How MAGA is exploiting Charlie Kirk’s murder to justify 'sprawling retribution'

More than a month has passed since the fatal shooting of MAGA activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk in Utah, and the murder continues to inspire an abundance of discussion on both the left and the right.

A long list of liberals, progressives, moderate Democrats and right-wing Never Trump conservatives are making it abundantly clear that while they had major disagreements with Kirk, they wholeheartedly condemn the killing. Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), for example, was critical of Kirk's politics but is vehement in condemning the attack and saying that progressives need to debate those they disagree with — not resort to violence.

Many in the MAGA movement, however, are blaming Democrats and Never Trumpers for his murder despite the fact they condemned it in no uncertain terms.

In an article published on October 11, The Guardian's Peter Stone warns that MAGA Republicans are using Kirk's murder as a pretext to silence their political opponents.

"Donald Trump and MAGA allies have capitalized on the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk to expand attacks on liberal groups, donors, Democrats, and others by tarring many critics as the 'enemy within' and 'radical left' in a move that legal scholars and historians call authoritarian and anti-democratic," Stone warns. "Kirk's killing by a lone gunman spurred Trump and top allies to quickly launch conspiratorial charges against a bevy of political foes and an investigation of billionaire liberal donor George Soros. They also threatened legal action against TV network ABC after their late-night star Jimmy Kimmel's suspension over clumsy comments about Kirk ended."

Stone emphasizes that Kirk's murder has "provided cover for a sprawling retribution drive by the president and MAGA world that endangers civil liberties against an array of critics in the media, universities, non-profits and other parts of American civil society, say scholars."

Steven Levitsky, a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts outside Boston and author of the book "How Democracies Die," described MAGA's response to Kirk's murder as an example of "Page 1 in the authoritarian playbook."

Levitsky told The Guardian, "You use political violence as a pretext to go after your political enemies. Some of them have been chomping at the bit to do this. They're going after mainstream opponents and other critics. They're defining unacceptable behavior as broadly as possible….. The goal is to tilt the playing field by going after anybody in civil society who could challenge them. One way to weaken them is to go after the funders using a false pretense by linking them to violence or illegal behavior."

Former federal prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig is highly critical of MAGA's push for a federal racketeering investigation of billionaire Democratic donor George Soros following Kirk's murder.

Rosenzweig told The Guardian, "Trump’s invocation of RICO to investigate Soros is frivolously wrong-headed. It is yet another example of his weaponization of the law to target his enemies."

Russell Muirhead, chairman of the Department of Government at Dartmouth University told The Guardian, "Since Charlie Kirk's murder, President Trump has amplified and extended his penchant for leveling conspiracy charges. The target is 'domestic terrorist organizations,' which seems to include such peaceful pro-democratic anti-communist entities as George Soros' Open Society Foundations. The effect is to describe the entirety of 'the left' as a conspiracy, bent on destroying the country, including the Democratic Party."

Muirhead continued: “The risk here is clear: conspiracy charges convert peaceful political opponents into enemies. Once that is accomplished, they no longer need to be respected or tolerated. They can be folded into shadowy 'domestic terrorism networks' and imprisoned — or worse."

Read Peter Stone's full article for The Guardian at this link.