Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk shot dead at 31

Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk tosses out hats shortly before he was shot dead at Utah Valley University

(Image credit: Trent Nelson / The Salt Lake Tribune / Getty Images)

What happened

Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old cofounder of Turning Point USA and one of the most influential young conservatives in the U.S., was shot dead Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) called the killing a “political assassination.” State and federal law enforcement are still searching for the shooter, who fired a single bullet through Kirk’s neck from a rooftop about 200 yards away.

Who said what

Kirk, a close ally and key booster of President Donald Trump, “vaulted to the heights of the MAGA world by mobilizing a new generation of young conservatives on college campuses,” The Wall Street Journal said. His death, as he was fielding a question about mass shootings on the first stop of a 15-campus fall tour, has “rattled Americans and deepened the sense of a nation at war with itself.”

In a video from the Oval Office, Trump condemned the “demonizing” of political opponents, then “claimed the rhetoric of the ‘radical left’ was ‘directly responsible’ for the assassination,” The Associated Press said. Trump also blamed “radical left political violence” for last year’s assassination attempts on him and the shootings of United HealthCare’s CEO and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), but “omitted any reference to attacks on Democrats, such as the killing of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman” in June or the attempt on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) in April.

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“Some of the most prominent voices on the right” joined Trump in “accusing Democrats and liberals of fomenting violence,” The Washington Post said, but Kirk’s murder primarily “drew widespread condemnation from allies and political rivals alike,” who agreed that political violence had no place in America. Meanwhile, the U.S. is “undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s,” said Reuters, which counted “more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts” since Jan. 6, 2021.

What next?

“Hopes for the fast capture” of the shooter “evaporated” last night when FBI Director Kash Patel, in an embarrassing “backtrack,” announced that authorities had “released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt,” The New York Times.

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.