Politics
Mourn him properly or else
- Republicans warn against mocking Kirk’s death, threaten dire consequences.
- At least 15 people fired or suspended for allegedly disrespecting Kirk’s memory.
- Online campaigns directed by Republicans continue to target Kirk’s critics online.
After the fatal shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, US Republicans have a warning for Americans: Mourn him respectfully or suffer the consequences.
Over the past several days, Democratic and Republican leaders have widely condemned the murder of Kirk, a 31-year-old activist and Trump world celebrity known for his hard-right views and pugnacious debating style.
A smattering of commentators — including ordinary people joking about and sometimes celebrating Kirk’s death to lawmakers and pundits dwelling on his history of bigoted rhetoric — has also surfaced, only to be targeted in organised campaigns.
At least 15 people have been fired or suspended from their jobs after discussing the killing online, according to a Reuters tally based on interviews, public statements and local press reports. The total includes journalists, academic workers and teachers. On Friday, a junior Nasdaq employee was fired over her posts related to Kirk.
Others have been subjected to torrents of online abuse or seen their offices flooded with calls demanding they be fired, part of a surge in right-wing rage that has followed the killing.
Some Republicans want to go further still and have proposed deporting Kirk’s critics from the United States, suing them into penury or banning them from social media for life.
“Prepare to have your whole future professional aspirations ruined if you are sick enough to celebrate his death,” said conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump and one of several far-right figures who are organising digital campaigns on X, the social media site, to ferret out and publicly shame Kirk’s critics.
US lawmaker Clay Higgins said in a post on X that anyone who “ran their mouth with their smartass hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man” needed to be “banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER.” The US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on the same site that he had been disgusted to “see some on social media praising, rationalising, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action.”
Republicans’ anger at those disrespecting Kirk’s legacy contrasts with the mockery some of the same figures – including Kirk – directed at past victims of political violence.
For example, when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was clubbed over the head by a hammer-wielding conspiracy theorist during a break-in at their San Francisco home shortly before the 2022 midterm elections, Higgins posted a photo making fun of the attack. He later deleted the post.
Loomer falsely suggested that Paul Pelosi and his assailant were lovers, calling the brutal assault on the octogenarian a “booty call gone wrong.” Speaking to a television audience a few days after the attack, a grinning Kirk called for the intruder to be sprung from jail.
“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,” he said.
Loomer and Higgins did not return messages seeking comment.
Website “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” registered
The campaign to fire Kirk’s critics has not slowed. Calls to run people out of jobs have flooded across X.
A newly registered site, “Expose Charlie’s Murderers,” has 41 names of people it alleged were “supporting political violence online” and claims to be working on a backlog of more than 20,000 submissions.
A Reuters review of the screenshots and comments posted to the site shows that some of those featured joked about or celebrated Kirk’s death. One was quoted as saying, “He got what he deserved” and others were quoted providing variations on “karma’s a bitch.” Others, however, were critical of the far-right figure while explicitly denouncing violence.
Still others appear to have done little more than point out that a longtime gun control foe had been shot to death. At least three accurately quoted Kirk’s 2023 comments in which he told a crowd that some gun deaths were “worth it,” saying that the annual drumbeat of firearms-related killings in the United States was “a prudent deal” in exchange for the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
One person who was featured on the site said their employer had been bombarded by phone calls, with callers threatening not to let up until they were fired or disciplined. The person said they plan to avoid the office in the coming days.
“To be very, very clear, I don’t condone the murder of Charlie Kirk,” the person told Reuters in a phone call, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid further harassment. “But I do, at the same time, have to appreciate the irony of this situation,” they said, referring to Kirk being shot through the neck with a rifle following years of vociferous opposition to gun control.
Reuters could not establish who is running the website. The site did not respond to questions about its ownership, methodology, or why quoting Kirk accurately could be seen as “supporting political violence.” Squarespace, the site’s host, did not return messages seeking comment.
Jay Childers, an associate professor of communications at the University of Kansas, said there was a long history of government officials and political elites attempting to control rhetoric and suppress dissent.
“I do not think this moment is really new in that sense,” he said, although he noted that “the ability for anyone to post their thoughts on the internet certainly makes far more people potential targets of any attempts to control political speech.”
- Operation targeted Comando Vermelho drug gang.
- Over 70 corpses recovered by local residents.
