The Backlash To Charlie Kirk's Killing Is Already Disturbing. It's About To Get Much Worse.

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Two days on, little is still known about the circumstances surrounding the murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college on Wednesday. The FBI announced the arrest of a suspect, 22-year old Tyler Robinson, on Friday, but no motive has yet been announced.

But even before Robinson’s arrest, when nothing was known about the shooter, right-wing voices from President Donald Trump on down from quickly called for retribution against their political enemies, whom they immediately blamed for the death of their ally.

Calls have ranged from declarations of “war” against Democrats and liberals to allusions to the 1933 burning of the Reichstag that led to the suspension of civil liberties in Germany and, eventually, the passage of the Enabling Act, giving Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party unreviewable power to crush their domestic opponents.

“Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war,” Steve Bannon, the former adviser to Trump, said Wednesday on his podcast named “War Room.” “We are at war in this country. We are.”