil war in the major
cities, by which he likely meantmass unrest and conflict
violence and upheaval inAmerica's largest communities.
(02:31):
Kirk was openly predicting therights deportation agenda would
tear the country apart andpresenting that as acceptable
collateral damage.
On violence itself.
He once said"it's worth it tohave some gun deaths every
single year so we can have theSecond Amendment".
Some argue that Kirk's campustours were about dialogue even
(02:53):
about bringing opposing viewsinto the same room, but his
rhetoric wasn't designed to openconversations.
Instead, it was another forumfor him to elevate white
cisgender Christians as the onlyreal Americans and cast everyone
else as the threat.
That's the framework of thegreat replacement theory, and it
defined his politics as much asit did his tours.
(03:17):
Ever since Kirk's death,prominent figures on the right
have been attacking Democratsand the left blaming the
collective for an individual'sactions.
The hypocrisy is blatant when wecompare this moment to other
acts of political violence.
When Paul Pelosi was nearlymurdered in his own home,
motivated by the sameconspiracies that drive much of
(03:38):
the modern right.
Trump allies mocked it.
Donald Trump Jr.
Posted Halloween jokes.
Elon Musk spread conspiracytheories.
Ted Cruz shrugged, and Kirkhimself, he raised money for
Pelosi's attacker.
So what do we see when violencehits Democrats?
It's a joke.
But when Kirk was killed, Trumpclaimed it was because the left
(03:59):
compared him to Nazis.
What about when the Republicansspent years comparing Barack
Obama to Hitler, even plasteringhis face on billboards alongside
genocidal dictators?
Back then, it was defended asfree speech.
Today it's painted as incitementto murder.
And more recently in Minnesota,democratic state, representative
(04:19):
Minnesota Hartman and herhusband were assassinated in
their home by a man described asa Trump supporter who attacked
others and carried a list of atleast 45 targets.
Instead of offering compassion,Senator Mike Lee posted on
social media saying,"this iswhat happens when Marxists don't
get their way".
Blaming liberal politics andeven posting nightmare on Walz
(04:41):
Street.
Targeting Governor Tim Waltz.
He later deleted those postsafter some criticism, but
received no other blowback.
And Trump?
He issued a simple statementcalling the attack terrible and
insisting it would not betolerated.
But when pressed about reachingout to Governor Waltz, he
refused, calling him, whackedout a mess and not worth the
(05:02):
time.
That kind of selective outrageisn't unique.
Some acts of violence dominatethe headlines.
While others barely register.
On the very same day, Kirk wasassassinated.
Two students at Evergreen HighSchool in Colorado were shot one
inside the building, oneoutside.
Both were left in criticalcondition.
(05:23):
Authorities say the shooter,16-year-old Desmond Holly had
been radicalized by a far rightextremist network online.
When Kirk once said gun deathswere worth it for the Second
Amendment, he was normalizingtragedy as a price of politics.
The fact that two students wereshot the very same day he was
killed, and it barely madeheadlines, shows just how far
(05:46):
that normalization has gone.
Trump's, and the entire rightsoutrage is not just
inconsistent, it's calculated.
Recently, Trump cited the 2017shooting of Steve Scalise as
proof of radical left violence.
He conveniently forgets thatjust weeks later when white
supremacists marched intoCharlottesville chanting Jews
(06:08):
will not replace us and murderedHeather Hyer.
He had insisted there were veryfine people on both sides.
And of course, he will neveracknowledge his own use of Nazi
style language calling politicalopponents"vermin" that need to
be"rooted out".
Language according to historiansthat directly echoed Hitler's
propaganda.
How about January 6th when hisown supporters hunted lawmakers
(06:31):
through the capitol, chantingabout killing the vice President
and Nancy Pelosi, or that justlast year when he shared a video
depicting President Biden boundand gagged in the back of a
pickup truck.
That's the pattern violence thathelps the right's narrative
becomes proof of the left'sevil.
Violence that contradicts itgets ignored or excused.
(06:55):
And when asked about Unity inthe aftermath of Kirk's, killing
Trump's response, said it all onFox.
He said, I honestly don't care.
And then justified politicalviolence on the right as
patriotic, but on the left asevil and despicable.
Instead of calling for healing,his message doubled down on
blame, targeting the leftamplifying grievance, keeping
(07:18):
the wound open.
This isn't grief.
It's a systematic weaponizationof tragedy.
Two days after the shooting,Erica Kirk addressed supporters
for the first time.
