Charlie Kirk Dead After Being Shot During a College Event in Utah

Conservative movement influencer and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk has died after being shot during an event Wednesday.

Kirk, 31, was taken to a hospital after the shooting and was initially listed in critical condition, per the AP. Utah Valley University, where he was speaking, said that it was evacuating in a terse message, instructing people to “leave campus immediately.”

His death was announced by a spokesperson and by President Donald Trump.

Figures from across American politics immediately condemned the shooting and political violence more broadly. Kamala Harris said that “political violence has no place in America;” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said “there is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop.” Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) said “we must never allow America to become a country that confronts [political] disagreements with violence;” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said “political violence must be called out, and it has to stop.” The House of representatives held a moment of silence.

That’s the tone from the majority of elected officials and others with a public presence in American politics.

Some on the far-right fringe have already departed from that, appearing to view the tragedy as a potential catalyst for a retribution campaign. Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, suggested as much by boosting a post from Andrew Tate calling for “drastic action.”

Others, with more influence in the mainstream of the right, immediately blamed Kirk’s murder on their political opponents.

“The Left is the party of murder,” tweeted Elon Musk. 

Right-wing activist Christopher Rufo and former Senate candidate Blake Masters, suggested that the shooting should prompt a law enforcement crackdown on the left. Rufo recalled former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and said that it was time to “infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate all of those who are responsible for this chaos.” Masters wrote that “left-wing violence is out of control, and it’s not random” before saying that the “NGO-donor patronage network” that supposedly supports the opposition should be destroyed.

Flags are to be flown at half-staff until Sunday for the conservative activist, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

As of this writing, no suspect is in custody.

Trump Admin Deploys to Chicago … to Crack Down on Vaping

While it remains unclear whether the Trump administration is actually planning to follow through on Trump’s declaration of war on Chicago, his administration officials did pay a visit to the city Wednesday to crack down on illicit vape shops. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. traveled there to announce RFK Jr.’s new operation going after the shops that sell certain types of vapes. The health secretary has made this a priority for HHS. Per NBC News:

Bondi and Kennedy were both present at the site of the largest seizure in Bensenville, Illinois, where 600,000 units of illegal product were seized.

The Department of Justice targeted the distributors and retailers to halt their alleged sale of certain vaping products, including illegally flavored vapes, THC-infused vapes and products containing 7-OH, an illegal compound with opioid-like effects derived from kratom plants.

Appeals Court Agrees Legislative Branch Agency Is Under Legislative Branch Control

The register of copyrights at the Library of Congress — who Trump fired earlier this year right after the office put out a report finding potential legal issues with tech companies using copyrighted works to help train AI systems — can go back to her job.

A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 Wednesday afternoon that Shira Perlmutter can continue serving as the register of copyrights at the Library of Congress. Trump claimed to have fired her in May. The attempted dismissal came a few days after Trump also fired the Librarian of Congress. Both were efforts to change leadership at a legislative branch agency and sparked alarm among Democratic lawmakers, and even some Republicans, who said that Trump didn’t have that kind of authority over an agency that is housed within a separate branch of government.

Two on the divided panel of judges seemed to agree with those assessments.

“Because Perlmutter leads an agency that is housed in the Legislative Branch and her primary role is to advise Congress, Perlmutter’s situation differs significantly from the Executive Branch officials whose removals have been repeatedly upheld,” Judges Florence Pan and J. Michelle Childs wrote, referencing legal challenges to various Trump executive agency firing that are making their way through the courts. Childs and Pan were both appointed by former President Biden.

After Trump fired both Perlmutter and former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, he attempted to replace Hayden with his own DOJ deputy attorney general and former personal lawyer Todd Blanche in an acting capacity, which some Republicans in Congress expressed concerns about at the time. Perlmutter filed a lawsuit almost immediately after her dismissal, but Hayden didn’t challenge her firing in court.

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