Sep
21
Jimmy Kimmel’s Source for the Right-Wing Assassin Theory
Let’s review in brief…
Many on the Left (and perhaps some anti-Trumpers) have run with the claim that Charlie Kirk’s assassin was actually a far-right nutjob from a rival pro-Trump wing competing with Kirk’s Turning Point USA. This is what Jimmy Kimmel was referring to in the statement that, in part, got him taken off the air — for awhile, at least.
This is what he said in last Monday’s monologue:
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
It’s baloney, as confirmed by the evidence, and fortunately even a few Democrat types are coming around.
Consider the following explanation from Nate Silver, statistician and founder of both FiveThirtyEight and Silver Bulletin:
“Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, appeared to confess to the murder in Discord chats. While Robinson’s motivations seem somewhat confused, as is often the case with assassins, and while we should approach any reporting on this topic with caution, the notion that Robinson was some sort of “Groyper” who killed Kirk because Kirk was too liberal appears to be wrong. ‘I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,’ Robinson wrote to his roommate, whom Utah governor Spencer Cox described as ‘a romantic partner, a male transitioning to female.’ (I mention that just because high levels of trans acceptance typically isn’t a MAGA trait.) Kimmel has reportedly been obstinate in refusing to correct the record.
So where was Kimmel getting this from? Well, maybe from Bluesky. Or (gulp) maybe from Substack. As Gabe Fleisher pointed out, Heather Cox Richardson, [a history professor at Boston College and] the author of the #1 U.S. politics newsletter Letters from an American, wrote this weekend that Robinson ‘appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical.’ Richardson presented no evidence for this; it’s wishful thinking at best. But really, it’s just a falsehood; like Fleisher, I’ll be polite and not use the term ‘lie’ just because I don’t know what’s in Richardson’s head.
I’m not looking to pick a fight with Richardson (I know some of you subscribe to her) or Kimmel. But the progressive epistemic bubble is getting really bad. Maybe not worse than the MAGA bubble — but bad, and progressives often rationalize bad behavior by saying whatever the other side is doing is worse. This has already had serious consequences, such as denialism about Joe Biden’s deteriorating condition last year, which they blamed on unfair media coverage. Kimmel is a relatively mainstream figure, so if this sort of misinformation about Robinson is making its way to him — and in scripted remarks, not off-the-cuff comments like Dowd’s — that suggests the bubble is expanding, slowly devouring the reality-based community, and that formerly rational commentators have trouble escaping it once they’re past the event horizon.”
Silver mentioned the author of Wake Up To Politics, Gabe Fleisher, above. Here’s a quote by him:
“After quoting Republicans who had blamed the political left for Kirk’s assassination, Richardson writes:
‘But in fact, the alleged shooter was not someone on the left. The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a young white man from a Republican, gun enthusiast family, who appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical.’
I’m always hesitant to use the word ‘lie,’ because it’s a word that purports to know what’s in someone’s head (i.e. that they know what they are saying is not true). So, instead, I’ll just say that Richardson’s statement here is extremely, extremely incorrect….
If anything, by the time Richardson hit ‘publish,’ an official, reliable source had already indicated the exact opposite. ‘It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,’ Utah Gov. Spencer Cox — a moderate Republican who has been praised by the left and right for his response to Kirk’s shooting — told the Wall Street Journal in an article published early Saturday….
Richardson goes on to support her statement by saying that he is a ‘young white man’ (which, of course, does not tell us his politics) ‘from a Republican, gun enthusiast family’ (it’s true that his parents were Republicans and had photographed him with guns, but this also tells us nothing about the son’s politics) ‘who appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical’ (a statement for which there is zero evidence).”
Whether her inaccurate claims were due to incompetence or maliciousness, Richardson is not to be trusted. Not that Kimmel cared, since he had the same agenda to follow. Also,… no, never mind. I’ll stop before I say something I later regret.
(H/T John Sexton of Hot Air, since I grabbed the above quotes from his article, which you should read for a bit more detail and commentary on the matter.)
