Good morning friends, I woke up long before dawn broke today, after a restless night following the events of yesterday, which weighed heavily on my mind.
I scribbled down my thoughts and decided to do this supplemental piece today to share them with you. I will still post part two of my piece from yesterday later in the day as planned. It may be a little late, as I do want to take a long walk with the love of my life of 45 years, as we always do on Saturday morning, chatting about our week and plans for the week ahead.
Enough about me, back to the matter at hand. Trump thought the assassination of Charlie Kirk was going to be his Reichstag fire moment. He thought the assassination was the gift that would allow him to go after Democrats as Hitler had gone after the communists in Germany in 1933.
It appears that the alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, was radicalised NOT by the left, but by Ultra MAGA, and that Kirk was murdered because he was not far right enough. He was killed by one of his own. It also appears he may have been influenced by the ideas of another well-known right-wing spewer of racial hatred and misogyny, A man Trump previously invited to dine with him at Mar-a-Lago, Nick Fuentes.
It’s challenging to know what was in the head of a young man who decided he hated Charlie Kirk enough to kill him. What is clear is that he was from what appears to be a MAGA-supporting family. Tyler Robinson grew up around guns from an early age in a gun-loving, religious, Republican family. Someone someday will have to explain to me the connection between gun-loving and religion. Reports of his father being a former law enforcement officer are, by the way, not accurate.
Trump stated that a minister and the suspect's father played key roles in persuading him to surrender. He said the father drove the man to police headquarters. If this is correct, and we never know with Trump, then his father is to be applauded for what must have been a very difficult decision to put justice before family.
What is, however, reprehensible is Cash Patel doing a victory lap praising President Trump for helping him and the FBI apprehend the killer when they did no such thing. The man gave himself up.
Both he and Trump had previously implied that the perpetrator was a radical left activist. Not only was this unprofessional and prejudicial to the case, it was a lie that directly led to calls from the right on social media for retribution. Right-wing influencers, along with Jesse Watters on Fox, were responsible for inciting violence in an already fractured society purely for political gain.
This was, in my view, a criminally irresponsible act that is antithetical to the positions of trust they all held. This could easily have led to violent riots on the streets of America. The terrifying truth is that is EXACTLY what they wanted.
I’m sure more facts will come to light as we learn about the shooter and his family. But what is very clear is that this was not an assassination carried out by a radical left activist. Neither was the alleged shooter radicalised by a left-wing university professor, as is now being desperately peddled on social media. It was a brutal act of murder carried out by one of their own. This was a red-on-red incident unrelated to any left-wing ideology.
Rest assured, there will be no apology from Trump, Patel or Watters for their reckless behaviour, as Republican lawmakers and influencers scrub social media accounts. They will act as though statements were never made as they attempt to find some other way to intimidate, harass and silence Democrats.
I find it profoundly disrespectful to anyone who has served in uniform, or the family members of fallen American heroes, that the casket of Charlie Kirk was flown on Air Force 2 and provided an honour guard. It was grossly inappropriate and provided purely as part of a televisual edit for what will be a narrative for future political Ads and Trump fundraising.
It will no doubt be added to the edits from next week as Kirk’s funeral is filmed to extract yet more clips. Charlie Kirk was just another man violently killed by a gun on the streets of America on Wednesday. He was one of 125 Americans killed by guns every day, which he himself considered an acceptable price to pay to protect Second Amendment rights in the US. None of those killed were afforded an honour guard. Kirk, along with 250 additional Americans injured by gun violence on the same day, will just be added to the long list of names of people touched by gun violence, and NOTHING will be done to change it.
I understand Charlie Kirk’s wife is grieving right now, so I don’t want to appear too harsh, but her inflammatory words last night were clearly aimed at the ‘left’
"If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea,” Kirk said. “You have no idea what you have just unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.“
These words were not only misdirected, but they are also dangerous. Is she now suggesting that MAGA engage in its own civil war? No, she wants her husband’s death to be a battle cry to those on the right to rise up in a war on Democrats who played absolutely no part in her husband’s death. I’m afraid this is an example of just how broken American politics is in this moment.
At best, she has unwittingly become a tool in Trump’s obsession with removing Democrats and any opposition to his retaining power. At worst, she is a willing participant in inciting civil war in America.
