PAUL INGRASSIA has described “straight White men” as an intellectually superior group that should be prioritized in education.[28] In October 2025, Politico published text messages from a group chat with Republican “operatives and influencers” in which Ingrassia made numerous racist statements. In the messages, which were verified by Politico, Ingrassia wrote that Martin Luther King Jr. “was the 1960s George Floyd” and that his holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of Hell”. He used an Italian slur for Black people while calling for the discontinuation of all US holidays related to Black culture and history, adding that “Blacks behave that way because that’s their natural state” and that “all of Africa is a shithole”. In reference to Vivek Ramaswamy, Ingrassia wrote, “Never trust a Chinaman or Indian”; he also stated that “We need competent white men in positions of leadership” while rejecting the notion that “all men are created equal”. When another participant in the chat compared him to the Hitler Youth, Ingrassia responded, “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.”
**Paul Ingrassia (born May 13, 1995) is an American attorney who has served as the White House liaison to the United States Department of Homeland Security since February 2025. Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel.
J.D. VANCE: “Kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke – telling a very offensive, stupid joke – is cause to ruin their lives.
**J.D. Vance is the Vice-President of the United States
With No Kings rallies occurring across America tomorrow, and the Trump administration’s unhinged reaction to them on full display, it’s never been more important for Congress to reform the Insurrection
Donald Trump — the man who incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and has pardoned those who attacked our democracy — is now calling peaceful protesters “insurrectionists” and threatening to use military force against them.
The Insurrection Act, a 200-year-old law, gives presidents near-limitless power to deploy troops on U.S. soil with almost no oversight. It was meant for true emergencies. But as written, it’s an open invitation for abuse — allowing any president to send armed forces into American cities under almost any pretext. I fear Trump is about to seize that power.
Nine months into his second term, he’s said he would invoke the Insurrection Act “if I had to” — but he has already said certain states are in “pure insurrection.” He’s sent Marines to Los Angeles and the National Guard to Chicago and Portland. His administration’s rhetoric paints blue states as battlefields and dissent as rebellion.
Trump’s goal isn’t public safety. It’s punishing those who speak out against his regime.
Twenty-four Democratic attorneys general have joined California and Oregon’s lawsuit opposing these deployments, asserting “there is no invasion to repel, no rebellion to suppress.” Calling in troops when state and local law enforcement are fully functional, they say, “sets a chilling precedent that puts the constitutional rights of all Americans at risk.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has called out Trump’s false claims that Chicago and Illinois are “war zones,” noting that neither ranks among the 10 most violent cities or states in the nation.
Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t reflect reality — it’s designed to justify repression.
NBC News reports that Trump’s advisers are already drafting orders to override governors and occupy more Democratic-led cities.
Deploying the U.S. military against civilians isn’t leadership; it’s tyranny. It creates violence where none existed and hurts communities rather than protecting them.
Congress must act now to prevent Trump, or any future president, from misusing the Insurrection Act. Lawmakers should:
Require Congress approve any domestic troop deployment of more than 14 days;
Empower federal courts to block illegal or unconstitutional uses of the act;
Ensure that peaceful protest can never be grounds for military action; and
Require transparency whenever the act is invoked.
What’s happening on American streets — armored vehicles, tear gas, and citizens beaten for exercising their rights — should never happen in a democracy.
Because the right to peacefully protest is not an act of insurrection — it’s the foundation of American democracy.
Peacefully protest tomorrow. It’s not just your right. It’s your duty.
So much news happening…On my weekly appearance on Halitics (a daily YouTube videocast) with Hal Ginsberg, we got into the ongoing government shutdown, We agree that the Democrats have the right idea, pushing for health care access only. As much as Republicans blame Chuck Schumer and the Dems for the shutdown, it won’t work. Voters are aware that the GOP controls the government and are responsible for all the problems the shutdown is causing.
Another topic had to do with our policy regarding energy. The Trump administration pushes for oil, gas and other high-polluting sources, at the same time disregarding and punishing solar, wind and other clean energies. We agree that the GOP is ignoring climate change, causing energy costs to increase, while blocking efforts to help our planet recover from pollution.
We also pointed out that Trump is getting rid of many blacks in high positions so he can hire white replacements. How will that play in future elections?
