Like millions of Americans, my family and I witnessed the horrifying assassination of Charlie Kirk.

At just 31 years old, Charlie was a rising conservative leader who was best known for speaking out against progressive liberal ideology.  But more than that—far more than that—he was a devout Christian, a wonderful husband, and a doting father.

President Trump put it well: “Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country. An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come.”

Make no mistake: this was a political assassination.

The shooter chose Charlie because Charlie had become one of the most recognizable conservative voices in the Nation, and because Charlie was so successful at demolishing the left’s favorite talking points: their lies about crime, their endorsement of gender-transition surgeries for children, their promotion of abortion, and so much more.

Specifically, it appears that the shooter targeted Charlie Kirk because Charlie had the courage to challenge the progressive liberal endorsement of transgenderism.

Evidence suggests that the alleged shooter was in a romantic relationship with a transgender individual, and decided to assassinate Charlie because he had “had enough of [Charlie’s] hatred.”

You read that right: in the name of preventing “hate,” a progressive left-wing activist assassinated a God-fearing husband and father of two for daring to disagree with progressive orthodoxy.

This is the state of American liberal politics.

Senator Chuck Schumer didn’t waste a second before telling us that we shouldn’t be “pointing fingers of blame.” 

Liberal late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel even went so far as to claim that the shooter was part of a “MAGA gang.”

Nonsense.

Senator Schumer, Jimmy Kimmel, and the rest of the left’s leadership is on the defensive. 

They are trying to deflect. They realize that the hateful left-wing rhetoric that they and others in their party have spewed for decades and escalated in recent years is finally catching up to them.

From President Obama’s characterization of small-town conservatives as “bitter” people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them,” to Democrat politicians’ nonstop accusations of fascism and Nazism.

Recently, prominent Democrats have gone so far as to paint us as the most evil people in the history of the modern world.

Is anyone surprised that some deranged lunatics take those leaders at their words—and act on them?

I’m not. Violence has been a staple of progressive politics in America for over half a century.  From the late 1960s through the 1970s, left-wing domestic terrorist groups like Weather Underground carried out bombings and sought to overthrow the United States government. 

Saul Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals and advocate of modern “community organizing” based on incitement and resentment, was an inspiration for both President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Liberal activists take violent actions because liberal politicians and media endorse it.  Then the politicians and media turn a blind eye. Or worse, they try to confuse the situation to distract us from seeing the obvious.  

That’s what President Obama did when he said that the riots in Ferguson that kicked off the Black Lives Matter movement were unfortunate but “understandable.”  And that’s what Senator Schumer, Jimmy Kimmel, and the like are doing now.

Do not be fooled.  

• You saw a left-wing lunatic attempt to assassinate Congressman Scalise.  
• You saw progressive Antifa activists set cities across the country ablaze in “fiery but mostly peaceful” riots.  In fact, you saw its devastation right here at home as rioters set fires and fired gunshots throughout Birmingham.  
• You saw a would-be assassin fly across the country and attempt to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  
• You saw left-wing cultists murder border patrol agents.  
• You saw two attempts on President Trump’s life.
• You saw anti-conservative transgender ideologues massacre children in Tennessee and Minnesota.
• And you saw a progressive radical—with transgender and Antifa ideology inscribed on his bullets—assassinate Charlie Kirk.

I saw them too. Today, I see these bad actors for what they are: domestic terrorists.

President Trump, Vice President Vance, and others are also recognizing the very real threat that these groups pose. In fact, just this week, President Trump signed an Executive Order rightfully designating Antifa as a terrorist organization.

As your Attorney General, I vow to work with the federal government and use our own state resources to protect our citizens from violent radicals. 

The time for excuses and political correctness is over.

What we are witnessing is the systematic breakdown of civil society, and I won’t tolerate it.

Together, we must reject violent political philosophies and create safety for law-abiding citizens. And together, we must ensure the safety and freedom of all Alabamians.

Jay Mitchell is a former Associate Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and 2026 Republican candidate for Alabama Attorney General.