There will be no attempt to use this tragedy to bring America together in common condemnation of political violence. Trump himself said, “I really don’t care”. The man is a monster whose sole aim is to use this moment to divide America further as it sinks into a theocratic authoritarian state. He knows it will take an act of violence for him to retain power, and he believes this is that moment.
He could not give a damn about Charlie Kirk, his widow and the two small children he had left behind. He simply sees his name as an instrument to be used to help him hold on to power. What will be interesting now that we know he was not a radical left activist, but one of their own, is whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty. You never know, given Trump’s track record, he may be pardoned or, at the very least, transferred to a holiday camp to serve out his sentence. Who knows anymore in the twisted world we now inhabit?
I look forward to us catching up later when I drop part two of my piece from yesterday. I hope this extra piece is helpful to the conversation.
thank you for confirming what I read elsewhere on Substack. Here's the letter i wrote to PBS news regarding the Charlie Kirk shooter, of whom they claim little is known as of now.:
Patrice Mersault wrote this on Substack:
❓❓❓
SO, WHAT EXACTLY MOTIVATED KIRK’S MURDERER?
Devouring Their Own: Kirk, Fuentes, Loomer, and the Cannibalism of the Far Right
Charlie Kirk spent his short, ugly career poisoning the American bloodstream. He was never an intellectual, never a leader, never anything more than a carnival barker for hate — a fast-talking opportunist who cashed in on resentment while insisting he was “saving” the republic. His rallies trained kids to harass professors, to lash out at trans classmates, to believe cruelty was courage. He made himself rich by teaching a generation that mockery and malice were virtues.
And yet, in the eyes of the real zealots, Kirk was never enough.
Nick Fuentes, the simpering would-be führer of the “Groyper” cult — an online swarm of bigoted young men obsessed with white identity and authoritarian purity — saw Kirk as a fraud: too slick, too corporate, too unwilling to openly embrace white supremacy.
Laura Loomer, a professional embarrassment who made a career out of getting banned from platforms and shouting at the void, likewise denounced Kirk as a charlatan. To them, Kirk was a poseur, a lightweight profiteer standing in the way of the “true” revolution.
And along came Tyler Robinson. A devoted follower of both Fuentes and Loomer, Robinson swallowed their bile whole. In his eyes, Kirk wasn’t an enemy of the left — he was a traitor to the right. Not ruthless enough. Not fanatical enough. Not vicious enough. So Robinson picked up a rifle and erased him.(Underlining added by email writer)
Here lies the far right’s shame: Kirk was not assassinated by “antifa terrorists” or “trans radicals” or any of the bogeymen Fox News spins to keep viewers glued. He was taken out by one of their own — a disciple of Fuentes and Loomer, marinated in their paranoia, who decided Kirk’s carefully monetized hate wasn’t pure enough.
Fuentes fancies himself the heir to Hitler, but in truth he’s a bitter internet shut-in who weaponizes lonely young men. Loomer styles herself a warrior, but she’s a clown, careening between hysterical self-promotion and sewage. These are the idols Robinson chose. And Kirk — for all his venom, for all his harm — was chewed up and spat out by the very purity cult he helped unleash.
No one should mistake this for martyrdom. Charlie Kirk was not a victim of resistance; he was the collateral damage of a movement so rabid it devours even its own apostles. His death is not a tragedy for democracy — it’s a symptom of the rot of a fascist subculture that demands blood and will keep demanding more.
Knowledge fuels resistance. Subscribe to @Open Letters by Mersault.
Read: The Deadly Arithmetic of Right-Wing Extremism: 2015–2025
Republicans Exploit Kirk’s Death While Ignoring a Decade of Far-Right Carnage
Link below ↓
https://patricemersault.substack.com/p/the-deadly-arithmetic-of-right-wing?r=4d7sow
My comment was as follows:
Hey Mersault, how do you know this?! This is much more info about Tyler Robinson than anyone else has shared. Is this possibly because they know it but won’t release the info unless there’s a way to blame the Dems? OMG…but seriously, how and where did you get this info? You certainly are a master researcher!
And he responded with a reply I can no longer find to copy that he has had a window in the background of such events and if you pull one thread the whole thing comes unraveling. I paraphrase him badly. But in essence he was saying the authorities know a LOT more than they are revealing. So why don’t you and your reporters know this much. Tyler Robinson was a extreme Right Wing true believer…and the authorities do not want to admit this, but will only release enough of it to seem to cast blame on the Left.
Thank you for this article. It clearly states the truth which we soooooo need in these times.