'How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?'

The young man stepped to the podium to ask Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk a question.

“At this point, we're living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns?” the man asked, to applause from the crowd. “No, and I’m not – that’s not a joke. I’m not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where’s the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?”

Kirk quickly denounced the man’s comments, which came on Monday during a Boise State University stop on Kirk's Exposing Critical Racism speaking tour. (Read a full transcript on Media Matters.)

“You’re playing into all their plans, and they’re trying to make you do this … ,” Kirk said. “They are trying to provoke you and everyone here. They are trying to make you do something that will be violent that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties, the likes of which we have never seen.”

Sorry, Charlie. You (Trump, and the GOP) own this

Sorry, Charlie, but “they” – whoever they are – aren’t responsible for the fact that your supporters are now asking when they should start shooting their fellow Americans.

You own this, pal. You and Donald Trump, who has staged a year-long temper tantrum, unable to accept the fact that he lost the election.

You and all of the Republican leaders and aspiring leaders across the country who have promoted the Big Lie or remained silent, declining to stand up to the wanna-be emperor and tell him to put some damn clothes on.

You and Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, who recently, remarkably, said during a congressional hearing that “we don’t know” who won the presidential election in Arizona.

You and Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, who fanned the flames across the nation by hiring Trump supporters to audit an election that met every test required by state law and prevailed in every legal challenge brought in state and federal courts.

You own this, Mr. Kirk. You and state Rep. Mark Finchem and state Sen. Wendy Rogers, who after five unsuccessful tries finally got elected to something and now is using the Big Lie to build a national profile and oh, by the way, won’t you please send her money?

You and your Arizona-based conservative student group have become a force nationally, fueled by fealty to Trump and falsehoods that already led to insurrection.

Kirk has been raising hysteria, and it works

Remember when Kirk tweeted that the Jan. 6 March to Save America “would likely be one of the largest and most consequential in American history”?

It was certainly that, as we all remember what happened after Trump urged his supporters during that rally to “fight like hell” and sent them marching down to the Capitol and into the history books.

More recently, Kirk has been raising hysteria over COVID-19 vaccines, at one point this summer warning America’s youth that President Joe Biden was sending “goons DOOR-TO-DOOR to make you take a covid-19 vaccine”.

“LOCK YOUR DOORS, KIDS!!” advises one alarmist Turning Point Facebook ad, which includes a helpful a link for donations.

It apparently works.

Turning Point USA’s latest IRS filings show the Arizona nonprofit brought in nearly $40 million in donations in the 12 months ending July 2020. Kirk collected nearly $330,000 in compensation from this and his related organizations.

Not bad for heading a nonprofit that says it “educates students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets and capitalism.”

So now comes a young man to one of his rallies, openly asking when he should start killing Democrats. Can you imagine what is being said outside of public view?

How could it come to bloodshed? Oh, we'll know

This, too, should be a turning point. Sadly, though, there is just too much power to be gained, too much money to rake in to turn back now.

While it’s nice that Kirk denounced the man’s comment, that condemnation rings hollow when he and those on the party’s lunatic fringe have spent the last year inspiring it.

With the promise of more to come. 

“We are not going to lose focus on this and we are going to name the names and find the criminals that pulled this off in the 2020 election,” Kirk told the crowd, as he drew a connection between the pandemic and the “stolen” election. 

Really, after a year of this, is it a surprise any more that this then would be the response? 

“How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” the young man asked, to applause.

The man said he wasn’t joking and me? I take him at his word.

Someday, God forbid, we may look back on this moment. If bloodshed is to come and a shocked America asks, “how did it come to this,” we’ll know.

We’ll know.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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