Jennifer Rubin correctly lists a few examples of Democrats killed or attacked by MAGA fans (resulting in mostly crickets from Republicans).
Mehdi Hasan at Zeteo adds a few more:
The man who targeted and killed Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their home in Minnesota in June was a Trump supporter.
The man charged with the attempted assassination of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor Josh Shapiro in April was a Trump supporter.
The man convicted of orchestrating a series of shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials in New Mexico in 2022 was a Trump supporter.
The man who tried to kidnap then Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband Paul in 2022 was a Trump supporter.
The men who wanted to hang Mike Pence on Jan 6, 2021, were Trump supporters.
The man who killed the son of Obama-appointed District Judge Esther Salas in 2020 was a Trump supporter.
The men who were convicted of trying to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 were Trump supporters.
The man who sent pipe bombs to the homes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and other top Democrats in 2018 was a Trump supporter.
The man who killed left-wing activist Heather Heyer after driving his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville in 2017 was a Trump supporter.
...
And Charles Kirk himself said of gun deaths on April 5, 2023, "I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."
Thank you, Jason. And thank you for that list. I wrote above about the political assassinations I lived through as a senior in high school and then as a senior in college. All three were democrats who were fighting for ordinary Americans, including racial and economic justice. Look at their writings and words. Memorable for their decency and, yes, passion. Look at MAGAs words and actions. Crude, hateful, vulgar, obnoxious.
Thank you Jason for this powerful statement , as terrifying as it is, it speaks a tragic truth to power, across all parties. We can only go forward with our love of the best in our political system, daily actions with courage.
Add this comment from Kirk in 2022, after Pelosi's husband was attacked:
“Why has he not been bailed out?” Kirk said Monday on his podcast of the man who allegedly beat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband Paul with a hammer last Friday. “By the way, if some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail this guy out, I bet his bail’s like thirty or forty thousand bucks.” With a smirk, he added: “Bail him out and then go ask him some questions.”
(You'll recall him and others were pushing the idea that the attacker was a sex worker hired by Pelosi, which was , of course, just as false as so many other things Kirk has said over the years.)
I found nothing either conservative or christian about Kirk. He was an arrogant, immature, bomb-throwing far right celebrity hound. The problem with these guys is that they think they can get away with saying anything, and they’re not responsible for the consequences of their speech. Kirk found out otherwise yesterday.
No. Do not make Kirk's assassination out as a consequence of his words. No matter how hateful they might be, or how much we might disagree with them. His murder was vile and inexcusable.
Ironically, Kirk was one of the few conservatives willing to openly debate liberals on the issues. Civilized debate--not violence--on the merits of Left vs. Right policy positions is the only way we're going to survive as a Democracy.
I don’t disagree at all with your post. I have long had a problem with those who bellow for absolute free speech and make it with impunity without regard for who it denigrates or destroys. We are responsible for what we do or say as it affects others, or we should be, and when the audience is as large as Kirk’s, the responsibility is greater. Kirk could have easily used his bully pulpit for more good than he did, but like many on his side, his moral outrage and sense of wrong was exclusively and consistently one-sided. Having said all of that, his murder was wrong in every sense of the word, and as much as I found his output disgusting, killing him for what he said must be condemned.
If any good comes from the summary execution of Charlie Kirk it might be the reminder of the reason we all should oppose summary executions, summary imprisonment and other summary punishments, i.e., without due process of law.
Trump and Hegseth recently publicly admitted that they summarily executed 11 people on a boat off the coast of Venezuela recently. We still don't know any such person's identity, citizenship or reason for being on that boat. Those people obviously were murdered by Trump and Hegseth for obviously political reasons. And Trump, Hegseth and Rubio publicly insisted we all should accept such murders as acceptable.
In a fairly famous SCOTUS decision, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), SCOTUS stated a warning about how and why crime is contagious. The Miranda opinion quoted the wise and great Justice Brandeis (joined by the wise and great Justice Holmes) dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)). This warning was first offered just before SCOTUS (finally) started enforcing our First Amendment rights almost 100 years ago.
"Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Thank you for the list. I got so pissed at the media last night watching the coverage of Kirk like he was some famous movie star or something. NONE of the people you listed have received the same massive coverage as Kirk. All I kept thinking about were the poor children killed in the mass shooting while praying in a church and their families. The news coverage he is receiving makes me puke. No one deserves to be shot, but the media holds a lot of responsibility here.
Kirk was almost echoing the statement of "Joe the Plumber," who said, "Your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights." I also remember that Steve Scalise, after recovering from an attempt on his life, went back to work, to ensure that mentally ill people have the right to all the guns they want.
Excellent post. I'd expand the list to include pre-Trump and not overtly political shooters, notably those who target people of color, or Jewish people, or women, or gay people, or schoolchildren. They are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.