By Sen. Bernie Sanders/ BernieSanders.com/ October 14, 2025
Crazy times. Dangerous times.
Under Trump, things are moving very fast.
We have an unstable megalomaniac who wants more and more power into his own hands. We can’t let that happen.
His attacks against the media, universities, law firms, Congress and the courts are creating fear throughout the country and moving us, step-by-step, toward authoritarianism. In an unprecedented way he is now using ICE agents to break down doors and the U.S. military to patrol cities.
But it’s not just the dangerous movement toward authoritarianism. On behalf of his oligarchic friends, Trump is waging a vicious assault on the working families of this country.
While the billionaires become much richer his attack on the American healthcare system, which is already deeply broken, could lead to its total collapse. If Trump gets his way, 15 million low income and working class Americans will lose their healthcare and premiums will double for over 20 million people on the Affordable Care Act exchange. As a result, tens of thousands will die unnecessarily each year. And all this happens so that the top 1% can get $1 trillion in tax breaks.
His continued absurd claim, on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, that climate change is a “hoax“ will dangerously slow down our ability to transform our economy into sustainable energy and address this existential threat to our planet.
His financial support for his multi-billionaire friends in Big Tech who are aggressively pushing AI and robotics will mean the loss of millions of good paying jobs and extraordinary threats to our privacy.
Trump may be crazy and a pathological liar, but he is not stupid. He is a very good tactician and knows exactly what he’s doing. His goal, by “flooding the zone” and moving forward simultaneously in a hundred different areas is to convince the American people that he is invincible and can’t be stopped. He has the power. You don’t. He has unlimited amounts of money. You don’t. His friends control the media. You don’t. Give up. There’s nothing you can do to stop him and his fellow oligarchs.
It’s actually a pretty good plan. Fortunately, however, it’s not working.
More and more Americans are seeing through Trump and are turning away from him. While he still has a strong core of right-wing support, polling shows that he is less popular today than any time in his second administration.
Please don’t forget. It’s not just that over 320,000 Americans in 21 states came out to our Fighting Oligarchy rallies. It’s not just that next Saturday we expect to see huge No Kings demonstrations all across this country in opposition to Trumpism.
It’s not just that Democrats in Congress are finally getting a backbone and opposing these horrific health care cuts.
What we are also seeing is progressive Democrats and independents taking on the Democratic establishment as they run for the US Senate and U.S. House in Michigan, Maine, Nebraska, Texas congressional districts throughout the country and Zohran Mamdani in New York City.
What we are seeing is Republican share of vote is slipping in special election after special election in races up-and-down the ballot this year. Republicans see it too, that is what they are trying to re-draw House maps in the middle of the decade in several states.
What we are seeing, increasingly, is Republicans from Josh Hawley to Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking out against Donald Trump and the Republican Party abandoning the promises they made to the working people of this country during the last election.
What we are seeing, according to a recent YouGov poll is a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Republicans are handling the current government shutdown and a plurality place most of the blame on Donald Trump and the Republican Party for the current state of affairs.
What we are seeing from a recent Pew Research poll is that strong majorities of Americans believe he is abusing and improperly using the office of the president and moving our country in the wrong direction.
So is Donald Trump unbeatable?
No. No, he is not.
He is deeply unpopular.
The bad news is, so is the Democratic Party.
So where do we go from here — and what can you do yourself? Because in these difficult times, despair is not an option. We’ve got to fight back in every way we can.
We have to get involved in the political process — run for office, connect with our local, state and federal legislators, donate to candidates who will fight for the working class of this country.
We have to create new channels for communication and information sharing. We have to volunteer not just politically, but to build community locally.
We have to support progressive candidates running for office and push establishment Democrats to find the courage to take on the billionaire class of this country.
Whatever we can do is what we must do.
Needless to say, I intend to do my part — both inside the beltway and traveling throughout the country — to stand up for the working class of this country. In the days, weeks, and months ahead I hope you will join me in that struggle.
Breaking news is plentiful–unfortunately it’s all bad. Trump continues his total takedown of the U.S. government. On the YouTube videocast “Halitics” Wednesday Hal Ginsberg and I discussed which Democrat could successfully run against Trump (whose approval ratings continue to tank). I think Gavin Newsome is the best choice. Hal is cautious about Gavin, but he noted a negative review of Kamala Harris’s latest book, which confirms why both of us lack any enthusiasm for her.
