An evidence-free conspiracy theory claiming that the left-wing assassin who shot and killed Charlie Kirk was actually right-wing quickly spread among the left since the murder, moving from online social media sites to Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show and beyond.
Authorities announced last week that they had arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a resident of western Utah, in connection to the killing of Kirk, a popular conservative influencer and ally of President Donald Trump.
Robinson is accused of gunning down Kirk on earlier this month at Utah Valley University during a question-and-answer session at the Turning Point USA event. Although all of the evidence that has emerged has pointed to the shooter having leftist motives and ideology, many on the left spread the claim that the killer was far right.
Kimmel, the host of the ABC late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, said on the September 15 episode of his show that “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.” The baseless implication about the shooter being MAGA had made its way from viral tweets to millions of TV viewers.
Despite the evidence all pointing to Kirk’s killer being on the left wing of the ideological spectrum, the conspiracy theory about a right-wing shooter was pushed by a host of Democratic members of Congress, high-profile left-wing activists, liberal social media influencers, and more.
The most common evidence-free claim on the left has been that the shooter was a follower of far right influencer Nick Fuentes.
The Hitler-admiring online streamer began a speech at one rally by saying that “I love you, and I love Hitler.” At least one segment of Fuentes’s online show featured Holocaust denial, with Fuentes questioning whether 6 million Jews were really murdered by the Nazi regime and laughing as he compared the burning of human bodies to baking cookies in an oven, which he has since said was just a joke.
Fuentes, a frequent critic of Kirk, refers to his followers as the “Groyper Army” — and his “Groyper War” sought to interrupt Turning Point USA events. There was and is zero evidence that the shooter was connected to Fuentes in any way nor that he identified as a Groyper.
Fuentes accurately lamented on X last week that “my followers and I are currently being framed for the murder of Charlie Kirk by the mainstream media based on literally zero evidence.”
Hellbound and Down 