Can't say I feel a lot of remorse over another hate-spewing trump supporter who was promoting gun deaths for the protection of the 2nd amendment. No irony there.
Jason-one of the best posts I've read in a long time. Thank you for your effort!
Time to stop bothsides-ism. Political violence is instigated incited even promoted ( January 6th) by Trump and his "radical right" coalition. Inciting violence is a crime elsewhere, not simply free speech.
I just learned something else - from Salt Lake CIty Tribune:
It is legal to openly carry a gun on Utah’s public university and college campuses with very few exceptions.
In fact, Clark Aposhian, a national firearm lobbyist and the chair of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, said the state is possibly the most permissive in the country when it comes to guns and what few laws restrict them, including in higher education spaces.
Thank you, Jason for this list. I was wondering after reading HCR's substack from last night if I was missing something, if perhaps somebody on the left had done something that unhinged. It would be interesting to know how many of the school shooters fall into the same category?
Team Zeteo is on a tear with this - from today (link below)
Quotes from Charlie Kirk:
Black people
“Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.” (source)
Black pilots
“If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ’Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” (source)
Black women
“They're coming out, and they're saying, 'I'm only here because of affirmative action.' Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously." (source)
Civil rights
“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.” (source)
Death penalty
"[Death penalties] should be public, should be quick, should be televised… I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation… At what age should you start to see public executions?" (source)
Democrats
“The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates.” (source)
Empathy
"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage." (source)
Feminism
“Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge." (source)
Gay people
“You might want to crack open that Bible of yours. In a lesser referenced part of the same part of scripture, is in Leviticus 18 is that, ‘thou shalt lay with another man shall be stoned to death.’ Just sayin’! So Miss Rachel, you quote Leviticus 19… the chapter before affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.” (source)
George Floyd
“This guy was a scumbag.” (source)
Great Replacement Theory
“It's not a Great Replacement Theory, it's a Great Replacement Reality. Just this year, 3.6 million foreigners will invade America. 10-15 million will enter by the end of Joe Biden's term. Each will probably have 3-5 kids on average while native born Americans have 1.5 per couple. You are being replaced, by design.” (source)
Guns
“It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.” (source)
Jews
“Jewish donors have been the number one funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits. This is a beast created by secular Jews and now it’s coming for Jews, and they're like, ‘What on Earth happened?’ And it's not just the colleges. It's the nonprofits, it's the movies, it's Hollywood, it's all of it.” (source)
Martin Luther King Jr.
“MLK was awful. He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe.” (source)
Muslims
“They aren’t even hiding their intentions. Muslims plan to conquer Europe by demographic replacement. Will Europe wake up in time?” (source)
I've been in education for 37 years. Do not compare Bessent's actions to a 3rd grader. It demeans all children. I've never known a child to be a crass and vulgar as Bessent.Maybe compare him to others in this fascist regime. Leave the children out, you must not be an educator.
“Have you no sense of decency?” is the right response to these people, the people whose sense of humanity is constrained by their politics”. Joyce Vance 9/10/25
Apparently not. Laura Loomer and other right-wing influencers claimed, without evidence, that the suspect was connected to anti-Trump protests and called him a “friend” of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. These allegations were part of wider attempts by MAGA-aligned personalities to politicize the tragedy and blame Democrats, even though details showed the suspect was actually a registered Republican with evangelical anti-abortion ties
Sen. Mike Lee published controversial social media posts soon after the murders, stating, “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way” and “Nightmare on Waltz street,” blaming Democrats and the governor for the violence.
Nancy Mace publicly blamed Democrats for the murder of Charlie Kirk, alleging that left-wing rhetoric and policies contributed to a hostile environment that led to the tragedy, despite lacking evidence about the shooter’s motivations at the time.
And finally…. Trumps order to fly flags at half mast for Kirk- forgive me but this honor should be reserved for heroes of humanity- not partisan podcast hosts.
A couple of thoughts on your comment. Nancy Mace apparently has great difficulty looking beyond the end of her nose. Contrary to her rant, it is conservative and Republican rhetoric that seems most likely to lead to extreme violence. Are there examples of over the top language, sure. IMHO most of the radical and violent language is coming from the extreme conservative side.
Trump’s order to fly the flags at half-staff for Kirk is right *down* there with presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh. Neither man deserved that recognition.
I might be wrong, but I don't believe it can be awarded posthumously. On the other hand, we're talking about Trump, so he'll probably do it anyway. Katie, bar the door!
It’s almost always eventually the economy, stupid, isn’t it?
With Trump, of course, it’s about the graft and payola, stupid. What’s in it for me, never for you. It can’t be that difficult to keep pointing that out.
