Sen. Chris Murphy on the canceling of critics of Charlie Kirk : NPR

Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Listens to the interior security secretary, Kristi Noem, is expressed during a sub-comity of the Senate credits on the interior security audience, Thursday, May 8, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP

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Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP

Democratic senator Chris Murphy du Connecticut calls for efforts to target or silence the left or progressive groups after the murder of right -wing activist Charlie Kirk is “straight out of the totalitarian game book”.

Superior members of the Trump administration, including vice-president Vance and the deputy chief of staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, have committed to use the departments of justice and internal security to disturb the networks which, according to them, are responsible for violence.

Talk to Morning editionMurphy said it could be “a truly dark moment for this country if traditional progressive organizations are simply qualified as terrorists or initiates of violence simply because they work to undermine the president’s political agenda”.

Murphy’s comments came at least 30 people across the country have already been dismissed or surveyed on publications on social networks on the death of Kirk and in the midst of the calls of republican officials and right influencers for more repression.

Kirk, 31 years old, founder of the group of young conservatives Turning Point USA, died after being killed in the neck on September 10 while he was expressed at the University of Utah Valley in Orem. He was a leading figure in the mobilization of young voters for republican policy. A 22 -year -old Utah resident Tyler Robinson was arrested on Friday following a two -day man hunt. On Tuesday, he was accused of seven charges, including an aggravated murder.

The death of Kirk sparked a fierce debate on the question of whether he should be honored. Critics highlight his incendiary remarks – like calling Martin Luther King Jr. “horrible” and demanding Nuremberg style tests for doctors who provide sexual care. Others, on the other hand, require consequences for those they believe they justify the murder.

Murphy, addressing Michel Martin of NPR, warned against the risks of political violence, the efforts to silence dissent and the dangers of an animated rhetoric through the political spectrum.

This interview is modified for length and clarity.

Strengths of the interview

Michel Martin: You Published a message on X during the weekend To say: “Be careful. Something dark could come.” What did you mean by that?

Senator Chris Murphy: As we are all in shock from the assassination of Charlie Kirk and this broader increase in political violence, it was an opportunity, following the assassination, so that the president tries to bring the country around the work that we must do to try to make sure that violence is unacceptable in all circumstances. But he seems to do the opposite. As Your journalist notedThey prepare what can be a vertiginous and high volume attack against the president’s political opponents, essentially exploiting the death of Charlie Kirk to try to eliminate those who try to oppose politically on the agenda. And I think it could be a really dark moment for this country if traditional progressive organizations are simply qualified as terrorists or incentives for violence simply because they work to undermine the president’s political agenda. This work has been underway for administration for nine months. They did it on a smaller scale, but they can now prepare to accelerate and try to really do, really significant damage to our democracy, and we have to be vigilant for that.

Martin: Is it possible that it is the heat of the moment, that, that, As our colleagues have underlined in the reportCharlie Kirk is someone who had very close relationships with some of the people in the White House? Is it possible that it is the emotion of the moment?

Murphy: I think it can be true, but I think it’s also straight out of the totalitarian game book. If you look at other companies where you had an elected leader who decided that they wanted to reign forever, they end up trying to launch and label their political opposition as instigators of violence. So you have, I think, given all the ways in which the Trump administration has seen what happened in places like Turkey and Hungary and copied it, their attacks on the legal profession, their attacks on higher education. It would be a tactic that is not new or unique. It is another mechanism that other potential autocrats have tried to use to destroy and close their political opposition groups.

Martin: How do you advise people to prepare for it? What do you think people should do?

Murphy: First, it is important for us to recognize and say that political violence is unacceptable. We do not yet know all the motivations of this shooter, but there have been political assassinations and attempts at political assassination which are due to right -wing radicalism and left radicalism, and there should be no one in this country and person on the left who celebrates what happened here. But secondly, this is only a time when we have to show the president and his team that we are not going to be intimidated in the submission. This means that, you know, it is a moment for the Americans who have not registered to join one of these protest groups to do so, so that they support groups that try to save our democracy. What the president will try to do by pursuing either the groups funded by Soros or by attacking more high level politicians who oppose him is to try to convince people to stay on the sidelines, and we must show him that this tactic will not work.

Martin: Before Charlie Kirk was killed, a White House spokesman Abigail Jackson, stressed how you said in an interview that Democrats were mainly “during a war to save this country”. She argued that she thinks that the Democrats contributed to this increased tensions environment. Do you think that Democrats should also change the way they talk about some of these questions?

Murphy: If you look at the question that was asked to me, it was a question about the efforts of the Republicans to destroy the bipartite redistribution. And I said, yes, we are fighting at the moment to make sure that we can have fair elections in this country. It is therefore true that politicians on both sides use animated rhetoric when they speak of politics.

Martin: But in all justice, do you think there is something that you need to do differently when you express yourself on problems like this, to reduce the temperature?

Murphy: Well, none of us, including what I said during this interview, is close to an approval or an incentive of violence. And I think it is an attempt by the Republicans to try to distract this country of the countryside that they are preparing to try to undermine the legitimate dissent.