The assassination of Charlie Kirk is so shocking, it is certainly a turning point for US culture and politics. As are the aftershocks.
The shocking horror is captured in the graphic blood-spurting video at left, included here not for shock value but to honor the man. That’s not a gun in his hand, it’s a microphone. This was truly the death of a martyr and a patriot.
America changed in that moment, and that led to an aftershock, the tsunami of fearless commentary in support of Kirk that took over the airwaves, grew into a massive memorial service filling a stadium and attended by VIPs you would expect only at the passing of a head of state, awakening the national spirit. Kirk was key to Trump’s electoral success, but for anyone concerned about the future, it is clear Turning Point is here to stay as a force for revival of the American family.
The most shocking thing to me is how little shock i felt, or feel. Rush’s passing was a gut punch, but Kirk’s was almost nothing to me.
I agreed with Kirk on almost every issue and i am well aware of his importance in getting Trump elected and to the future of our GOP, but when he started spreading putlerprop on Ukraine, i stopped listening to him and the radio and TV networks who gave him a platform for all that evil propaganda supporting Russian imperial genocide. Unfortunately for the GOP, with very few exceptions almost every conservative pundit bought into the lies spread by the likes of Kirk and Tucker Carlson.
I certainly cannot speak for every Ukrainian and i am not even Ukrainian. (No matter, since few Ukrainians know anything about Charlie Kirk.) Nor is my daughter Ukrainian, since under international law natural born citizenship passes only through the father (though she speaks both Russian and Ukrainian, fluently).
But my wife is Ukrainian, and so is her immediate family dodging various types of Russian bombs near the front in eastern Ukraine. Yes, Russian is their main language. No, they do not want to live in “Russkiy Mir”, and neither do their neighbors. We are in regular contact, so based on this admittedly small pool of Ukrainians i have a fairly good read on how Ukrainians remember Chalie Kirk, or should.
Official Ukraine has tact that i obviously lack and Zelensky expressed polite condolences without bringing up that whole support of genocide stuff, letting bygones be bygones. Of course it didn’t take long for Putler’s pal Medvedev to blame Ukraine for the assassination (see here for example).
Strong Ukraine supporters Sebastian Gorka and Mark Levin expressed deep affection for Kirk despite differences over Ukraine. But Levin was critical of Zelensky after his rude welcome at the Oval in February and to my knowledge neither Gorka nor Levin have close family dodging bombs near the front.
So what are some of the lies about Ukraine (what i call putlerprop) spread by Kirk?
He said so much in various media that i’m sure i don’t have a complete inventory (again, i stopped listening to him). For example, i don’t see any statements of his on the biolabs nonsense, but wouldn’t be surprised if he spread that too.
This Estonian observer points out a few things. Days before the full-scale invasion, Kirk labeled the conflict nothing more than a “border dispute”. Yet after the invasion, he said it was a “moral disgrace” for the US to focus more on Ukraine than its own southern border (as if we are not capable of handling both issues). In a Rodney King-like comment he publicly apologized to Russia on behalf of Americans, telling them we all just wanna get along. He also claimed Zelensky is some sort of CIA agent (the 74% of Christian Ukraine that voted for and still support this popular Jew would claim he is THEIR agent).
The Kyiv Independent points out that Kirk denounced Ukraine as corrupt, called Zelensky a “puppet of the CIA”, and claimed that occupied regions such as Crimea want to be part of Russia. They also point out that Kirk sharply criticized Zelensky after the infamous Oval Office meeting last February (my wife and i watched the entire hour-long video and saw no rudeness by Zelensky, only from hisvicedickishness Vance and then Trump when he had to jump in and defend Vance after Vance messed things up). The KI does note that Kirk called Putin a “gangster” and a “thug” and stated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was wrong.
The Kyiv Post has a little more detail:
Kirk was known for his vocal opposition to US military and financial aid to Ukraine, frequently advancing pro-Russian talking points. Ukrainian media reported he had called President Volodymyr Zelensky a “CIA puppet” and claimed that eastern Ukraine “historically belongs to Russia.”
After the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kirk characterized the War in Ukraine as a “border dispute” and spread false claims from Russian state media that Ukrainian forces were firing mortar shells at a Russian separatist enclave in Ukraine, as per the New York Times.
“I don’t love the idea of sending arms to Ukraine.” Kirk said on his show.
“I can understand that to a certain extent, but further funding a kinetic conflict against Russia and the Russian Federation is not our fight, not our conflict”
He criticized the US government for giving money and weapons to a country that “few people can find on a map.”
Kirk believed that Washington was “wrong” to view Russia as an enemy, even though he “does not like the Russian Federation or Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.”
Kirk also stated that the Ukrainian “military-industrial complex” and the oligarchs of Ukraine’s ruling class would benefit from the war.
Kirk labeled Ukraine’s brave Azov battalion as “Neo-Nazi” even though the few members who were using those symbols (which has pretty much stopped) were for the most part simply Ukrainian nationalists who hearken back to the days when nationalists allied with Nazi Germany to fight Soviet Russia. Ford vs Chevy, only two choices in those days. Plus they worked fine with Zelensky, who is Jewish. And Kirk doesn’t bother to point out the tens of thousands of innocent civilians buried in mass graves in Mariupol, just one of many cities to suffer Putler’s mass genocide. And it’s only fair to mention this article about use of Nazi symbols at Kirk’s rally on the day he was shot, not that i actually think he was a Nazi but it’s only fair to point this out and at a minimum it provides some basis for Antifa to claim they got a “fascist”. Finland also had an issue with Nazi symbols use in its military logos, but no one thinks Fins are Nazis. To think that shows extreme ignorance of history.