With all the obvious lunacy, economic hari-kiri, conspiratorial masturbation, gobsmacking incompetence, cruelty, malice, gaslighting, kissy-kissy shit linking two sexual predators together, the daily violations of the Emoluments Clause and arrogant usurpations of Congressional authority, the encroaching war against NATO by Putin, the silence of Republican scalawags and wormtongues… can it really be THAT difficult to mount winning campaigns against the madness and degradation?
Gerry Connelly’s old seat in northern Virginia just moved 16 percentage points MORE into the blue column the other day. Winter is coming. They are not prepared and they know it.
It’s part of it, yes. With the uncertainty comes the anxiety that you don’t want to do anything because you don’t know what will happen if you do. The inaction is part of what they want.
When white people feel the economic pinch they get angry and voluble--and turn to Othering and scapegoating to explain why they are "suffering." When BIPOC people feel the pinch (which for most is pretty much all the time) they go silent and don't vote because they see it as a futile exercise. What I see happening in Ammurikka is this combination of grievance and knee-jerk non-thinking, which makes it woefully easy for people in power to manipulate those who refuse to take ownership of the mistakes they made and the problems they caused. I also observe that this happens on both the Crazy-ass Right AND the equally Crazy-ass Left. Both consider violence an appropriate response. This is how Krystallnacht episodes happen. How to fix it? Push a narrative (and force media outlets to air it) that doesn't overwhelm people with hard-to-think-about stuff like statistics but instead encourages people to think about their own situations and those of their neighbors and ask them "why are you here? Is it really because of [fill in the blank of their favorite group to hate] or is it because of the policies of the guy you voted for?" As for the embattled underserved groups who are still divided and convinced that there is no point in voting, encourage them but don't put the entire burden of "saving" the USA on their heads. Stacey Abrams has been very clear about the inappropriateness of expecting Black women to save everyone. And yet the Left consistently does this. And no: I don't feel particularly hopeful that the image of two morons threatening each other with fisticuffs at a fancy dinner party will change any minds.
On the shooting of Mr. Kirk: We don't know if this was related to his politics. Assassins typically leave manifestos and kill more people (and even pets!). For all we know, this could have been a well-orchestrated mob hit. So, the rumination as to WHY should stop until the police do their jobs.
It is oddly anomalous. By all the available evidence today, it looks coldly professional and not a typical mass shooting of strangers. (And isn't it awful that we live in a society in which we can even refer to such events as "typical?"). A single shot from a distance with deadly accuracy, then a clean getaway, with the newly MAGAfied FBI floundering. There are plenty of potential conspiracy rabbit holes beckoning, but the last thing anyone needs at this juncture is inflammatory speculation. It is ominous that the most extreme voices on the right are calling it war and vowing "revenge" when prominent progressive voices are offering thoughts and prayers.
The MAGA cult reponds like a hornet's nest that has been kicked. We don't even have a suspect yet, so who is the "revenge" directed to? We haven't someone to blame yet.
It is typically angering, as well as hypocritical and indecent, when there is talk of violence advocacy coming from both sides. And how we must "get out of our bubbles and listen" to the other side. Violence threats are 95% right wing--who attacked our Capitol and then were pardoned?-- and perhaps up to 5% from the left. Which side constantly confabulates? How much lying and bigotry must we listen to? Which side threatens every value that once was the best of America? There are not two equal sides. One side believes in reality, and one is anti-science, anti-truth, the total definition of anti-intellectualism. There might be people on both sides, but there is nothing respectable about the current right wing. Talk of "balance" is garbage.
How come so little mention of the politician & husband murdered recently in their own home in Minnesota. Political assassination at its worst. How come so little recollection of the judge's son murdered at the door of her home a few years ago. These were people on the left. Were the flags nationally at half mast? I lived through 3 political assassinations that molded me. I was a senior in high school when JFK was killed. I was a senior in college when MLK and RFK were killed. We Democrats know political assassination well. Let's be clear that the abominable, crude, hateful speech in this country over the past few decades has to be put at one party's feet. The name calling, the crudeness of speech against "the other" that's been allowed by the right wing is nothing compared to any other group in our country. Let's also give credit to that same right wing for all the guns prevalent in our society. I think the assassination of Charlie Kirk is horrendous, don't get me wrong. This should not have happened in our country. But when will the MAGAs be held accountable for the tone of speech and action in our country? Have they no decency?
When the international trade system is melting down, the independence of the Fed is imperiled, unemployment and inflation are ticketing up, job growth has practically flatlined, and Americans by a healthy margin think the economy is getting worse, the oligarchy is whooping it up in high style.
IOW, when it comes to ordinary people, their response is
We already have “become numb to violence in any form.” When Trump says he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and he wouldn’t lose any supporters, and said that in 2016 to a crowd of students in a Christian college in Iowa, you know America is in serious trouble. We need to think deeply about how and why this can happen here.
