US Vice-President JD Vance has endorsed a mass ‘doxing’ effort to track down, intimidate and harass people perceived not to have sufficiently mourned the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. Guest-hosting Kirk’s podcast on Monday, Vance said that people who “see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder” should “call them out” and “call their employer”. He added: “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.”
In recent days, numerous workers across various fields, from colleges to an airline pilot, have been fired for their comments on Kirk’s death. An anonymous website that began collecting reports of anti-Kirk “political extremism” said it had received more than 63,000 submissions. Originally named “Expose Charlie’s Murderers”, it rebranded on Monday to the “Charlie Kirk Data Foundation”. The group has previously said it had been targeted by hackers and “leftist attacks”, and its website was down on Tuesday.
Trump allies have sought to link Kirk’s killing – without evidence – to a coordinated leftwing “terror” movement funded by progressive charities, raising fears of a draconian crackdown on free speech. On the podcast, Vance said the administration would “work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”. He was joined by Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, who vowed to use “every resource” at the Department of Justice and homeland security to “identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks”.
The political leanings of the shooter are not yet clear, and the US has seen a wave of violence targeting both Democrats and Republicans. Nevertheless, the dragnet has caught those who expressed criticism of Kirk, a Christian nationalist with a history of sexist and racist speeches. Army Lt Col Christopher Ladnier was targeted for quoting Kirk’s own words, including his description of the Civil Rights Act as a “beast” and an “anti-white weapon”.
Republican-controlled states such as Florida, Oklahoma and Texas have launched investigations of teachers accused of inappropriate statements after the assassination. The US military has invited public reports of those who “celebrate or mock” the killing and said some troops have already been removed. A school district in Wisconsin received over 800 messages after a conservative influencer mistakenly identified an associate principal as celebrating Kirk’s death.
Calls for a crackdown have invoked memories of McCarthyism, said Adam Goldstein of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “The government involvement in this does inch this closer to looking like McCarthyism,” he said, referring to the 1950s campaign to root out communists. “It was not a shining moment for free expression.” Democrats have also been victims of political violence recently, including the June assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and the 2022 beating of Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
