Charlie Kirk Didn’t Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn’t Either.
Opinion - Jamelle Bouie
Sept. 13, 2025, 11:23 a.m. ET
The best way to honor Charlie’s memory,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared, “is to continue his work: engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse.”Kirk’s approach, wrote the editors of Politico’s Playbook, “was to persuade, to use charm and charisma and provocation and the power of argument to convince people of the righteousness of his cause.”
There is no doubt that Kirk was influential, no doubt that he had millions of devoted fans. But it is difficult to square this idealized portrait of Kirk as model citizen with the man as he was.
Few if any of them have seen fit to mention the fact that Kirk’s first act on the national stage was to create a McCarthyite watchlist...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/opinion/charlie-kirk-assassination.html