"We" have not become numb to violence in any form. This is one reason why we continue to demonstrate and protest peacefully and do not demean ourselves by taking up torches, pitchforks, tar, or feathers. "We" believe in the rule of law and due process, as well as common decency and respect - when it is earned.
The "we" falls into two groups, those who are numb and those who are not. The former find ways to rationalize or be blinded to what is going on. The numbness is aided by a president who is ready, willing and able to anesthetize his followers further.
He’s having (has had) a terrible influence on young minds.
And it’s giving religion a bad name, altho it is fulfilling many Bible prophecies regarding end times, where ‘men would be lovers of selves, slanderers, not open to any agreement, puffed up with pride’ etc.
The word on the street here in GA is that after the abusive, humiliating, mean, idiotic ICE raid on the linked Hyundai and LG plants, the S Koreans are stopping all construction. tRump says he is making 'deals' to get other nations to invest in manufacturing here... then he goes and torches a major foreign investment by one of our major trading partners. Talk about Economically Tone Deaf.
Who could blame South Korea if they did stop all construction? Instead of working with the contractors to make sure that their overseas employees had the proper work permits, ICE got loads of publicity and helped their quotas by staging a massive raid with warrants for only a handful of the people they arrested.
Foreign investors own about 30% of US Treasuries and about 20% of the US stock market. It's stupid, it's blind, and it's xenophobic to put our economy at risk by even talking about destroying the independence of the Fed. Equally stupid is fooling with Tariffs like you're the only guy holding the cards. I trust Bessent knows all this better than his colleagues or his boss.
This is the second piece I've read with excellent, detailed suggestions for a Democratic plan forward. What I'm still waiting for is the story about elected Democrats joining together, supporting such a plan, and broadcasting it to the American people. Good God, what are they waiting for?
Steve Schmidt has called for a summit of Democratic Governors, which would be a good start; I think that such a summit should include other past and present Democratic leaders as well as Republicans who are happy to come out in public as anti-MAGA. They should draw up a platform for the next two election cycles and a plan to enable America to Heal Itself from the disasters that Trump has wrought. It would be even better if a leadership committee would be elected.
Jen, among your usual insightful summaries I applaud your clear blueprint for oligarchs who want to do right. It should be required reading for them all! And again, I really believe we should spend less time figuring out clever new ways to characterize what's happening, and who is to blame, and instead focus on WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. Enough with the handwringing. already!!
I drop this political upheaval and continued gun violence squarely on the doorstep of Trump. If he were anything but a selfish, greedy grifter, and had one ounce of leadership ability, he would use his pulpit to tone down the violence and force through sensible gun legislation. But instead he's stoking violence and ignoring our country's gun problem, as usual. It's amazing how school shootings are so commonplace they receive scant attention in the press or from the GOP members of Congress, save for the "thoughts and prayers" trope. The fact this idiot is once again president after nearly destroying our country during his first term doesn't speak well of a quarter of our population who voted for him, or the millions of others who didn't bother to cast a vote. I'm not sure how we'll win our country back, because Republican corruption is happening in plain sight now. It's no longer the secret movement that began under the Reagan administration.
Jennifer Rubin correctly lists a few examples of Democrats killed or attacked by MAGA fans (resulting in mostly crickets from Republicans).
Mehdi Hasan at Zeteo adds a few more:
The man who targeted and killed Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their home in Minnesota in June was a Trump supporter.
The man charged with the attempted assassination of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor Josh Shapiro in April was a Trump supporter.
The man convicted of orchestrating a series of shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials in New Mexico in 2022 was a Trump supporter.
The man who tried to kidnap then Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband Paul in 2022 was a Trump supporter.
The men who wanted to hang Mike Pence on Jan 6, 2021, were Trump supporters.
The man who killed the son of Obama-appointed District Judge Esther Salas in 2020 was a Trump supporter.
The men who were convicted of trying to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 were Trump supporters.
The man who sent pipe bombs to the homes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and other top Democrats in 2018 was a Trump supporter.
The man who killed left-wing activist Heather Heyer after driving his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville in 2017 was a Trump supporter.
...
And Charles Kirk himself said of gun deaths on April 5, 2023, "I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."
Thank you, Jason. And thank you for that list. I wrote above about the political assassinations I lived through as a senior in high school and then as a senior in college. All three were democrats who were fighting for ordinary Americans, including racial and economic justice. Look at their writings and words. Memorable for their decency and, yes, passion. Look at MAGAs words and actions. Crude, hateful, vulgar, obnoxious.
Thank you Jason for this powerful statement , as terrifying as it is, it speaks a tragic truth to power, across all parties. We can only go forward with our love of the best in our political system, daily actions with courage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwn8hIyiHvI
Good choice Daniel, and a sad reminder on an already sadly remembered day that we really haven't learned or grown much at all in 60 years.
