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JD Vance hosting The Charlie Kirk Show
The vice president gave an alarmingly authoritarian monologue at the conclusion of the podcast episode.
Vice President JD Vance ended a special memorial broadcast of The Charlie Kirk Show with an all-out call to dismantle progressive groups he accused of fueling violence, framing the slain political commentator’s assassination as proof of “left-wing extremism” run amok.
“We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years, and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet,” Vance told listeners, speaking from the White House complex Monday. He was joined by guests including Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who vowed to marshal “every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make Americans safe again.”
He called left-leaning advocacy organizations “a vast domestic terror movement," but gave no examples.
The remarks came as conservatives sought to position Kirk’s murder as both a tragedy and a rallying cry. The 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA was shot while hosting one of his trademark “Prove Me Wrong” debates at Utah Valley University last week. His death, Vance suggested, demanded not only mourning but mobilization.
Authorities have not, however, disclosed a motive for the killing. Police arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson after a multi-day manhunt. Robinson allegedly engraved bullets with internet memes and posted about firearms on Discord. His family, described as conservative, said they were stunned and claimed he had “become more political” in recent years, CBS News reports.
The push to cast blame has spread on the right. The New York Post quickly published headlines tying the shooting to transgender people, declaring Kirk the “latest victim of a shooting committed by trans people and advocates.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and investigators later contradicted those claims, explaining that the bullets recovered carried a mishmash of memes, not coherent ideological slogans. The Wall Street Journal, like the Post owned by News Corp, initially reported that the shooter engraved bullets with “transgender and antifascist ideology,” but walked it back after scrutiny.
Related: Charlie Kirk, leading anti-LGBTQ+ activist, was shot at Utah event
Advocates say such scapegoating risks real-world harm. “Sharing unsubstantiated claims breaks one of journalism’s core ethical principles: do no harm,” Ken Miguel of the National Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists told The Advocate. Tre’vell Anderson of the Trans Journalists Association warned that phrases like “trans ideology” were crafted to delegitimize trans people, not to explain facts. GLAAD noted the parallels to sensationalized AIDS-era reporting, when vulnerable communities were blamed with little regard for accuracy.
For LGBTQ+ people, Kirk’s legacy was defined less by his organizing skills than by his attacks. He promoted bans on drag performances, railed against gender-affirming care, and insisted trans inclusion would “destroy women’s sports.” In 2023, he said gun deaths were “worth it” to preserve the Second Amendment. He also provided a platform for speakers who openly endorsed violence against queer people.
Related: No, this transgender woman is not the Charlie Kirk assassin
The unusual broadcast hosted by a sitting vice president also sought to showcase Turning Point USA’s reach. The podcast's executive producer claimed 37,000 applications had been submitted to start high school chapters of the group, even as he conceded that only about 20,000 high schools exist in the country.
By the end of the broadcast, Vance’s tone sharpened into something closer to a call to arms.
“I promise you that we will explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say,” Vance said.
He added, “So when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out, and hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.”
In the broadcast’s closing minutes, Vance lashed out at what he described as liberal institutions celebrating Kirk’s death. He singled out The Nation magazine, claiming a story falsely quoted Kirk as saying “black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously.” “The very evidence she provides shows that she lied about a dead man,” Vance said, arguing the article proved “well-funded institutions of the left” were justifying his murder. He described reading the piece after escorting Kirk’s remains to Arizona alongside his widow and said the moment underscored the cruelty of political opponents.
According to fact-checking site Snopes, Kirk indeed made the remark on July 13, 2023, while talking about former MSNBC host Joy Reid; former first lady Michelle Obama; U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas; and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Related: Right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk dead after shooting at university in Utah
Vance then folded personal anecdote into political attack, recounting harassment of his own children at Disneyland and asserting that “most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left.” Vance claimed that while both parties had “crazies,” the data showed liberals were “much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.”
Polling, however, paints a more complex picture. According to new YouGov data analyzed after Kirk’s shooting, 87 percent of Americans consider political violence a problem, with nearly 60 percent calling it a “very big” problem. Just 8 percent say it is ever acceptable to be happy about the death of a political opponent. While 16 percent of liberals agree with that sentiment and more than the 4 percent of conservatives do, large majorities across ideological lines reject it. Even among the “very liberal,” those who say celebrating a death is unacceptable outnumber those who say it is acceptable by more than two to one. Similarly, 72 percent of respondents say political violence is never justified, with only 11 percent saying it sometimes can be.
Watch JD Vance host The Charlie Kirk Show below.
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