- UN urges probe into Brazil police actions.
The deadliest police operation in Brazil’s history killed at least 132 people, officials said on Wednesday, after Rio de Janeiro residents lined a street with dozens of corpses collected overnight, a week ahead of global climate events in the city.
The tally from the Rio public defender’s office was more than double the death toll released on Tuesday, when state authorities reported at least 64 dead, including four police officers. The raids were targeting a major drug gang, the state government said.
Rio Governor Claudio Castro said the initial tally had only counted bodies processed in the public morgue.
Penha residents who went looking for lost relatives had collected many of the corpses from a forested area behind their neighborhood, according to people at the scene, where more than 70 of the bodies were lined up in the middle of the street.
“I just want to take my son out of here and bury him,” said Taua Brito, a mother of one of those killed, surrounded by weeping mourners and onlookers on either side of the long row of bodies, some of which were covered with sheets or bags.
Governor Castro said he was certain those dead from the operation were criminals, as much of the gunfire was in a wooded area. “I don’t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,” he told reporters.
“The only real victims were the police officers,” he said.
The police operation came days before Rio hosts global events related to the United Nations climate summit known as COP30, including the C40 global summit of mayors tackling climate change and British Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
Rio has hosted several global events over the past decade, including the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July, without violence on the scale seen on Tuesday.
The Rio state government said the operation was its largest ever to target the Comando Vermelho gang, which controls the drug trade in several favelas – poor and densely populated settlements woven through the city’s hilly oceanside terrain.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who landed in Brasilia late on Tuesday from a trip to Malaysia, has yet to comment on the raids.
He met with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and cabinet members on Wednesday to discuss the matter, his office said. Lula’s justice minister said on Tuesday the government had not received any request for support from state authorities.
Several civil society groups criticized the heavy casualties of the military-style raid. The UN Human Rights office said it adds to a trend of extreme lethal consequences of police raids in Brazil’s marginalized communities.
“We remind authorities of their obligations under international human rights law, and urge prompt and effective investigations,” it said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump appeared to close the door on seeking a third term in office, acknowledging that the Constitution bars him from running again after his current term ends in January 2029.
“If you read it, it’s pretty clear — I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday en route to South Korea, signalling a shift from earlier comments in which he declined to definitively rule out another bid.
The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution bars anyone from being elected to the US presidency a third time, but Trump has publicly toyed with the idea since he won a second term in November.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that he had discussed the issue with Trump and concluded there was no viable path to amend the Constitution in time to allow a third term. “It’s been a great run,” Johnson said. “But I think the president knows, and he and I have talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution.”
Johnson noted that the amendment process would require two-thirds approval in Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states, a process he estimated could take a decade. “I don’t see the path for that,” he added.
Trump’s allies, including former strategist Steve Bannon, have floated legal theories challenging the two-term limit established by the 22nd Amendment.
Trump has referenced the idea at rallies and sells “Trump 2028” merchandise, though Johnson characterised it as political theatre. “He has a good time with that, trolling the Democrats whose hair is on fire about the very prospect,” Johnson said.
Trump, 79, also pointed earlier this week to Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential Republican contenders for the 2028 election. If he were to run again, Trump would be 82, making him the oldest president in US history.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he had instructed the military to launch “powerful strikes” in Gaza, accusing Hamas of breaching the ongoing ceasefire agreement in the enclave.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office did not provide specific details regarding the alleged violation.
However, an Israeli military official claimed Hamas had attacked Israeli forces in a zone under Israel’s control, calling it “another clear breach of the ceasefire.”
Earlier, Netanyahu had also accused Hamas of failing to return the correct remains during the process of transferring the bodies of Israeli hostages.
Hamas had initially announced that it would hand over the body of a missing hostage discovered in a tunnel in Gaza, but later postponed the handover, saying Israel had already violated the ceasefire terms.
Reports from Israeli media suggested clashes took place between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in Rafah, though the Israeli military has not commented on those accounts.
Hamas, for its part, said it was adhering to the ceasefire agreement and accused Netanyahu of “seeking pretexts” to avoid fulfilling Israel’s commitments.
A U.S.-backed ceasefire is in force between Israel and Hamas, but each side has accused the other of violations.
Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and war-time detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.
Hamas has also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies in the enclave, which has been devastated by two years of war. Israel says Hamas can access the remains of most of the hostages.
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