Thank you Daniel.
Add this comment from Kirk in 2022, after Pelosi's husband was attacked:
“Why has he not been bailed out?” Kirk said Monday on his podcast of the man who allegedly beat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband Paul with a hammer last Friday. “By the way, if some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail this guy out, I bet his bail’s like thirty or forty thousand bucks.” With a smirk, he added: “Bail him out and then go ask him some questions.”
(You'll recall him and others were pushing the idea that the attacker was a sex worker hired by Pelosi, which was , of course, just as false as so many other things Kirk has said over the years.)
This sort of hatred-spewing from a man who used his evangelical Christian identity to gather supporters.
I found nothing either conservative or christian about Kirk. He was an arrogant, immature, bomb-throwing far right celebrity hound. The problem with these guys is that they think they can get away with saying anything, and they’re not responsible for the consequences of their speech. Kirk found out otherwise yesterday.
No. Do not make Kirk's assassination out as a consequence of his words. No matter how hateful they might be, or how much we might disagree with them. His murder was vile and inexcusable.
Ironically, Kirk was one of the few conservatives willing to openly debate liberals on the issues. Civilized debate--not violence--on the merits of Left vs. Right policy positions is the only way we're going to survive as a Democracy.
I don’t disagree at all with your post. I have long had a problem with those who bellow for absolute free speech and make it with impunity without regard for who it denigrates or destroys. We are responsible for what we do or say as it affects others, or we should be, and when the audience is as large as Kirk’s, the responsibility is greater. Kirk could have easily used his bully pulpit for more good than he did, but like many on his side, his moral outrage and sense of wrong was exclusively and consistently one-sided. Having said all of that, his murder was wrong in every sense of the word, and as much as I found his output disgusting, killing him for what he said must be condemned.
His words were sometimes hateful. Our, we might say, vile and inexcusable. As I agree with you it was.
Right?
If any good comes from the summary execution of Charlie Kirk it might be the reminder of the reason we all should oppose summary executions, summary imprisonment and other summary punishments, i.e., without due process of law.
Trump and Hegseth recently publicly admitted that they summarily executed 11 people on a boat off the coast of Venezuela recently. We still don't know any such person's identity, citizenship or reason for being on that boat. Those people obviously were murdered by Trump and Hegseth for obviously political reasons. And Trump, Hegseth and Rubio publicly insisted we all should accept such murders as acceptable.
In a fairly famous SCOTUS decision, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), SCOTUS stated a warning about how and why crime is contagious. The Miranda opinion quoted the wise and great Justice Brandeis (joined by the wise and great Justice Holmes) dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)). This warning was first offered just before SCOTUS (finally) started enforcing our First Amendment rights almost 100 years ago.
"Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Thank you for the list. I got so pissed at the media last night watching the coverage of Kirk like he was some famous movie star or something. NONE of the people you listed have received the same massive coverage as Kirk. All I kept thinking about were the poor children killed in the mass shooting while praying in a church and their families. The news coverage he is receiving makes me puke. No one deserves to be shot, but the media holds a lot of responsibility here.
Thank you for all this information. No doubt our Liar-in-Chief would call it 'fake news.'
Kirk was almost echoing the statement of "Joe the Plumber," who said, "Your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights." I also remember that Steve Scalise, after recovering from an attempt on his life, went back to work, to ensure that mentally ill people have the right to all the guns they want.
Excellent post. I'd expand the list to include pre-Trump and not overtly political shooters, notably those who target people of color, or Jewish people, or women, or gay people, or schoolchildren. They are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.
Can't say I feel a lot of remorse over another hate-spewing trump supporter who was promoting gun deaths for the protection of the 2nd amendment. No irony there.
Jason-one of the best posts I've read in a long time. Thank you for your effort!
I think that list should be sent to a Democrat in the Senate and read to the entire body!
It should be sent to MSM to see if they will air it! Maybe CNN
It should be published in all the major newspapers.
It should be sent to Trump!
Thoughts & prayers?
Time to stop bothsides-ism. Political violence is instigated incited even promoted ( January 6th) by Trump and his "radical right" coalition. Inciting violence is a crime elsewhere, not simply free speech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement
This below was written about Trump's first term--now he's much worse and he's got the machine oiled.
DONALD TRUMP: AGGRESSIVE RHETORIC AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Donald Trump: Aggressive Rhetoric and Political Violence
https://pt.icct.nl/article/donald-trump-aggressive-rhetoric-and-political-violence?#
I just learned something else - from Salt Lake CIty Tribune:
It is legal to openly carry a gun on Utah’s public university and college campuses with very few exceptions.
