‘When do we get to use the guns?’: A right-winger's question shows how the GOP is spiraling out of control

When Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk spoke at a far-right event in Boise, Idaho, this week, he took questions from people in the audience — including a man who made it clear that he was ready to resort to violence over lies about the 2020 election. Media Matters highlighted the clip on its website.

Echoing MAGA Republicans' false and debunked claims of voter fraud, and hinting at animosity toward vaccine mandates, the man told Kirk, "At this point, we're living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. 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?"

Kirk responded, "I'm going to denounce that," but he nonetheless used the man's remarks as an opportunity to bash liberals and progressives, offer some inflammatory rhetoric of his own and claim that progressives were provoking the man's anger.

"They are trying to provoke you and everyone here," Kirk told the audience member. "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."

Kirk went on to say, "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…. If you think that you know Waco is bad, wait until you see what they want to do next."