With the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday has come the inevitable political idiocy in the aftermath.
As RedState reported, it was revealed that Tyler Robinson had engraved anti-fascist phrases and other oddities on the ammunition he used in his bolt-action .30-06 rifle. That, along with the fact that he murdered one of the most prominent right-wing figures in the world, didn’t exactly point to him being on the political right.
Yet, by Friday morning, the narrative that Robinson was actually a “right-wing groyper” was spreading like wildfire on social media, pushed by many large Democrat accounts. Others claimed that because his parents were Republicans and he was white, it was simply impossible that Robinson could hold left-wing views, a completely nonsensical assertion. Of course, the rest of us saw the phrase “Hey fascist, catch” was engraved on the round used to kill Kirk and didn’t pretend like it was some quantum equation in need of solving.
Still, the baseless narrative that Robinson was “right-wing” has continued to gain traction, with some sharing photoshopped images of the killer to paint him as a Trump supporter. A new report is pouring cold water on that, though, reminding us all that Occam’s razor remains the most likely explanation.
[Utah Gov. Spencer] Cox told reporters that a family member of Robinson who was interrogated by investigators said Robinson had “become more political in recent years”.
The family member, Cox said, recounted how Robinson had gone over for dinner and mentioned that Kirk was scheduled to speak at UVU. The family member recalled Robinson talking about not liking Kirk and his viewpoints.
In a phone interview Friday, someone who said they were friends with Robinson in high school– who asked to remain anonymous – said that Robinson was “pretty left on everything” and was “the only member of his family that was, like, really leftist”.
“The rest of his family was very hard Republican – like gun-loving, everything,” the friend said. “He was really the only one that was on the left.”
The friend said he was stunned when he saw the news on Friday that Robinson was the suspect in the Kirk case. “I knew he had strong political views,” the friend remarked, “but I never thought it would even go near that far.”
Some of the above was stated in Friday morning’s press conference, which was held to announce the arrest of Robinson. That includes testimony from his family that he had become “more political in recent years” and had accused Kirk of “spreading hate.” The rest of that is new, though, specifically the revelation from a high-school friend that Robinson was “really leftist” and “pretty left on everything.”
Does that provide absolute certainty on his specific motive? I’m not going to go that far, not because I don’t have my own views on the situation, but because I think it’s best to wait for an official confirmation before speaking definitively. Still, this nakedly partisan attempt to simultaneously paint Kirk as a racist Nazi, even after his murder, while at the same time insisting he must have been killed by a racist Nazi is perverse and disgusting. It is rank incoherence wrapped in political convenience.
In short, there is no evidence to support the claim that Robinson was a “right-winger,” nor has that claim ever made any logical sense whatsoever. It’s no different than when some Democrats tried to claim the first would-be Trump assassin was a Republican because he liked guns. That’s just nonsensical. When someone commits or attempts to commit a political assassination, that is pretty good evidence that they weren’t a supporter of their target’s ideology.
On the other hand, there is ample evidence, both from what we know about his past and details directly related to the shooting, that Robinson held far-left viewpoints and had become radicalized over the years. What that ultimately adds up to regarding an official pronouncement of motive, we’ll find out soon enough.