This UNN article has more:
It should be noted that the American blogger repeatedly spoke negatively about Ukraine. In particular, in 2023, the Center for Countering Disinformation reported that Kirk called for an end to the provision of American financial aid to Ukraine and criticized the activities of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It’s simply unacceptable for ordinary people to spend $2 trillion that you don’t have on wars you can’t win, defending people who don’t belong to you, while you’re being invaded by people we don’t know. Cut spending. End the mess in Ukraine
Kirk called Zelenskyy a fraud and a “puppet of intelligence services.”
Now understand that Zelenskyy is simply being fed talking points by our own intelligence services. Zelenskyy is a puppet of the intelligence services. Zelenskyy is not just persecuting Putin… He is declaring war on the Russian people. He is not just saying that Putin is bad, listen carefully. He is saying that Russian society is bad. This is how nuclear war arises. Zelenskyy probably blames the entire population of Russia for allowing “another Hitler” to seize power. If this is another Hitler who came to power, Zelenskyy, then why are there so many Nazis in your army?
- At the very beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Charlie Kirk simply called it a “border conflict.”
- He also stated that “Crimea should be returned to Russia as a gesture of goodwill.”
- He accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the absence of elections in Ukraine. (Editor’s note: opponents constantly reminded him of the Constitution of Ukraine and martial law, and also cited examples that there were no elections in Great Britain during World War II. The same applies to the USSR: elections to councils in the USSR began to resume only after the war, from 1946).
- Charlie Kirk repeatedly wrote that Zelenskyy “holds Europe hostage, demanding money in exchange for adequate treatment of refugees so that they do not start terrorizing Europe.”
- He also praised BRICS and, of course, constantly criticized the allocation of money for aid to Ukraine.
In this 10/31/23 post Kirk claims a “victory lap”:
Just a year and a half ago, 90% of Americans supported unlimited aid to Ukraine. Only a tiny handful stood in opposition. Eighteen months later, Charlie has been vindicated, as a new Time story exposes the ongoing corruption and futility of the Ukraine war. Charlie looks back on how public opinion has evolved, and what it means for the future of Ukraine, America, and the world.
Yet Trump just posted (see left column) on Truth that he thinks Ukraine can win back all territories taken by Russia “and maybe more”. Kirk was still opposing aid to Ukraine in a post on 7/8/25, even though Trump had already pivoted by then toward supporting Ukraine.
Conservatives detest the notion (called “bothsidesism”) that both sides of the political aisle are to blame for political violence. The violence is clearly on the left in America. Why are American conservatives, who supposedly believe in the right to life and in peace through strength, so horribly blind when it comes to Russian imperial genocide? These gullible isolationists just throw up their hands and say “both sides” must be at fault.
Neither Trump nor Kirk is stupid. Although Trump’s rhetoric at times was questionable, and the Oval Office incident was itself such an abomination as to be almost another genocide of Ukraine, the fact is that Trump’s actions have almost always been much better for Ukraine and Europe than those of the Dems. I think Trump may have held for awhile to the old Kissingerian establishment doctrine of appeasing Russia on Crimea, but Trump has clearly shed that illusion now, if in fact he still suffered from it. I think it more likely Trump’s “appeasement” was simply to buy time so that he could get American diplomacy/trade/economy/military back in shape after Biden. Trump needed isolationists like Kirk to win office, but Trump’s rhetoric as well as action must pivot toward Ukraine if he is not to lose the midterms.
As for Kirk, his “business plan” involved building support among young males afraid to fight WW3. Kirk delivered them with his isolationist putlerprop. That’s not going to work anymore.
The Kirk camp is filled with isolationists: MTG, Tucker Carlson, presidential son Donald Trump, Jr., etc. And what the hell happened to Glenn Beck?? He used to be the greatest critic of Putin and the threat Putler poses to Europe, and then like overnight he suddenly switched sides. Doesn’t anyone remember Beck’s old videos?? They have all slandered Ukraine with extremely offensive comments that our great President would never make. Don Jr is especially disappointing. I suppose it’s possible they are all cooperating in a giant head fake against Russia but that sounds like fantasy even though it would be fantastic.
One final note on Pastor Rob McCoy, who as Kirk’s friend and pastor made the first speech at Kirk’s memorial. When we were kids, Rob and i attended the same Catholic parish, were in the same Scout troop, and went to the same high school. Not exactly close friends, but we knew each other. Haven’t talked with him much since, outside of high school reunions and only several of those briefly. But i do recall he had an extremely negative view of Zelensky. My understanding is that his daughter married into a well-to-do Ukrainian family and Rob’s wife Michelle told my wife the family was from Dnipro (my wife’s hometown) but the family is now all here in the US. My mother-in-law thought she recognized the family name as the same as a bureaucratic high-up in Dnipro, from years ago. This is just speculation, but it’s plausible that the family could have been part of the old guard connected to establishment prior to Maidan in 2014 (when Yanukovych high-tailed it to Russia), and that would explain why they are all apparently here now in the US and why Rob has such disdain for Zelensky. I have Rob’s mobile and could ask him about all this to confirm, but it would be a weird conversation and unnecessary. Not at all suggesting anything inappropriate here, just making the point that Kirk’s inner circle seems to be rather anti-Ukraine, or at least anti-Zelensky.
In January 2024, Kirk said that a “myth” had been created around Martin Luther King which had “grown totally out of control” and that King was currently “the most honored, worshiped, even deified person of the 20th century” despite “most people” supposedly disliking him during his life. There is much good in what Kirk did for the conservative movement, but that movement could be threatened if it does not temper the current “deification” of Kirk with some realism about where he erred (as we all do).