Robert Reich sees increased dementia of the president, based on his recent statements that often make no sense (did they ever?). I question whether Trump would even allow an election if he sees a possible loss. Meanwhile, Red states are working on finding ways to make voting difficult for Democrats.
Over the weekend, on his Truth Social, Trump shared a video purporting to be a segment on Fox News — it wasn’t — in which an AI-generated, deepfaked version of himself sat in the White House and promised that “every American will soon receive their own MedBed card” that will grant them access to new “MedBed hospitals.”
What?
Believers in the “MedBed” conspiracy theory think certain hospital beds are loaded with futuristic technology that can reverse any disease, regenerate limbs, and de-age people. No one has an actual photo of these beds because they don’t exist.
Trump also posted (again, without any basis in fact) that the FBI “secretly placed … 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during” the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, during which they were “probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists.”
Trump added that this “is different from what Director Christopher Wray stated, over and over again!” and went on: “Christopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some major explaining to do. That’s two in a row, Comey and Wray, who got caught LYING.”
In fact, the Department of Justice’s inspector general reported that there were no undercover FBI agents at the January 6 riots. (FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the few FBI agents present on January 6 were there on “a crowd control mission after the riot was declared.”)
Trump also announced Saturday that he intends to send the U.S. military to Portland, Oregon, authorizing “Full Force, if necessary” to “protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
Hello? Although protesters have been camping on the sidewalks outside the ICE office for months, the demonstration has dwindled to almost nothing. Of the 29 related arrests, 22 happened on or before July 4, when the protests were at their peak.
What’s been the media’s response to Trump’s bonkers postings and announcements this weekend? Nada. The media either ignored them, mentioned them as part of Trump’s “strategy,” or assumed Trump was just being Trump.
But there’s another explanation.
Trump is showing growing signs of dementia. He’s increasingly unhinged. He’s 79 years old with a family history of dementia. He could well be going nuts.
You might think this would be covered in the news, but he isn’t facing anything like the scrutiny for dementia that Joe Biden did.
Perhaps the most telling evidence of Trump’s growing dementia is his paranoid thirst for revenge, on which he is centering much of his presidency.
The paranoia was becoming evident in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. On November 11, 2023, he pledged to a crowd of supporters in Claremont, New Hampshire, that:
“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible — they’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”
Most media commentators chalked this up to overheated campaign rhetoric.
But since occupying the Oval Office, Trump has demanded that his attorney general target political opponents, urged the head of his FCC to threaten a major network for allowing a late-night comedian to say things Trump disliked, suggested that the government revoke TV licenses of network broadcasters that allow criticism of him, and pulled government security clearances from former officials whom he deems his enemies.
Less than two weeks ago, he demanded that the Justice Department prosecute a handful of named political opponents “now!” — including James Comey, whom Trump fired from his post in 2017 after Comey oversaw the FBI’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election; Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, who indicted Trump; and Adam Schiff, U.S. senator from California, who played an active role in the House hearings on January 6, 2021.
On September 19, Erik Siebert, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (initially selected for the position by Trump) resigned after Trump told reporters “I want him out.” Siebert had concerns about the strength of the evidence against both Comey and James.
The following day, Trump posted a message to his attorney general, Pam Bondi. “Pam,” it began, “Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’”
He said he was promoting Lindsey Halligan, one of his former personal attorneys, to take Siebert’s place, and fumed: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
On September 22, three days after Halligan assumed office, she secured a simple, two-count indictment against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and for allegedly obstructing justice.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey,” Trump exalted on social media following the indictment. “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”
The Comey indictment was a blip in the weekly news cycle. The media appeared to shrug: Yes, of course Trump is vindictive, so what else is new?
But wait. Are his acts those of a sane person? Or of an aging paranoid megalomaniac?
Even if it’s unclear to which category Trump belongs, shouldn’t this question be central to the coverage of his presidency? At the very least, shouldn’t the media be actively investigating? Again: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s growing dementia?
