Federal Censorship

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration  has been full of ominous developments. Last week, a gunman murdered Charlie Kirk. Trump and his followers are exploiting the tragedy to attack their opponents --or use the power of government to censor them.

JACK BLANCHARD with DASHA BURNS at POLITICO:

[Jimmy] Kimmel was heavily criticized on the right for a line in his Monday show discussing the arrest of Kirk’s suspected killer, Tyler Robinson. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. (Watch the whole clip here.)

It was kind of a throwaway line (and Kimmel had previously passed on heartfelt condolences to the Kirks). But it was also a pretty weird thing to say, given we’d heard from Utah Gov. Spencer Cox the day before that investigators had indicated Robinson had a “leftist ideology.” Conservatives saw Kimmel’s words as part of a wider pattern of liberal voices trying to muddy the waters about the motives behind Kirk’s killing. He has not addressed what he said.

But let’s be clear: None of this was likely to get Kimmel canned. But then Brendan Carr, Trump’s FCC chair, entered into the fray, piling public pressure on ABC and its owner, Disney, to take action by threatening dark consequences if it refused to do so. Status’ Oliver Darcy reports that an afternoon of panicked executive meetings ensued and that Kimmel planned to address the controversy head-on. ABC’s affiliates piled on the pressure. Eventually, Disney execs pulled the plug.

The fallout: Carr celebrated by sending various gloating memes to media reporters. Kimmel is said to be furious, per the Daily Mail. Puck’s Dylan Byers reckons ABC bosses still hope to get the matter “resolved” and “have the show return.” In the meantime, some ABC-affiliate stations will broadcast tributes to Kirk during Kimmel’s slot on Friday. Trump wants NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers next.

For conservatives, this is a FAFO moment: Kimmel made false insinuations at a highly sensitive time and is being held accountable by his bosses. His show was losing viewers and money anyway, they say, and now the market has done its thing. He can always head to YouTube if he’s so popular.

For liberals, this is another huge Rubicon crossed — borderline state censorship in a country that prides itself on free speech. A president who hates being mocked and ridiculed had been pressuring TV bosses to fire a prominent critic for months. This week he used the power of the FCC to force the issue.

Bondi Threatens to Go After "Hate Speech"

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration  has been full of ominous developments. Last week, a gunman murdered Charlie Kirk. Trump and his followers are exploiting the tragedy to attack their opponents.  But some forms of retribution are too much even for MAGA influencers.

Tom Latchem at The Daily Beast:

MAGA leaders torched Attorney General Pam Bondi after she vowed to “target hate speech” in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing—something the murdered activist said he did not believe in.

Bondi said her Justice Department would enforce hate speech investigations after the Conservative free-speech, right-wing activist was assassinated.

“There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society.

“We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

However, Kirk himself had repeatedly spoken about the danger of defining and punishing so-called ‘hate speech. ’

“Hate speech does not exist legally in America,” he posted on X last year. “There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.”

A video posted by Decensored News on X compared Bondi’s statement to Kirk’s own words before he died.

Describing himself as a “free speech absolutist,” Kirk told an audience, to applause, “My position is that even hate speech should be completely and totally allowed in our country.

“The most disgusting speech should absolutely be protected."

...

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume piled on: “Someone needs to explain to Ms. Bondi that so-called ‘hate speech,’ repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amendment. She should know this.”

Right-wing influencer Auron MacIntyre called Bondi’s remarks “the worst possible framing for what is a legitimate action against terrorist networks,” warning, “This will be the clip every leftist uses… it is a disaster at every level.”

Matt Walsh also lit into the attorney general on X, saying, “There is no law against saying hateful things, and there shouldn’t be.”

Bethany Irvine at Politico:

Asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl about AG Pam Bondi’s comments that she would “go after” those who were “targeting anyone with hate speech” following Kirk’s killing, Trump zeroed in on the news outlet. “We’ll probably go after people like you, because you treat me unfairly. It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they’ll come after ABC. Well, ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech … Maybe they’ll have to go after you,” Trump said.