Her words were full of sorrow,but also of resolve and anger.
She said,"you have no idea thefire that you have ignited
(07:38):
within this wife.
The cries of this widow willecho around the world like a
battle cry".
She promised that Charlie's workwould continue the campus tours,
the radio show.
The mission.
Her grief was real, but herwords also carried the tone of
mobilization, turning, mourninginto a call to arms.
(07:59):
For many of Kirk's supporters,that language was electrifying
proof that his movement must notonly endure, but grow stronger.
For others outside that circle.
It was deeply unsettling.
A widow's grief expressed inmilitaristic imagery at a moment
when a nation is already onedge.
That's the risk.
(08:20):
Her grief was raw andunderstandable, but the way it
was expressed carried its owndanger, amplifying the very
divisions that make Kirk sopolarizing in life.
Even Utah's Republican governor,Spencer Cox, urge and off ramp
from hostility, but in the samebreath expressed his wish that
the shooter had been from out ofstate or even the country.
(08:42):
Emphasizing how painful it wasthat the shooter was local, a
Utah native.
It may have sounded like aninnocent wish, but it reflects
an instinct to blame the otherto further divide rather than
confront what's within our owncommunities.
Authorities have now arrestedTyler Robinson, 22, who turned
himself in at the urging of hisfamily.
(09:03):
His grandmother said The familyis all maga.
Relatives say Robinson'spolitics were drifting away from
his conservative family.
Recently, governor Cox alsorevealed Robinson lived with a
transgender partner who has beencooperating fully with
authorities and is not accusedof any wrongdoing.
In other words, the story ismurkier than the clean narrative
(09:24):
some rushed to push.
And it's exactly in those murkyspaces that tragedies get
twisted into weapons.
If we want to honor victims ofpolitical violence, we need
consistent principles, notselective outrage.
Kirk's murder is now being usednot just to mourn, but to
demonize.
(09:44):
Voices in the MAGA ecosystem arecasting the left as
fundamentally dangerous,labeling them all as radicals,
agitators, threats.
Laura Loomer has called forprosecuting leftist
organizations.
Trump has blamed radical leftlunatics.
Some commentators are evenblaming colleges and
universities claiming Robinsonwas radicalized after just one
(10:06):
semester on campus.
This isn't just about grief,it's about turning tragedy into
a weapon to punish critics andopponents, and we're seeing it
already reports of people losingjobs over their posts and
officials in Washington talkingabout using this tragedy to
justify broader actions againstleft leaning groups.
(10:28):
I've said this before in anothermoment of tragedy, and it's
worth saying again.
We can and must hold twothoughts at once.
We can grieve a man's deathwithout erasing the real harm he
caused to others.
We can condemn politicalviolence without ignoring the
ecosystem of hatred that made itpossible.
We can acknowledge the humancost without excusing the human
(10:51):
harm.
Real leadership would lower thetemperature across the board.
It would mean Republicans owningtheir role, Democrats reflecting
on theirs, and everyone treatingall victims with equal concern.
Instead, we're gettingperformative outrage designed
not to heal, but to justifyfurther escalation.
(11:13):
And now this tragedy is beingused to punish, dissent, silence
critics and target entirecommunities.
Here's the truth.
American democracy can survivefierce disagreements.
What it cannot survive is theexploitation of political
violence or the tragedy thatfollows it.
(11:33):
Because when every tragedy isexploited for political gain,
grief stops being a path tohealing and becomes the fuel for
more violence.
Thank you for listening.
Welcome back to Khannecting the Dots.
Today I wanna spend a fewminutes discussing the latest
act of political violence thiscountry has endured.
The assassination of CharlieKirk on September 10th while he
was speaking at Utah ValleyUniversity.
Like so many tragedies beforeit, we're watching it get
weaponized in real time.
Let me start with what should beobvious.
(00:23):
Kirk's murder was inexcusable.
No one deserves to be gunneddown for their political views.
No matter how controversial.
His wife, Erica, and their twoyoung children have lost a
husband and father, somethingthey would have to endure for
the rest of their lives.
That human cost is real and itmatters.
(00:46):
But how we respond to politicalviolence.
Who we blame, how we frame it,what lessons we draw also
matter.
And lately our response hasrevealed everything about where
we are as a democracy.
Within hours of Kirk's death,president Trump released a video
(01:06):
calling him wonderful,legendary, and a martyr for
truth and freedom.