In fact, Clark Aposhian, a national firearm lobbyist and the chair of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, said the state is possibly the most permissive in the country when it comes to guns and what few laws restrict them, including in higher education spaces.
We all knew that statement was crazed, and unfortunately, the person who made it paid the ultimate price to realize how wrong he was.
Thank you, Jason for this list. I was wondering after reading HCR's substack from last night if I was missing something, if perhaps somebody on the left had done something that unhinged. It would be interesting to know how many of the school shooters fall into the same category?
Team Zeteo is on a tear with this - from today (link below)
Quotes from Charlie Kirk:
Black people
“Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.” (source)
Black pilots
“If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ’Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” (source)
Black women
“They're coming out, and they're saying, 'I'm only here because of affirmative action.' Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously." (source)
Civil rights
“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.” (source)
Death penalty
"[Death penalties] should be public, should be quick, should be televised… I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation… At what age should you start to see public executions?" (source)
Democrats
“The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates.” (source)
Empathy
"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage." (source)
Feminism
“Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge." (source)
Gay people
“You might want to crack open that Bible of yours. In a lesser referenced part of the same part of scripture, is in Leviticus 18 is that, ‘thou shalt lay with another man shall be stoned to death.’ Just sayin’! So Miss Rachel, you quote Leviticus 19… the chapter before affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.” (source)
George Floyd
“This guy was a scumbag.” (source)
Great Replacement Theory
“It's not a Great Replacement Theory, it's a Great Replacement Reality. Just this year, 3.6 million foreigners will invade America. 10-15 million will enter by the end of Joe Biden's term. Each will probably have 3-5 kids on average while native born Americans have 1.5 per couple. You are being replaced, by design.” (source)
Guns
“It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.” (source)
Jews
“Jewish donors have been the number one funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits. This is a beast created by secular Jews and now it’s coming for Jews, and they're like, ‘What on Earth happened?’ And it's not just the colleges. It's the nonprofits, it's the movies, it's Hollywood, it's all of it.” (source)
Martin Luther King Jr.
“MLK was awful. He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe.” (source)
Muslims
“They aren’t even hiding their intentions. Muslims plan to conquer Europe by demographic replacement. Will Europe wake up in time?” (source)
Palestine
“I don’t think the place exists.” (source)
Transgender people
“You’re an abomination to God.” (source)
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https://zeteo.com/p/charlie-kirk-in-his-own-words?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=lvo6l&triedRedirect=true
Wow, that’s some serious hate! I’m surprised he wasn't murdered sooner.
I've been in education for 37 years. Do not compare Bessent's actions to a 3rd grader. It demeans all children. I've never known a child to be a crass and vulgar as Bessent.Maybe compare him to others in this fascist regime. Leave the children out, you must not be an educator.
Exactly my thoughts! Shame on Bessent and others in trump's regime who resort to impertinent, insolent, outrageous, vulgar vocabulary!
“Have you no sense of decency?” is the right response to these people, the people whose sense of humanity is constrained by their politics”. Joyce Vance 9/10/25
Apparently not. Laura Loomer and other right-wing influencers claimed, without evidence, that the suspect was connected to anti-Trump protests and called him a “friend” of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. These allegations were part of wider attempts by MAGA-aligned personalities to politicize the tragedy and blame Democrats, even though details showed the suspect was actually a registered Republican with evangelical anti-abortion ties
Sen. Mike Lee published controversial social media posts soon after the murders, stating, “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way” and “Nightmare on Waltz street,” blaming Democrats and the governor for the violence.
Nancy Mace publicly blamed Democrats for the murder of Charlie Kirk, alleging that left-wing rhetoric and policies contributed to a hostile environment that led to the tragedy, despite lacking evidence about the shooter’s motivations at the time.
And finally…. Trumps order to fly flags at half mast for Kirk- forgive me but this honor should be reserved for heroes of humanity- not partisan podcast hosts.
A couple of thoughts on your comment. Nancy Mace apparently has great difficulty looking beyond the end of her nose. Contrary to her rant, it is conservative and Republican rhetoric that seems most likely to lead to extreme violence. Are there examples of over the top language, sure. IMHO most of the radical and violent language is coming from the extreme conservative side.
Trump’s order to fly the flags at half-staff for Kirk is right *down* there with presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh. Neither man deserved that recognition.
Charlie will be the next MAGAt to get the medal.
I might be wrong, but I don't believe it can be awarded posthumously. On the other hand, we're talking about Trump, so he'll probably do it anyway. Katie, bar the door!
In addition to ordering flags be flown at half-mast for several days, he’s awarding Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumously).
It’s almost always eventually the economy, stupid, isn’t it?
With Trump, of course, it’s about the graft and payola, stupid. What’s in it for me, never for you. It can’t be that difficult to keep pointing that out.
