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Democratic Senator Warns Of Campaign To Crush Dissent In Wake Of Charlie Kirk’s Death

WASHINGTON ― A prominent Senate Democrat is warning that President Donald Trump will use the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a pretext to crush his political opposition.

“The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote in the first of a series of social media posts on Sunday.

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Murphy pointed to Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, saying, “We have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence,” and Laura Loomer, an informal White House advisor, saying she wants the administration’s enemies locked up and silenced.

“I’ve had enough of the Left only thinking we will defund them, prosecute them, lock them up and dismantle their power for generations to come,” Loomer wrote.

Loomer is one of many prominent voices in the MAGA movement who have called for an all-out crackdown on the left in the wake of the shooting.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson pointed to Murphy having recently said, before the shooting, that “we’re in a war in this country” and that his side needs to fight fire with fire to save democracy.

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“Chris Murphy must stop spreading lies about his political opponents and leaning into inflammatory rhetoric that drives leftists to violence,” Jackson told HuffPost in an email.

Little is known about why the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, fired on Kirk as he addressed a student gathering at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said Sunday that Robinson’s friends and family have told investigators Robinson was indoctrinated with leftist ideology. He reportedly inscribed ammunition with ironic internet memes and the message, “Hey fascist! Catch!”

But Cox suggested it was wrong to blame the shooting on a political movement.

“Again, this person made a choice. And it was this person’s choice. And this person will be held responsible. And we have to make different choices,” Cox said on ABCNews’ “This Week.”

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Trump blamed the “radical left” for the shooting before the suspect had even been caught. On Sunday, Trump continued to insist that political violence is solely a leftist phenomenon, despite recent attacks on Democratic figures.

“If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right,” Trump told reporters. “And when you look at the agitator, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burning all over the place, that’s the left. That’s not the right.”

A reporter asked Trump if his administration was investigating left-wing organizations as a result of Kirk’s murder.

“We’ll see. We’ll be announcing. They’re already under investigation,” Trump said.

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White House chief of staff Susie Wiles also said last week that some sort of investigatory response was underway that would soon be announced, suggesting it would be a “comprehensive” plan addressing violence.

“We were actually already working, spurred as much by the the Ukrainian woman who was killed on the train, as by as by Charlie’s tragic passing a more comprehensive plan on on violence in America, the importance of free speech and civil speech, the the ways that you can address these ― they can only be called hate groups ― that may breed this kind of behavior,” Wile told a podcast interviewer.

“So in the coming days, the president will be telling the American people about what we plan to do. It will not be easy. There’s layer upon layer upon layer, and some of this hate-filled rhetoric is multi-generational, but you’ve got to start somewhere, and the president is committed to doing that,” Wiles said.

To Murphy, the possible threat of a crackdown on Democratic institutions is clear.

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“Increasingly, the right views the left as an existential to a white, Christian majority nation and thus must be destroyed, as Michael Anton wrote, at any cost,” Murphy wrote, referring to a Trump advisor who infamously described the 2016 election as “the flight 93 election.”

“That’s why it was so important for Trump sycophants to take over the DoJ and FBI,” Murphy said, “so that if a pretext arose, Trump could orchestrate a dizzying campaign to shut down political opposition groups and lock up or harass its leaders.”