'Wicked and demonic': GOP attacks on left over Charlie Kirk fuel small-town tensions
President Donald Trump’s vow to crack down on the “radical left” over the murder of Charlie Kirk was amplified during a prayer vigil for the conservative influencer in Monroe, NC, on Monday, as the small city east of Charlotte showed how the president’s divisive rhetoric is reverberating through local communities.
Amid angry exchanges involving Monroe’s mayor and a Democratic leader, local Democrats have reported receiving death threats.
Kirk, 31 and the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot dead in Orem, UT last Wednesday, during an appearance on a university campus. Vigils and memorials have been staged throughout the U.S.
Trump and his supporters have blamed the political left. Though no evidence has emerged to indicate the 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, received broad-based support or encouragement from anyone, he appears to have been motivated by opposition to Kirk's anti-transgender rhetoric.
In Monroe on Monday, a crowd of about 1,000 gathered to remember Kirk.
William Wolfe, a Christian evangelical leader who served in the State Department and Department of Defense during the first Trump administration, read a statement from current White House advisor Stephen Miller.
“There is a vast domestic terror movement,” the statement said, “and with God as my witness we are going to use every resource we have throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
To cheers, Wolfe added: “If you know what time it is, and if you’re a Christian, I don’t think you should say anything else to what Stephen said, but, ‘Amen. Get it done.’”
Asserting that the murder shows the left to be an implacable foe, Miller and others in the administration have claimed, without evidence, that Kirk’s suspected shooter received backing from an unspecified far-left network or “antifa.”
Wolfe, who is executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, an organization seeking to push the Southern Baptist Convention in a more hardline direction, went a step further — declaring the Democratic Party the enemy.
“The Democrat [sic] Party has been captured by a wicked and demonic ideology, and evil, and we cannot make peace with that,” Wolfe said.
“We should expect and even demand our elected officials at the local, state and federal level to do what they can to drive this wickedness out of our public square so that we can live in peace again.”
Wolfe also echoed a statement by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a right-wing extremist in Congress.
“You cannot have unity with people who want to kill us,” Wolfe said. “And we cannot make peace with wickedness.”
Wolfe added: “I can’t think of anything better that we could do to honor the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk than be bold and courageous Christians in the public square — to tear down the false gods of abortion, and transgenderism, and homosexuality, and Marxism, and socialism.”
Reached by phone, Wolfe requested that Raw Story submit questions in writing, then did not respond.
Robert Burns, Monroe’s mayor who recently faced a 7-2 “no confidence” vote from his city council, hosted the Kirk vigil — and also promoted the view that Christians should hold dominion over the United States.
“Be strong and courageous, because God has given you over the land,” Burns said. “He’s already given it to us, 250 years ago almost. This is God’s country, and he will not forget it.”
Burns did not respond to a voicemail and email requesting comment.
‘Extreme racist’
The positions of mayor and city council in Monroe are nonpartisan, but North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature recently passed a law requiring municipal candidates to have a party affiliation, beginning next year.
In another sign of how tensions arising from Kirk’s death have spread rapidly throughout society, Burns has exchanged social media volleys with a local African American Democratic leader — who has reported receiving death threats.
After Kirk’s death, Burns singled out Parron Baxter, a member of the North Carolina Democratic Party State Executive Committee, for posts expressing disappointment in Black people who publicly mourned Kirk.
“PATRIOTS! LET’S HOLD THE NC DEM PARTY ACCOUNTABLE,” Burns posted on X on Sept. 11. “Here’s an extreme racist … cheering on and celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk.”
Baxter did not shrink from confrontation. An X account that appears to be owned by Baxter replied, “F--- Charlie Kirk,” then invoked the late Robert F. Williams, a former president of the Monroe NAACP who advocated for armed self-defense during the turbulent 1960s.
“Calling up racists Lynch Mob [sic] when a Black man uses his 1st amendment right to free speech is on the nose for Union County,” Baxter wrote. “A place where 55 percent of adult white people were member[s] of the Klan during the time of Robert Williams. [Robert Burns] is of that ilk.”
In a Facebook video posted on Sept. 12, Baxter said he had called the police in response to death threats.
‘Moral clarity’
Backlash after Kirk’s death also resulted in death threats against the Union County Democratic Party, Jen Sanders, the county chair, said in a statement on Facebook.
The party sent staff home early and contacted the police and FBI, Sanders said.
Sanders said she had attempted to speak to Bob Dunn, chairman of the Union County Republican Party, in order to defuse tensions, but said he “chose to escalate by attacking me personally and attacking the Democratic Party.”
The county Republican Party issued its own statement, urging Democrats to “expressly condemn” the Kirk killing “and demonstrate moral clarity” by removing Baxter from leadership.
County and state Democrats did not respond to calls and emails. Baxter could not be reached for comment.
But in a video posted on Facebook on Sept. 12, he explained his stance.
“When news broke of Charlie Kirk’s passing, I reacted like most Black people with a conscience: We just didn’t care,” he said. “Because Charlie Kirk was a bigot, sexist, homophobe, racist, transphobic, you name it.”
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