Raw Story

A Democratic US senator over the weekend issued an ominous warning about Republicans using the murder of Charlie Kirk as a pretext to clamp down on political speech.

In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) outlined how President Donald Trump and his allies look set to wage a campaign of retribution against political adversaries by framing them as accomplices in Kirk’s murder.

“Pay attention,” he began. “Something dark might be coming. 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.”

Murphy then contrasted the recent statements by Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who accurately stated that political violence is not confined to a single political ideology, with those of Trump and his allies, who have said such violence is only a problem on the left.

Murphy highlighted a statement from Trump ally and informal adviser Laura Loomer, who said that she wanted “Trump to be the ‘dictator’ the left thinks he is” and that she wanted “the right to be as devoted to locking up and silencing our violent political enemies as they pretend we are.”

He then pointed to Trump, saying that progressive billionaire financier George Soros should face racketeering charges even though there is no evidence linking Soros to Kirk’s murder or any other kind of political violence.

“The Trump/Loomer/Miller narrative that Dems are cheering Kirk’s murder or that left groups are fomenting violence is also made up,” he added. “There are always going to be online trolls, but Dem leaders are united (as opposed to Trump who continues to cheer the January 6 violence).”

Murphy claimed that the president and his allies have long been seeking a “pretext to destroy their opposition” and that Kirk’s murder gave them an opening.

“That’s why it was so important for Trump sycophants to take over the DoJ and FBI, 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,” he said. “This is what could be coming—now.”

Early in his second term, the president fired FBI prosecutors who were involved in an earlier political violence case—the prosecution of people involved in the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters who aimed to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

A top ethics official and a lawyer who spoke out against the president’s anti-immigration policy are among those who have been fired from the DOJ.

Murphy ended his post with a call for action from supporters.

“I hope I’m wrong. But we need to be prepared if I’m right,” he said. “That means everyone who cares about democracy has to join the fight—right now. Join a mobilization or protest group. Start showing up to actions more. Write a check to a progressive media operation.”

One day after Murphy’s warning, columnist Karen Attiah announced that she had been fired from The Washington Post over social media posts in the wake of Kirk’s death that were critical of his legacy but in no way endorsed or celebrated any form of political violence.

“The Post accused my measured Bluesky posts of being ‘unacceptable,’ ‘gross misconduct,’ and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues—charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false,” she explained. “They rushed to fire me without even a conversation. This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold.”

Attiah only directly referenced Kirk once in her posts and said she had condemned the deadly attack on him “without engaging in excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women as a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow, said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals ‘Unhumans.‘”

President Donald Trump demanded Republicans support a “clean” government funding extension on Monday afternoon to avert a government shutdown.

In his post to his Truth Social app, Trump said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) were working on a "clean" extension of government funding and demanded Republicans remain united and vote in favor of the continuing resolution to keep the government open.

Trump also painted Democrats as wanting a shutdown and Republicans as wanting the government to stay open.

"Congressional Republicans, including Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson, are working on a short term “CLEAN” extension of Government Funding to stop Cryin’ Chuck Schumer from shutting down the Government," the president wrote.
In times like these, Republicans have to stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote 'YES!' on both Votes needed to pass a Clean CR this week out of the House of Representatives."

Trump concluded: "FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION."

A government shutdown is possible if Congress fails to pass a new funding bill or a continuing resolution by midnight on Sept. 30.

The last government shutdown lasted from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019, and was due to fierce disagreements over negotiations for the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Rolling Stone published a scathing report on Stephen Miller that detailed how the Trump aide was widely disliked among his Republican colleagues during the Obama years, to the point that staffers spread rumors mocking him — including claims he liked to play with porcelain dolls. The White House pushed back, calling the allegation “baseless gossip.” The report also revealed Miller’s classmates accused him of dropping friendships over ethnicity, while colleagues branded him an extremist even before his rise under Donald Trump.

Watch the video below.

White House denies report mocking Stephen Miller over doll rumors as 'baseless gossip' roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms

A liberal analyst slammed the "pearl clutching" she sees in the right-wing media after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered on Wednesday.

Ana Kasparian, co-host of "The Young Turks" podcast, discussed how the right-wing media has responded to Kirk's murder on a new podcast episode on Thursday. She said high-profile media figures on the right seem to be "hyping up a war with the left."

"The pearl clutching from the right is really bothering me, considering the record, the very real existing record, of their calls for violence or their mocking of left-wing figures," Kasparian said. "This whole thing is ridiculous."

Kasparian pointed to examples of conservative politicians downplaying or mocking political violence enacted against Democrats. For instance, she noted that Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) publicly shared disinformation about the attack on Paul Pelosi in 2022.

Higgins has also called for people who "belittle" Kirk to be banned from social media.

Chris Rufo, a prominent conservative writer, posted on X that "the last time the radical Left orchestrated a wave of violence and terror, J. Edgar Hoover shut it all down within a few years."

Kasparian argued that these reactions could

"Rather than taking the temperature down, rather than trying to find a way to ensure that there isn't additional violence, you have a sitting member of Congress talking about the need to permanently censor people on the left for their political speech," she said.

MAGA firebrand Laura Loomer escalated her fight with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after the lawmaker discussed a slain conservative activist in a podcast interview on Thursday.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan interviewed Omar on Zeteo News on Thursday. The two condemned Kirk's murder and expressed sympathy for Kirk's widowed family. However, right-wing internet accounts began spinning parts of the interview to make it seem like Omar was happy that Kirk was murdered.

"Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis," Omar posted on X.

MAGA influencer Laura Loomer responded to Omar's post, calling her a "terrorist sympathizer" and "the enemy from within."

"Ilhan Omar needs to be removed from Congress," Loomer posted on X. "How much more damage are we going to allow Muslims to cause our country before we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH with these invaders coming into our country and terrorizing Americans with their caveman ideology?"

Some of Kash Patel's leadership decisions at the FBI have been nothing short of "humiliating," according to one former conservative analyst.

Tim Miller, writer at large for The Bulwark, discussed Patel's leadership at the FBI on a recent episode of "The Bulwark Podcast." He recorded the episode before learning that conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been murdered at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Patel's FBI is now leading the investigation, which has exposed some of the disarray behind the scenes.

Miller pointed out that Patel has made employment decisions based on an agent's political loyalty to President Donald Trump, citing a recent lawsuit filed by multiple former FBI Agents.

"It is sick what these people are doing at the FBI, it is absolutely sick," Miller said. "And it is going to lead to a more dangerous country. I think that both on the merits and on the politics of this, people should be outraged by the way that our federal police force is being run right now."

Miller also criticized Patel's handling of the investigation into Kirk's murder.

"Kash Patel absolutely bungled up publicly posting about having a suspect and then having to post again about how they had released the suspect," Miller said. "Humiliating."