Bondi, for her part, riled up both conservative and liberal circles with her controversial comment that was seen as a threat to clamp down on free speech — a debate that she attempted to further define today, POLITICO’s Gigi Ewing writes. “Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime,” Bondi said in a post on X, claiming that the “radical left” has used it to “normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.”

 

Blacklist

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration  has been full of ominous developments. Last week, a gunman murdered Charlie Kirk. Trump and his followers are exploiting the tragedy to attack their opponents.

Mike Allen at Axios:

Prominent right-wing influencers are amplifying screenshots of anti-Kirk social posts along with names and employers, tagging companies directly and urging their followers to demand firings. Numerous employees have been fired or suspended.An anonymous website claims to be building a searchable database with more than 50,000 submissions — at one point branding it the "largest firing operation in history."

Participants in the massive grassroots campaign dismiss accusations of right-wing "cancel culture," framing it as a moral test: If you cheer an assassination, your employer should know.Trump officials have embraced the effort: Several members of the military have already been fired after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed Pentagon staff to monitor social media posts.

"These are radicalized people," Miller furiously declared on Fox News, citing examples of teachers, nurses and federal workers celebrating Kirk's death. "There is a domestic terrorist movement in this country."

 Rebecca Carballo at Politico:

Universities in red states have fired or suspended employees regarding social media posts about Charlie Kirk’s death that school leadership found inappropriate, underscoring how fraught freedom of speech on college campuses is becoming.

The firings and suspensions come after backlash from Republican elected officials. In some cases lawmakers shared screenshots of employee posts on their social media accounts.

Clemson University, a college in South Carolina, announced on Saturday that it suspended one of its employees. The school said it is continuing “to thoroughly review the inappropriate social media content posted by employees in response to the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk.” The university said it would be providing no further details since it’s a personnel matter.

The employee’s suspension comes one day after House Judiciary Republicans posted “Defund Clemson” on X in response to the university’s statement condemning endorsement of political violence, while also reaffirming its commitment to free speech. Other Republicans chimed in.

“Free speech doesn’t prevent you from being fired if you’re stupid and have poor judgement,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a post on X.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-N.C.) also publicly condemned the university for not firing employees she believed made inappropriate comments about Kirk.

Cumberland University, in northern Tennessee, announced on Friday that two employees — an assistant coach and an English professor — were no longer at the university. President Paul Stumb said that the employees “made inappropriate comments on the internet related to the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk.”

“This decision was not made lightly,” Stumb said in a statement. “We understand the importance and impact of this action, and we want to emphasize that we conducted a comprehensive investigation prior to making our decision.”

Divider

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration  has been full of ominous developments. Last week, a gunman murdered Charlie Kirk.

Peter Baker at NYT:

The first few minutes of President Trump’s Oval Office address after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week followed the conventional presidential playbook. He praised the victim, asked God to watch over his family and talked mournfully of “a dark moment for America.”

Then he tossed the playbook aside, angrily blaming the murder on the American left and vowing revenge.

That was stark even for some viewers who might normally be sympathetic. When Mr. Trump appeared later on Fox News, a host noted that there were “radicals on the right,” just as there were “radicals on the left,” and asked, “How do we come back together?” The president rejected the premise. Radicals on the right were justified by anger over crime, he said. “The radicals on the left are the problem,” he added. “And they’re vicious. And they’re horrible.”

... 

 “If I take care of the base, everything else will take care of itself,” he once told Anthony Scaramucci, a former ally who briefly served in Mr. Trump’s first-term White House.

While he made few nods toward working across the aisle in his first term, Mr. Trump has all but abandoned any efforts at bipartisanship in his second. He does not invite Democratic leaders to the White House for talks, nor does he brief them on major national security events.

Russell T. Vought, his budget director, complained in July that “the appropriations process has to be less bipartisan.”

...

