Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, compared the recent shooting of Charlie Kirk to the terrorist events of 9/11. At the vigil held for Kirk at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., members of Donald Trump’s administration and right-wing politicians attended to pay tribute.
Charlie Kirk, a right-wing influencer and podcaster known for his gun rights advocacy and anti-LGBTQ+ views, was killed at Utah Valley University during one of his infamous “Prove Me Wrong” debates.
He was in the midst of rehashing the disproven conservative conspiracy theory about trans shooters when a single bullet hit him in the neck. Two days later, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested. Robinson’s ideology, personal beliefs, and motive for the shooting remain unclear.
“Charlie was killed on September 10. On September 11, we observed the 24th anniversary of the Islamist terror attack on our country. Now these events have something in common,” Gabbard says, as The Independent reports.
“They were both carried out by those who hold on to ideologies that cannot stand up to scrutiny and challenge, so they feel their only recourse is to commit an act of violence to silence those who oppose them, to intimidate and to terrorize others into silence. This is the definition of terrorism.”
Gabbard further continues: “We cannot allow ourselves to be terrorized into silence. We need to live by Charlie Kirk’s example, the example he set, that is captured by the words of Martin Luther King: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that’.
She went on to say Kirk had lived the civil rights leader’s quote “every day and inspired countless people around the world to do the same.” This is especially ironic, considering Kirk was an outspoken critic of MLK.
Gabbard also criticized protesters outside Kirk’s memorial, describing them as “full of anger and hopelessness and hate,” saying they did not have “the spiritual happiness that Charlie experienced.”