Washington, D.C. — Today, Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released partial records from the third batch of documents produced by the Jeffrey Epstein Estate, which includes phone message logs, copies of flight logs and manifests for aircrafts, copies of financial ledgers, and Epstein’s daily schedule. The documents produced to the public include mentions of possible contact between Jeffrey Epstein and prominent figures like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, and Prince Andrew. Further review of the documents, which were redacted to protect the identity of victims, is ongoing.
“It should be clear to every American that Jeffrey Epstein was friends with some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world. Every new document produced provides new information as we work to bring justice for the survivors and victims. Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein’s heinous crimes. It’s past time for Attorney General Bondi to release all the files now,” said Oversight Spokesperson Sara Guerrero.
Within documents of Epstein’s schedule, there is evidence that Thiel and Bannon had scheduled meetings with Epstein, as well as evidence of a pending trip by Elon Musk to Epstein’s island. Prince Andrew is listed as a passenger on Epstein’s aircraft, with financial disclosures providing possible evidence of payments from Epstein to masseuses on behalf of an individual identified as “Andrew.” Extensive redactions have been made to protect victims as Committee investigators continue to analyze the new documents. This is a rolling production, and the Committee expects to receive more documents in response to these and other requests.
In the third batch, the Oversight Committee received 8,544 documents responsive to the Committee’s subpoena from August. The following was received:
Phone Message Logs from 2002-2005, which were produced previously in litigation
Copies of flight logs and flight manifests for aircraft, including helicopters, that Mr. Epstein owned, rented, leased, operated or used from 1990-2019
Copies of ledgers reflecting transactions recorded as cash transactions for Mr. Epstein and business entities. These documents were previously shown to Committee staff at in camera review.
On my weekly YouTube videocast “Halitics” political news seemed to be everywhere. Hal Ginsberg felt the Israeli aggression in Gaza might hurt everything Jewish: religion, the Israeli state, the people, etc. I felt and hoped the Israeli government and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu would be blamed, but increased antisemitism points to a wider blame for Jews that may last a long time.
We discussed the Charles Kirk assassination fallout and the MAGA attempt to frame him as a hero for all Americans. Hal and I pointed out that Kirk has a history of right-wing positions that put him far from the mainstream. And we wondered why ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel got fired (temporarily, fortunately) for mild statements that weren’t critical of Kirk, but “Fox and Friends” host Brian Kilmeade is still working for Fox News despite literally proposing America’s homeless should be killed!
Another topic was the independence and impartiality that historically occurred in the Justice Department in previous administrations. That seems to have disappeared under Trump who makes all the decisions about who should be indicted and which lawyers will prosecute the cases against individuals most often perceived as enemies of Trump.
By Thom Hartmann/ Hartmannreport.com/ September 16, 2025
When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, he was sitting under a tent that had “America Comeback Tour” printed in huge letters across all four sides. It was the theme of his tour of college campuses, a tour run by his Turning Point organization that was, according to NBC News, early-funded by ten morbidly rich rightwingers.
The question is “America Comeback” to what?
In 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn into office: — Fully two-thirds of Americans were in the middle class, — College was so cheap you could pay your tuition with a weekend job, — Healthcare was inexpensive and widely available, — Women and minorities had achieved legal (albeit not yet actual) parity with white men, — And school and mass shootings were largely unknown because weapons of war were mostly outlawed from our streets.
Today, however, as a result of the Reagan Revolution:
— Only around half of us are in the middle class, — College debt has crushed two generations to the point where they can’t start a family or buy a house, — A half-million families end up homeless or bankrupt every year because somebody got sick, — The GOP is leading an effort to make it harder for women and minorities to vote or maintain employment, — And, with more guns than people, mass shootings are an almost-daily occurrence.
It’s easy to see why an appealing pitch to the nation’s young people would be “comeback” or “Make America Great Again.” But what caused that “greatness” that we need to “come back to” and what wrecked it?
The American middle class is a relatively recent phenomenon. In 1900, only about 17 percent of us were in it; by the time of the Republican Great Depression it was about a quarter of us.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office in 1933, he embarked on a radical new campaign to create the world’s first widespread, more-than-half-of-us middle class. It had three main long-term components.
