Charlie Kirk's blood is on your hands Mr. President

That’s Charlie Kirk’s blood on your hands, Mr. President.

You were almost on to something when you addressed the nation following the news of his death. You almost had it. (Full speech transcript here.) I was so ready to agree with you—for once. You said:

“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year in the most hateful and despicable way possible.”

Yes! At this point, I was about to give you a standing ovation. For a fleeting second, you sounded like a leader who understood the gravity of the moment. But then, true to form, you swerved.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

Pause. “This kind of rhetoric”?! The radical left?! No, Donald. You have it backwards. In the public eye, it is you who has been demonizing those with whom you disagree, day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable ways possible.

The list is so long I can hardly scratch the surface: you insisted President Obama wasn’t an American citizen; you called Mexicans rapists; you said you have to treat women like shit; you bragged about grabbing women by the genitals because wealth gives you license; you mocked a disabled reporter with a cruel hand gesture; and let’s not forget September 11, 2001—when thousands were dead and the towers had fallen, your first instinct was to call into a TV station and boast that you now had the tallest building in New York.

As your Charlie Kirk speech continued, you condemned violence—while painting it as the exclusive fault of the “radical left.” You conveniently remembered attacks on the political right but ignored those on the left: the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, the murder of Melissa Hortman, and the arson at the Pennsylvania governor’s residence. And most convenient of all, you left out the violence you have incited yourself.

In 2024, The Atlantic documented forty instances where you praised or encouraged violence. Forty! That’s more than your felony convictions. At rallies, you said of a heckler, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” Who’s been spewing hateful rhetoric? Who’s been encouraging violence? You! Who incided a resurrection at the Capitol? You! Then had the audacity to call it “a day of peace.”

This is all a game to you. You’ve always been a toddler throwing tantrums when you don’t get your way. It’s pathetic. The correct and righteous thing to do in this moment was simple: condemn all violence. But you didn’t. You only condemned the violence that touched your supporters, and you used Charlie Kirk’s death as a weapon to vilify your political opponents.

This isn’t about Charlie Kirk for you. It’s about you. You don’t care about peace. You don’t care about doing what’s right. You just care about you.

Here’s what you should have said:

“Violence is wrong. Killing people is wrong. It’s okay to disagree, but that disagreement must never boil over into anger and violence. In the United States, we believe in free speech. It’s okay for Charlie Kirk to be controversial. It’s okay to disagree with him. But it is never okay to kill someone. It is never okay to attack someone for their beliefs. In the United States of America, we believe in the rule of law.”

Uh-oh. I lost you. I know where I lost you. It was that whole “rule of law” thing. And yet, beneath all this anger, there’s something else. I’m not just outraged at you—I’m outraged at what we’ve become as a country. Outraged that someone was shot for voicing their beliefs in a nation that prides itself on free speech. Outraged that this killing has drowned out another tragedy: a school shooting that left three students dead.

But more than outraged, I’m sad. I’m sad that a school shooting hardly shocks the conscience anymore in America. I’m sad that political murder is even a phrase we can use with a straight face. I’m sad because it feels like we’ve lost our way.

And finally, I’m disappointed. Disappointed that in this moment of crisis—when we desperately need a leader who can be the light that carries us out of the darkness—we instead have a wannabe dictator who only fans the flames.