With all the obvious lunacy, economic hari-kiri, conspiratorial masturbation, gobsmacking incompetence, cruelty, malice, gaslighting, kissy-kissy shit linking two sexual predators together, the daily violations of the Emoluments Clause and arrogant usurpations of Congressional authority, the encroaching war against NATO by Putin, the silence of Republican scalawags and wormtongues… can it really be THAT difficult to mount winning campaigns against the madness and degradation?
Gerry Connelly’s old seat in northern Virginia just moved 16 percentage points MORE into the blue column the other day. Winter is coming. They are not prepared and they know it.
I read in Substack that when volatility is normalized that uncertainty is a form of control. Is that what we are seeing?
It’s part of it, yes. With the uncertainty comes the anxiety that you don’t want to do anything because you don’t know what will happen if you do. The inaction is part of what they want.
When white people feel the economic pinch they get angry and voluble--and turn to Othering and scapegoating to explain why they are "suffering." When BIPOC people feel the pinch (which for most is pretty much all the time) they go silent and don't vote because they see it as a futile exercise. What I see happening in Ammurikka is this combination of grievance and knee-jerk non-thinking, which makes it woefully easy for people in power to manipulate those who refuse to take ownership of the mistakes they made and the problems they caused. I also observe that this happens on both the Crazy-ass Right AND the equally Crazy-ass Left. Both consider violence an appropriate response. This is how Krystallnacht episodes happen. How to fix it? Push a narrative (and force media outlets to air it) that doesn't overwhelm people with hard-to-think-about stuff like statistics but instead encourages people to think about their own situations and those of their neighbors and ask them "why are you here? Is it really because of [fill in the blank of their favorite group to hate] or is it because of the policies of the guy you voted for?" As for the embattled underserved groups who are still divided and convinced that there is no point in voting, encourage them but don't put the entire burden of "saving" the USA on their heads. Stacey Abrams has been very clear about the inappropriateness of expecting Black women to save everyone. And yet the Left consistently does this. And no: I don't feel particularly hopeful that the image of two morons threatening each other with fisticuffs at a fancy dinner party will change any minds.
On the shooting of Mr. Kirk: We don't know if this was related to his politics. Assassins typically leave manifestos and kill more people (and even pets!). For all we know, this could have been a well-orchestrated mob hit. So, the rumination as to WHY should stop until the police do their jobs.
Or maybe Kirk was having an affair with the shooter's wife or husband. Let's wait and see.
It is oddly anomalous. By all the available evidence today, it looks coldly professional and not a typical mass shooting of strangers. (And isn't it awful that we live in a society in which we can even refer to such events as "typical?"). A single shot from a distance with deadly accuracy, then a clean getaway, with the newly MAGAfied FBI floundering. There are plenty of potential conspiracy rabbit holes beckoning, but the last thing anyone needs at this juncture is inflammatory speculation. It is ominous that the most extreme voices on the right are calling it war and vowing "revenge" when prominent progressive voices are offering thoughts and prayers.
The MAGA cult reponds like a hornet's nest that has been kicked. We don't even have a suspect yet, so who is the "revenge" directed to? We haven't someone to blame yet.
Yeah, it's so coldly professional, which has my NJ radar screaming.
It is typically angering, as well as hypocritical and indecent, when there is talk of violence advocacy coming from both sides. And how we must "get out of our bubbles and listen" to the other side. Violence threats are 95% right wing--who attacked our Capitol and then were pardoned?-- and perhaps up to 5% from the left. Which side constantly confabulates? How much lying and bigotry must we listen to? Which side threatens every value that once was the best of America? There are not two equal sides. One side believes in reality, and one is anti-science, anti-truth, the total definition of anti-intellectualism. There might be people on both sides, but there is nothing respectable about the current right wing. Talk of "balance" is garbage.
How come so little mention of the politician & husband murdered recently in their own home in Minnesota. Political assassination at its worst. How come so little recollection of the judge's son murdered at the door of her home a few years ago. These were people on the left. Were the flags nationally at half mast? I lived through 3 political assassinations that molded me. I was a senior in high school when JFK was killed. I was a senior in college when MLK and RFK were killed. We Democrats know political assassination well. Let's be clear that the abominable, crude, hateful speech in this country over the past few decades has to be put at one party's feet. The name calling, the crudeness of speech against "the other" that's been allowed by the right wing is nothing compared to any other group in our country. Let's also give credit to that same right wing for all the guns prevalent in our society. I think the assassination of Charlie Kirk is horrendous, don't get me wrong. This should not have happened in our country. But when will the MAGAs be held accountable for the tone of speech and action in our country? Have they no decency?
Jason in his comment did mention this couple, as well as others killed by right-wingers who were usually supporters of this president.
