Democrats and members of the corporate media have repeatedly claimed that the fatal shooting of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was not celebrated, but online history tells a different story.
Celebrations of the assassination or comments that mocked or justified Kirk’s assassination took place in various social media venues online, especially on platforms like BlueSky, leading to numerous people, including MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd and Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, being fired over their reactions to the fatal shooting. MSNBC senior enterprise reporter Brandy Zadrozny claimed Tuesday that reports of celebrations were the “total opposite” of reality.
“I think if you look across media generally, you have seen a lot of people trying to grapple with Charlie Kirk’s legacy and what that is as a right-wing agitator and as a provocateur and as, you know, a strategist and the most important GOP figure besides Donald Trump, arguably ever,” Zadrozny told MSNBC host Katy Tur. “And so — or right now. And so, there’s a lot of grappling to do. But to suggest that the Internet is cheering for this is just the opposite, total opposite of what’s actually happening.”
Historian Heather Cox Richardson made a similar claim Friday, while Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland asserted the assassination of the TPUSA founder caused all Americans to react with “horror and shock” during a Wednesday House Judiciary Committee hearing.
Raskin: “The whole country reacted with horror and shock to the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
Really? The whole country?pic.twitter.com/RlNj4dYHKn
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 17, 2025
CNN host Abby Phillip also disputed that liberals celebrated Kirk’s assassination during a fiery discussion with Federalist reporter Brianna Lyman and Salem Radio Network host Scott Jennings on Tuesday. Jennings posted on X requesting instances where Kirk’s murder was celebrated Wednesday, receiving multiple responses.
Grabien News founder Tom Elliot posted a supercut of liberals and left-wingers celebrating Kirk’s assassination on X on Sunday, including videos posted on social media. The online celebrations have drawn condemnation from prominent media personalities like Stephen A. Smith and Bill Maher.
One of the videos compiled by Elliot showed a young woman dancing while singing, “Charlie Kirk… just got shot in the neck.” Another video in the compilation featured a biological male who identified as a transgender woman saying “He was shot in the middle of saying something transphobic about trans people and yet you want to have sympathy for him.”
Multiple teachers are under investigation for appearing to celebrate or otherwise justify Kirk’s death in online activity compiled by the X account LibsofTikTok. Others who have made celebratory posts about the assassination include an Army Reserve officer, multiple nurses, professors and administrators at colleges and universities, public defenders and elected officials.
A survey by Rutgers University and the Network Contagion Research Institute showing 56% of “left-of-center” respondents saying that assassinating President Donald Trump, who survived two attempts on his life during the 2024 presidential campaign, would be at least partially justifiable, was released in April. Similar percentages said the same thing about Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the survey.
Jennings explained why Republicans and conservatives were aggressively targeting those who celebrated during a Monday appearance on CNN.
Hi @GonzagaU, this your employee?
“I’m glad he’s dead… I’m going to have a cocktail to get high in his memory.”
Any comment? @GonzagaU? https://t.co/YsWomogAdU pic.twitter.com/mF022BmW4P
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 16, 2025
“I’ll tell you one more thing that’s on my mind tonight and of conservatives everywhere. The idea that people are saying, well, he was an extremist or he was a racist or he was a Nazi or a misogynist, whatever, therefore we could get around to rationalizing it. Charlie Kirk was a mainstream conservative Republican,” Jennings told CNN host Kaitlan Collins. “He [Kirk] had views that are held by tens of millions of people, including more than half the country in the last election.”
“So if you’re online saying this is justified, what you’re actually saying is, ‘Half the country I live in, there’s some justification to commit violence or murder against them,’” Jennings continued. “And that’s what is concerning about the people who are doing this, and that’s why I don’t think anybody is losing any sleep about these folks not being able to teach our children.”
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