He blamed the assassination onyears of radical left rhetoric.
But here's the problem.
If we're going to have an honestconversation about dangerous
political speech, we can'tsanitize the very person we're
talking about.
(01:27):
Kirk built his career ondivision fueled by the great
replacement theory, the samewhite nationalist conspiracy
that inspired mass shootings inChristchurch, Pittsburgh, El
Paso, and Buffalo.
He didn't just argue policy.
He applied this worldview todemonize whole groups of
Americans (01:47):
on Black Americans.
He called Martin Luther King Jr.
Awful and dismissed the CivilRights Act as a huge mistake
because racial progressthreatened his demographic
vision; on Muslims.
He proudly labeled himself as aChristian Evangelical Zionist
and said that"Islam is the swordthe left is using to slit the
(02:08):
throat of America." Onimmigrants, he promoted Project
10 million.
Calling for the removal of 10million alien invaders over four
years.
He said doing this would launcha soft civil war in the major
cities, by which he likely meantmass unrest and conflict
violence and upheaval inAmerica's largest communities.
(02:31):
Kirk was openly predicting therights deportation agenda would
tear the country apart andpresenting that as acceptable
collateral damage.
On violence itself.
He once said"it's worth it tohave some gun deaths every
single year so we can have theSecond Amendment".
Some argue that Kirk's campustours were about dialogue even
(02:53):
about bringing opposing viewsinto the same room, but his
rhetoric wasn't designed to openconversations.
Instead, it was another forumfor him to elevate white
cisgender Christians as the onlyreal Americans and cast everyone
else as the threat.
That's the framework of thegreat replacement theory, and it
defined his politics as much asit did his tours.
(03:17):
Ever since Kirk's death,prominent figures on the right
have been attacking Democratsand the left blaming the
collective for an individual'sactions.
The hypocrisy is blatant when wecompare this moment to other
acts of political violence.
When Paul Pelosi was nearlymurdered in his own home,
motivated by the sameconspiracies that drive much of
(03:38):
the modern right.
Trump allies mocked it.
Donald Trump Jr.
Posted Halloween jokes.
Elon Musk spread conspiracytheories.
Ted Cruz shrugged, and Kirkhimself, he raised money for
Pelosi's attacker.
So what do we see when violencehits Democrats?
It's a joke.
But when Kirk was killed, Trumpclaimed it was because the left
(03:59):
compared him to Nazis.
What about when the Republicansspent years comparing Barack
Obama to Hitler, even plasteringhis face on billboards alongside
genocidal dictators?
Back then, it was defended asfree speech.
Today it's painted as incitementto murder.
And more recently in Minnesota,democratic state, representative
(04:19):
Minnesota Hartman and herhusband were assassinated in
their home by a man described asa Trump supporter who attacked
others and carried a list of atleast 45 targets.
Instead of offering compassion,Senator Mike Lee posted on
social media saying,"this iswhat happens when Marxists don't
get their way".
Blaming liberal politics andeven posting nightmare on Walz
(04:41):
Street.
Targeting Governor Tim Waltz.
He later deleted those postsafter some criticism, but
received no other blowback.
And Trump?
He issued a simple statementcalling the attack terrible and
insisting it would not betolerated.
But when pressed about reachingout to Governor Waltz, he
refused, calling him, whackedout a mess and not worth the
(05:02):
time.
That kind of selective outrageisn't unique.
Some acts of violence dominatethe headlines.
While others barely register.
On the very same day, Kirk wasassassinated.
Two students at Evergreen HighSchool in Colorado were shot one
inside the building, oneoutside.
Both were left in criticalcondition.
(05:23):
Authorities say the shooter,16-year-old Desmond Holly had
been radicalized by a far rightextremist network online.
When Kirk once said gun deathswere worth it for the Second
Amendment, he was normalizingtragedy as a price of politics.
The fact that two students wereshot the very same day he was
killed, and it barely madeheadlines, shows just how far
(05:46):
that normalization has gone.
Trump's, and the entire rightsoutrage is not just
inconsistent, it's calculated.
Recently, Trump cited the 2017shooting of Steve Scalise as
proof of radical left violence.
He conveniently forgets thatjust weeks later when white
supremacists marched intoCharlottesville chanting Jews
(06:08):
will not replace us and murderedHeather Hyer.
He had insisted there were veryfine people on both sides.
And of course, he will neveracknowledge his own use of Nazi
style language calling politicalopponents"vermin" that need to
be"rooted out".
