By Hannah Saunders
White supremacist Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot dead while speaking at a Utah Valley University campus event on September 10, creating reverberations across the nation. Citizens, conservative and liberal politicians, and media outlets have denounced the assassination, disregarding Kirk’s violent rhetoric that perpetuated harm against marginalized communities. A Seattle church that has been at the forefront of recent protests, Pursuit NW, held a last-minute candlelight vigil in Westlake Plaza that evening.
Several hundred people gathered as the sky dimmed to darkness, and Pastor Russell Johnson— wearing a shirt that said “God save Seattle” took to the stage. Johnson described Kirk as a friend and said the fatal shot to his neck constitutes “senseless political and religious violence.”
“He was a martyr and the world wasn’t ready for him,” Johnson said, who proceeded to quote Martin Luther King Jr: “‘It’s always time to tell the truth.’”
But Kirk, who debated college students on their campuses, has said MLK Jr. was “not a good person,” and “awful.” The blatantly racist father of two has also publicly said that “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
Highlighted by Zionist media personality Ari Hoffman at the vigil, Kirk founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at 18. TPUSA is a far-right organization that works to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government,” according to its website.
Kirk played a key role in shaping republican politics, and Trump— who attended numerous TPUSA events— said “he was like a little brother to me,” on social media. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Kirk collaborated with other organizations to rally hundreds of MAGA supporters to stage an insurrection on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 2021, following Trump’s false allegations of election fraud.
In Westlake, many vigil attendees raised their left arms into the sky as other speakers, like MAGA talking head Jason Rantz, provided remarks. Many held American and Israeli flags, one man was spotted wearing a gun strapped to his waist, and several men wore pro-gun rights t-shirts. After a few hours, attendees grabbed flameless candles from a box to wave in the air for the remainder of the event.
There were a couple of brief clashes between pro and anti-Kirk attendees, including two people who were arrested for allegedly hitting right-wing influencer Cam Higby in the face, but the event was overarchingly peaceful.
Many Washington state elected officials issued statements on Kirk’s assassination. Senator Patty Murray (D – 9) said on social media:
“Just months ago, the Speaker of the MN House was killed. Now, Charlie Kirk. This must end. Political violence is a uniquely dangerous thing. We make ourselves heard with our voices and votes. We cannot settle disagreements with violence in this country.”
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson also issued a statement and said, “Violence is never the answer. There is no place in our democracy for political violence, and I condemn the murder of Charlie Kirk in the strongest terms. My prayers are with his family.”
But while many, primarily white people, claim that violence is never the answer, Kirk advocated for gun deaths to justify gun ownership. During a 2023 speaking event, Kirk said gun deaths will never reach zero, although they can be reduced.
“You will never live in a society [where] you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death. That is nonsense, it’s drivel,” Kirk said. “But 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. That is a prudent deal.”
Utah police arrested two people before laying into Tyler Robinson, 22, who was turned in by his father for allegedly shooting Kirk. In an article published by The Daily Mail, Robinson’s grandmother, Debbie, said the young adult didn’t speak too much about politics, but that he came from a conservative family and had a father who is a strong Trump supporter.
As authorities work to uncover the motives of Robinson, several elected officials, including Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox, claimed that Robinson holds “leftist ideology.” Vice President JD Vance, who is a longtime friend of Kirk, hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show” from his desk in the White House on September 15 to honor Kirk and said the killer must be brought to justice.
“We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years, and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet,” Vance said.
Follow us on social media to view more footage of the vigil.
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