First, he passed the Wagner Act in 1935 that legalized labor unions and forbade employers from bringing in scab workers or refusing to recognize a union. That gave workers democracy in the workplace, and they used that power to demand that as their productivity increased, so would their pay and benefits.
Second, he established a minimum wage to make sure that people who worked full time would never end up in poverty.
Third, he raised the top income tax rate to 90% for the morbidly rich and 52% for corporations.
That high top tax rate on the rich meant that the average CEO took only about 30 times what the average worker did (because he’d be paying 90% or 74% after taking the first few millions), leaving far more money in the company to give raises and benefits to workers.
Corporations could get around their top tax rate by investing in their business. Research and development, new product roll-outs, advertising and marketing, and increasing pay and benefits were all tax-deductible, and that high tax rate incentivized them to do these things that built a strong and resilient manufacturing economy (stock buybacks were considered illegal stock manipulation until 1983).
Reagan undid all of that, lowering the top tax rate on the morbidly rich from 74% to 27% (it’s since gone up to 34%), cutting the top corporate tax rate to 34%, and legalizing stock buybacks, so now CEOs are taking literally hundreds of billions out of their companies (Musk is set to make a trillion) and wages for workers have been mostly flat even since 1981.
In similar fashion, Reagan declared war on labor unions so effectively that that one-third of us protected by unions in 1981 has collapsed. Today private sector union membership rates are only 5.9%, with some states even lower (North Carolina 2.4%, South Dakota 2.7%, and South Carolina 2.8%.
Regarding college, 80% of the cost of an education in state-run colleges and universities was paid by government when Reagan came into office, leaving about 20% of the cost to be covered by tuition. The Reagan Revolution changed all that, so that today tuition covers the largest percentage and the state is only covering around 20%-40% (it varies from state to state).
Healthcare was inexpensive when Reagan came into office because most states required both insurance companies and hospitals to run as nonprofits. There weren’t any billionaire insurance industry executives like Dollar Bill McGuire until Republicans changed the rules of the game, letting insurance companies and hospitals run as profit-making operations at the expense of the American public.
Great strides had also been made in opportunity for minorities and women by 1981; just a decade earlier women had gained the right to have a credit card or sign a mortgage without a husband, brother, or father’s signature. Affirmative Action programs were pulling racial and religious minorities into the mainstream of the American economy, kicking off a widespread Black middle class.
So, if Charlie Kirk was all about an “American Comeback,” what were his positions on the issues that created that broad, widespread middle class that Republicans and Trump promise us they’ll restore when they “make America great again”?
On taxes, Kirk wants to replace the progressive income tax with a 10% flat tax, so even the poorest person is paying income taxes on their meager income while the morbidly rich get a massive tax break.
He called unions “cartels” and celebrated teachers losing the right to unionize.
On college tuition, he opposed any plan to reduce student debt or increase federal or state funding to higher education, calling free college a “bribe.”
And on healthcare, Kirk opposed the kind of universal healthcare every other developed country in the world has, calling the VA an example of failed “government-run” healthcare.
With regard to the rights of women and minorities Charlie was also outspoken, most notably saying about prominent Black women (including Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom he labeled “affirmative action picks”):
“You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.”
Finally, with regard to guns, even though 87% of Americans want reasonable gun control, Kirk was all-in with the firearms industry, arguing that “some gun deaths every single year” are worth the cost of Scalia’s interpretation of the Second Amendment. How do we protect our kids? Kirk said, quite simply, more guns was the solution:
“If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, why don’t our children?”
So, the question: How does doubling down on low taxes for the morbidly rich, keeping our healthcare for-profit, withholding higher education funding, gutting unions, increasing the number of guns, and trash-talking women and minorities make America “comeback”?
Republicans and their well-paid hustlers (Kirk took in hundreds of millions) have been promoting these positions for forty-four years and the result has been the gutting of the American middle class, now leading to anger, resentment, and political violence.
It’s way past time for America to return to the policies and positions that history proves (both in America and around the world) produce and build a strong middle class, the essential foundation for economic and political stability.
MSNBC, like all corporate media these days, wants to please Donald Trump and his loyalists. They were quick to apologize for one of their reporters after the Charlie Kirk shooting. Just to be safe they fired veteran political analyst Matthew Dowd, apparently for not being deferential enough to satisfy the president and his right-wing base.
