Doesn’t look like it.
Charlie Kirk is a conservative activist and talk-radio host who embraces election lies and promotes false conspiracy theories on a variety of topics include masks and vaccines.
While not a Republican Party official or office-holder, he associates with the party, and they with him; he was invited to speak at the 2016 Republican national convention and campaigned for Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Kirk was streaming his podcast before a live audience at Boise State University on October 25, 2021, when an audience member asked this question:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “When do we get to use the guns? No, and I’m not — that’s not a joke. I’m not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where’s the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?”
Caught off guard and unprepared, Kirk struggled to respond. He said:
KIRK: “So, no, I – no, hold on. I – no – stop, hold on. Now, I’m going to denounce that and I’m going to tell you why. Because you’re playing into all their plans and they’re trying to make you do this. … They are trying to provoke you and everyone here. They are trying to make you do something that will be violent that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties, the likes of which we have never seen.”
He continued,
“We are close to [having] … momentum to be able to get this country back on a trajectory using the peaceful means that we have ..,. So to answer your question, and I just think it’s, you know, overly blunt, we have to be the ones that do not play into the violent aims and ambitions of the other side. They fear – let me say this very clearly – they fear us holding the line with self-control and discipline, taking over school board meetings. They are the ones that are willing to use federal force against us. … What I’m saying is that we have a very fragile balance right now at our current time where we must exhaust every single peaceful mean possible.”
For the full, unedited, exchange go here.
Kirk is not so stupid as to endorse violence. But he’s lying through his teeth when he says “they” (he doesn’t specify who, but presumably means liberals and Democrats) are trying to provoke conservatives to acts of violence, and are planning government-sponsored violence against them. That’s not only false, but dangerously inciting. And even worse, he didn’t tell his listeners to reject violence, but only urged them to exhaust peaceful means first. That, in effect, says violence is okay if they don’t get what they want through democratic elections.
Strictly speaking, Kirk doesn’t speak for the Republican Party. But in a way, he does. That’s because the GOP has been taken over by people like this.
Most Republicans who do speak for the party are embracing them, feeding their paranoia, and failing to defend things they should be defending — truth, democracy, civility, and peaceful transfer of power. Many refused to condemn or even acknowledge the violent assault on the Capitol by a Republican mob, instead trying to whitewash or ignore it. Grassroots Republicans have talked for years about “civil war” and “executing” liberals, and armed rightwing private militias have proliferated.
The GOP is drifting away from being a respectable political party, and toward becoming a launching platform for violent revolution. When someone says in a political meeting, “when are we going to begin killing these people,” the proper answer isn’t “not yet.”
It is obligatory for official GOP spokespersons to criticize Kirk and distance themselves from him, and draw the line he wouldn’t. But don’t hold your breath; in this year of political tumult, so far they’ve done almost nothing to help cool tempers and tamp down out-of-control passions.
Photo: Kirk’s reaction to a Boise audience member’s remark about killing political opponents