Charlie Kirk's killer was not a card-carrying Democrat

MAGA Republicans are making the usual knee-jerk reactions and assertions that the shooter of far-right influencer Charlie Kirk was a Democrat, with many of them calling for bloody revenge and even the "end of democracy". I mean, it stands to reason right? Kirk was a rabid and extremely contentious right-winger; his killer must therefore be a rabid leftie, no?

Well, just as the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last year was not perpetrated by a disgruntled Democrat, neither was Kirk's more successful assassin an extreme-left firebrand Democrat. 

22-year old Utah resident Tyler Robinson is not Democrat, or even particularly politically active. His last voter registration was back in 2021, and public records show his political agitation to be "none". He also comes from a conservative family, although one family member asserted that "Robinson had become more political in recent years". But, still, this is a not a rabid extreme-left partisan we are talking about. 

This, of course, was not enough to stop Donald Trump from doubling down on the partisan rhetoric: "We have radical left lunatics out there, and we just have to beat the hell out of them". The next day: "The radicals on the left are the problem, and they're vicious and they're horrible and they're politically savvy." This, of course, is the Trump approach to bridging divides, and calming potentially violent escalation.

UPDATE

When Robinson was asked why he did it, he merely replied that Kirk "spreads too much hate" and that he had "had enough of his hatred". So, nothing to do with his right-wing policies and beliefs as such. Law enforcement officers that presented evidence about Robinson offered no indication that he was involved with any left-wing group, or that he had fallen under the sway of any particular leader.

Nevertheless, The Trump administration are surely going to use this as an excuse to target far-left groups, what Trump advisor Stephen killer calls a "vast domestic terror movement". Miller is not stupid, just slightly unhinged, so he knows there is no such thing, but he is willing to use Kirk's death to whip up a frenzy. "We will do it in Charlie's name", he says. Scary stuff. The spectre of authoritarianism creeps ever closer.