Language according to historiansthat directly echoed Hitler's
propaganda.
How about January 6th when hisown supporters hunted lawmakers
(06:31):
through the capitol, chantingabout killing the vice President
and Nancy Pelosi, or that justlast year when he shared a video
depicting President Biden boundand gagged in the back of a
pickup truck.
That's the pattern violence thathelps the right's narrative
becomes proof of the left'sevil.
Violence that contradicts itgets ignored or excused.
(06:55):
And when asked about Unity inthe aftermath of Kirk's, killing
Trump's response, said it all onFox.
He said, I honestly don't care.
And then justified politicalviolence on the right as
patriotic, but on the left asevil and despicable.
Instead of calling for healing,his message doubled down on
blame, targeting the leftamplifying grievance, keeping
(07:18):
the wound open.
This isn't grief.
It's a systematic weaponizationof tragedy.
Two days after the shooting,Erica Kirk addressed supporters
for the first time.
Her words were full of sorrow,but also of resolve and anger.
She said,"you have no idea thefire that you have ignited
(07:38):
within this wife.
The cries of this widow willecho around the world like a
battle cry".
She promised that Charlie's workwould continue the campus tours,
the radio show.
The mission.
Her grief was real, but herwords also carried the tone of
mobilization, turning, mourninginto a call to arms.
(07:59):
For many of Kirk's supporters,that language was electrifying
proof that his movement must notonly endure, but grow stronger.
For others outside that circle.
It was deeply unsettling.
A widow's grief expressed inmilitaristic imagery at a moment
when a nation is already onedge.
That's the risk.
(08:20):
Her grief was raw andunderstandable, but the way it
was expressed carried its owndanger, amplifying the very
divisions that make Kirk sopolarizing in life.
Even Utah's Republican governor,Spencer Cox, urge and off ramp
from hostility, but in the samebreath expressed his wish that
the shooter had been from out ofstate or even the country.
(08:42):
Emphasizing how painful it wasthat the shooter was local, a
Utah native.
It may have sounded like aninnocent wish, but it reflects
an instinct to blame the otherto further divide rather than
confront what's within our owncommunities.
Authorities have now arrestedTyler Robinson, 22, who turned
himself in at the urging of hisfamily.
(09:03):
His grandmother said The familyis all maga.
Relatives say Robinson'spolitics were drifting away from
his conservative family.
Recently, governor Cox alsorevealed Robinson lived with a
transgender partner who has beencooperating fully with
authorities and is not accusedof any wrongdoing.
In other words, the story ismurkier than the clean narrative
(09:24):
some rushed to push.
And it's exactly in those murkyspaces that tragedies get
twisted into weapons.
If we want to honor victims ofpolitical violence, we need
consistent principles, notselective outrage.
Kirk's murder is now being usednot just to mourn, but to
demonize.
(09:44):
Voices in the MAGA ecosystem arecasting the left as
fundamentally dangerous,labeling them all as radicals,
agitators, threats.
Laura Loomer has called forprosecuting leftist
organizations.
Trump has blamed radical leftlunatics.
Some commentators are evenblaming colleges and
universities claiming Robinsonwas radicalized after just one
(10:06):
semester on campus.
This isn't just about grief,it's about turning tragedy into
a weapon to punish critics andopponents, and we're seeing it
already reports of people losingjobs over their posts and
officials in Washington talkingabout using this tragedy to
justify broader actions againstleft leaning groups.
(10:28):
I've said this before in anothermoment of tragedy, and it's
worth saying again.
We can and must hold twothoughts at once.
We can grieve a man's deathwithout erasing the real harm he
caused to others.
We can condemn politicalviolence without ignoring the
ecosystem of hatred that made itpossible.
We can acknowledge the humancost without excusing the human
(10:51):
harm.
Real leadership would lower thetemperature across the board.
It would mean Republicans owningtheir role, Democrats reflecting
on theirs, and everyone treatingall victims with equal concern.
Instead, we're gettingperformative outrage designed
not to heal, but to justifyfurther escalation.
(11:13):
And now this tragedy is beingused to punish, dissent, silence
critics and target entirecommunities.
Here's the truth.
American democracy can survivefierce disagreements.
What it cannot survive is theexploitation of political
violence or the tragedy thatfollows it.
(11:33):
Because when every tragedy isexploited for political gain,
grief stops being a path tohealing and becomes the fuel for
more violence.
Thank you for listening.
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