What disrespectful things did Dowd say that led to his dismissal? They were offensive enough that MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler would call his remarks “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.” Did Dowd condemn the assassinated right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk? Did he call Kirk a racist or a provocateur? Not at all.
During the interview with MSNBC correspondent Katy Tur, Dowd wondered if the incident could have been a Kirk supporter “shooting their gun off in celebration.” He added, “Remember, Kirk is a diehard advocate of the 2nd amendment.”
“You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place,” Dowd said.
He said Kirk had been “one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups.”
“And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions,” Dowd said. “And I think that is the environment we are in.”
All very reasonable, non-hateful commentary. That Kirk was assassinated while presenting his views to a university audience was tragic. Violence caused by political beliefs should have no place in this country and the world. All of us should agree on that.
But Dowd was correct, when, after his firing, he said that MSNBC bent its knee to a “right wing media mob.”
“The Right Wing media mob ginned up, went after me on a plethora of platforms, and MSNBC reacted to that mob,” Dowd wrote in a a Friday Substack post. “Even though most at MSNBC knew my words were being misconstrued, the timing of my words forgotten (remember I said this before anyone knew Kirk was a target), and that I apologized for any miscommunication on my part, I was terminated by the end of the day.”
Contrast that with the shocking statement on “Fox and Friends” by host Brian Kilmeade. In a discussion about homelessness, co-host Lawrence Jones said “You can’t give ’em a choice. Either you take the resources that we’re going to give you, or you decide that you gotta be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.” That’s when Kilmeade suggested a more extreme option. “Or uh, involuntary lethal injection. Or something, Just kill ’em.”
Last I looked, Kilmeade was back on the air at Fox News and Dowd was out of a job.
Despite the hero-worship gushing out from friendly right-wing allies that tried to make Kirk appear like he was the second coming of Christ, he was in many ways not much different than the typical MAGA supporter.
Kirk had charisma, most of the time was reasonable, and was friends with powerful people, among them the Trump family. Still, he is on record for saying a number of racist and bigoted things.
Kirk did say that it was a “huge mistake” to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.” He called civil rights leader Martin Luther King “awful” and “not a good person,”
A few days later, Kirk released an 82-minute podcast episode titled, “The Myth of MLK,” which in part discusses “how the ‘MLK Myth’ keeps America shackled to destructive 1960s laws that have replaced the original U.S. Constitution,” according to the summary description on the podcast’s website.
Later that year, Kirk echoed similar sentiments about the Civil Rights Act of 1965 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin, and prohibited segregation.
The legislation, he said on his podcast in April 2024, “created a beast, and that beast has now turned into an anti-white weapon.”
Weeks after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in 2023, Kirk argued in an Oct. 26 episode of his podcast that Jews had funded antisemitism in the U.S. by supporting liberal causes.
“Jewish donors have a lot of explaining to do. A lot of decoupling to do,” he said. “Because Jewish donors have been the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical, open border neoliberal quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits. This is a beast created by secular Jews. And now it’s coming for Jews, and they’re like, ‘What on Earth happened?’ And it’s not just the colleges. It’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it.”
Regarding guns, Kirk said: “You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It’s drivel. But I am — I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.”
“And why is he still in jail? Why has he not been bailed out?” Kirk asked about the attacker of Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, who suffered a skull fracture after being hit in the head with a hammer.
“By the way, 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. I bet his bail’s like 30[,000] or 40,000 bucks. Bail him out, and then go ask him some questions.” https://www.factcheck.org/2025/09/viral-claims-about-charlie-kirks-words/
“It is a growing consensus in the pro-life world that abortion is never medically necessary,” he told one female student, who then asked, if someone raped his hypothetical 10-year-old daughter, would he want the child to be born.”
“The answer is, yes, the baby would be delivered,” he said. He said having an abortion in that situation would be pandering to evil.
Charles Kirk is not ready to be carved onto Mt. Rushmore. His life and influence indicate someone with considerable talent, but like many other people, also had a lot of hatred in his heart. He should never have been killed for speaking his views, but it would be wrong to whitewash his imperfections and bigotry.
Charlie Kirk was not a good guy or a hero. He is less than perfect. And that needs to be recognized.
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