His critics fear that Mr. Trump will now use the Kirk assassination to go further on liberal organizations and institutions, a view encouraged in ominous social media posts by Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff and a leader of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.\

“In recent days we have learned just how many Americans in positions of authority — child services, law clerks, hospital nurses, teachers, gov’t workers, even DOD employees — have been deeply and violently radicalized,” Mr. Miller wrote on Saturday, suggesting that their responses to Mr. Kirk’s killing were unacceptable. “The consequence of a vast, organized ecosystem of indoctrination.”

Mr. Trump is certainly right that his opponents have called him a “fascist” and “Nazi.” But his outrage at incendiary rhetoric is situational. In the same Fox News interview last week in which he complained about excesses by the left, he referred to Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist and front-runner for mayor of New York, as a “communist.” Even more than in his first term, Mr. Trump lately has referred to political rivals and journalists as “evil.”

World War G: Cleaving Cleaver

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. It includes a chapter on congressional and state elections.

The California Legislature has approved a special election to redraw congressional district lines. Democrats stand to pick up five seats to offset a recent Texas gerrymander.

 Fredreka Schouten at CNN:

Missouri’s Republican-controlled Senate on Friday passed a new congressional map, taking final legislative action to target one of the state’s Democratic seats in the US House and boost the GOP’s chances of retaining its fragile majority in the chamber.

The 21-11 vote came just two weeks after the state’s GOP Gov. Mike Kehoe first unveiled the map and ordered a special legislative session to approve it. It targets longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by carving up his Kansas City-area district and stretching its boundaries into rural, Republican-friendly areas of central Missouri.

...

Missouri is the latest state to undertake a mid-decade redistricting as part of an extraordinary, multi-state campaign by President Donald Trump and his allies to preserve the balance of power in the House by changing district lines.

Republicans hope to win seven of Missouri’s eight congressional seats under the new map in next year’s midterm elections. The GOP currently controls six seats, and Democrats hold two.

Trump Will Use the Murder to Punish His Opponents

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration  has been full of ominous developments. This week, a gunman murdered Charlie Kirk.

Emily Davies and Michael Birnbaum at WP:

“There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote Thursday on X. “It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless.”

Other senior administration officials spoke of a broad plan to focus on public speech and rhetoric, declaring that those who speak in violent terms about Trump and his allies will face consequences. Some suggested a more expansive campaign, calling out schoolteachers and college instructors who have made public statements criticizing Kirk since his death, and promising to deport noncitizens who do the same.

The statements from Trump and his top advisers provided early insight into how the president will respond to both the personal loss and political juncture he faces in the wake of Kirk’s fatal shooting Wednesday on a Utah college campus. Trump appeared to be positioning himself to launch a campaign against some of Kirk’s — and his — opponents who have spoken out since the conservative activist’s death.

...

Miller called out “people in positions of institutional authority,” noting the social media posts of “educators, health care workers, therapists, government employees” who he said had cheered Kirk’s death. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said he had directed consular officials “to undertake appropriate action” against foreign visa applicants and holders who praised or rationalized the shooting.

EARHARDT: We have radicals on the right as well. How do we fix this country?

TRUMP: I'll tell you something that's gonna get me in trouble but I couldn't care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime. The radicals on the left… pic.twitter.com/snOESz3x5a

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 12, 2025

Trump Exploits Kirk Murder to Demonize His Opponents

Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is has been full of ominous developments. Yesterday, a gunman murdered Charlie Kirk.

Maggie Haberman at NYT:

Mr. Trump had a close relationship with Mr. Kirk, whose ability to galvanize young conservatives with his criticisms of the left had been crucial to rallying support among a new generation of voters. Mr. Kirk was also close friends with several people in the president’s orbit, including his eldest son, Donald Jr.

But by Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump’s shock had turned to fury. In a video address from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump declared it a “dark moment for America” and faulted the media and the “radical left” for language used to describe people like Mr. Kirk.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” said Mr. Trump, who one day earlier had been face-to-face with protesters in Washington who called him Hitler. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”

Trump routinely refers to his opponents as communists.