When the international trade system is melting down, the independence of the Fed is imperiled, unemployment and inflation are ticketing up, job growth has practically flatlined, and Americans by a healthy margin think the economy is getting worse, the oligarchy is whooping it up in high style.
IOW, when it comes to ordinary people, their response is
LET THEM EAT CAKE!
Dear dear Jennifer, you are simply amazing - a gift to the country.
We already have “become numb to violence in any form.” When Trump says he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and he wouldn’t lose any supporters, and said that in 2016 to a crowd of students in a Christian college in Iowa, you know America is in serious trouble. We need to think deeply about how and why this can happen here.
"We" have not become numb to violence in any form. This is one reason why we continue to demonstrate and protest peacefully and do not demean ourselves by taking up torches, pitchforks, tar, or feathers. "We" believe in the rule of law and due process, as well as common decency and respect - when it is earned.
The "we" falls into two groups, those who are numb and those who are not. The former find ways to rationalize or be blinded to what is going on. The numbness is aided by a president who is ready, willing and able to anesthetize his followers further.
He’s having (has had) a terrible influence on young minds.
And it’s giving religion a bad name, altho it is fulfilling many Bible prophecies regarding end times, where ‘men would be lovers of selves, slanderers, not open to any agreement, puffed up with pride’ etc.
The word on the street here in GA is that after the abusive, humiliating, mean, idiotic ICE raid on the linked Hyundai and LG plants, the S Koreans are stopping all construction. tRump says he is making 'deals' to get other nations to invest in manufacturing here... then he goes and torches a major foreign investment by one of our major trading partners. Talk about Economically Tone Deaf.
Who could blame South Korea if they did stop all construction? Instead of working with the contractors to make sure that their overseas employees had the proper work permits, ICE got loads of publicity and helped their quotas by staging a massive raid with warrants for only a handful of the people they arrested.
So tRump pulled out his blasting gun and shot Georgia in both feet.
Because it’s an EV manufacturing operation & his oil-igarch class are unhappy?
Foreign investors own about 30% of US Treasuries and about 20% of the US stock market. It's stupid, it's blind, and it's xenophobic to put our economy at risk by even talking about destroying the independence of the Fed. Equally stupid is fooling with Tariffs like you're the only guy holding the cards. I trust Bessent knows all this better than his colleagues or his boss.
Bessent SHOULD know. He also should know that some of his fellow MAGATs would extermanate him if they get their way.
Meanwhile, because we get no orders from China, our agricultiral sector is headed to bancruptcy.
Doesn’t trump usually bail them out to buy their votes? 🙄
* with taxpayer money.
He did as #45. Now many are already out of business.
Out of business? Sad.
And the high Farmer suicide rate is an ongoing tragedy.
As is America’s gun culture that the right esp, espouse /support.
— very pro-life & business indeed.
Trump will just turn around and shovel money to the farmers. So,... nobody wins if they care about the budget. It's all a Kabuki Theater.
Tempus fugit. Too late.
bankrupt 6 times...
This is the second piece I've read with excellent, detailed suggestions for a Democratic plan forward. What I'm still waiting for is the story about elected Democrats joining together, supporting such a plan, and broadcasting it to the American people. Good God, what are they waiting for?
Steve Schmidt has called for a summit of Democratic Governors, which would be a good start; I think that such a summit should include other past and present Democratic leaders as well as Republicans who are happy to come out in public as anti-MAGA. They should draw up a platform for the next two election cycles and a plan to enable America to Heal Itself from the disasters that Trump has wrought. It would be even better if a leadership committee would be elected.
This is what I'm talking about! Great idea!
Does Steve Schmidt have the ear of Democratic Governors? I yearn to hear Democrats are actually DOING these things.
Jen, among your usual insightful summaries I applaud your clear blueprint for oligarchs who want to do right. It should be required reading for them all! And again, I really believe we should spend less time figuring out clever new ways to characterize what's happening, and who is to blame, and instead focus on WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. Enough with the handwringing. already!!
Someone once said sarcastically "once blame is assigned, the problem is solved." It does seem to work that way, or at least the problem is forgotten.
Yes, that's a problem in itself!!!
And tax the billionaires
I drop this political upheaval and continued gun violence squarely on the doorstep of Trump. If he were anything but a selfish, greedy grifter, and had one ounce of leadership ability, he would use his pulpit to tone down the violence and force through sensible gun legislation. But instead he's stoking violence and ignoring our country's gun problem, as usual. It's amazing how school shootings are so commonplace they receive scant attention in the press or from the GOP members of Congress, save for the "thoughts and prayers" trope. The fact this idiot is once again president after nearly destroying our country during his first term doesn't speak well of a quarter of our population who voted for him, or the millions of others who didn't bother to cast a vote. I'm not sure how we'll win our country back, because Republican corruption is happening in plain sight now. It's no longer the secret movement that began under the Reagan administration.