​​ICYMI: Congressman Pat Harrigan Pens Op-ed on The Deadly Consequences of the Left’s Hatred

Contact: Lexi Kranich (814) 380-4408

WASHINGTON, D.C.-In a new op-ed for the Daily Caller, Congressman Pat Harrigan (NC-10) argues that Charlie Kirk's assassination was not random, but the direct result of years of Democrats and the media dehumanizing conservatives and normalizing violence. He warns this is a turning point that shows the Left has abandoned debate for destruction, and calls on Americans to honor Charlie's legacy by carrying forward the fight for freedom.

You can read the whole piece here or below.

When Debate Fails, the Left Reaches for Violence

Charlie Kirk is dead because the modern Democratic Party wanted it this way.

They could not stand 15 feet in front of him and debate his logic, so they took the coward's path. They put a bullet in him from 200 yards away. This was not random, and it was not isolated. It was the predictable consequence of years of poisonous rhetoric, media collusion, and a political class that has normalized violence against conservatives.

Charlie was not just another conservative voice. He built a movement. He gave millions of young Americans the courage to stand up and speak out. He founded the largest grassroots youth organization in the country. For that, the Left marked him as an enemy to be destroyed. The Southern Poverty Law Center even smeared Turning Point USA by placing it on a "hate map" alongside the Ku Klux Klan. That was not journalism or activism. That was a hit list.

And now, Charlie's blood is on their hands. Every Democratic politician who called conservatives "Nazis." Every cable host who sneered that Trump voters were "enemies of democracy." Every activist who insisted violence against us was "resistance." They built this culture. They made it acceptable to hate us, to silence us, to treat us as less than human. When you convince people that their opponents do not deserve to live, this is the result.

This is not accidental. It is the natural end of a strategy Democrats have pursued for years: delegitimize, dehumanize, and then destroy. Joe Biden told donors it was "time to put Trump in the bull's-eye." Nancy Pelosi once wondered aloud why there were not "uprisings all over the country." Maxine Waters urged crowds to "get more confrontational" with Trump officials in public. Rep. Dan Goldman flatly declared that Trump "has to be eliminated." These are not fringe voices. These are leaders of the Democratic Party. And when leaders talk like that, someone eventually acts on it.

The media did not merely fail to stop it. They became accomplices. They amplified the smears, repeated the attacks, and provided the cover. MSNBC panelists said with straight faces that conservatives in this country were "a threat worse than al-Qaeda." CNN accused parents who spoke up at school boards of being "domestic terrorists." Newspapers ran headlines equating conservatives with "authoritarian movements." And when violence actually broke out, the press spun, excused, and downplayed it. When a man showed up outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home with weapons, the story vanished in days. When Republicans were shot on a baseball field, the shooter's political motives were buried. And now, as Charlie Kirk's death shakes the nation, the instinct from figures like Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is to blame Trump instead of the killer.

That reaction is the tell. Instead of condemning the shooter, they recycle a talking point. Instead of saying a prayer, they deflect. That is the rot at the heart of the modern Left: they cannot afford to tell the truth about what they have created, so they spin the blame onto their enemies. But the truth is unavoidable. Their rhetoric laid the groundwork. Their culture of rage gave permission. And Charlie Kirk paid the price.

Yes, we have seen this before, from the baseball field that nearly killed Steve Scalise, to the man who plotted to murder a Supreme Court justice, to the bullets aimed at Donald Trump. But Charlie's murder is different. It cannot be brushed off as another isolated act of madness. It is the turning point. It is proof that the Democratic Party and its media allies no longer believe in politics as persuasion. They believe in politics as annihilation.

The deeper problem is that they have abandoned the very idea of citizenship. In a free country, opponents are supposed to argue, persuade, and convince. That is what Charlie Kirk dedicated his life to. But to the modern Left, opponents are not to be argued with. They are to be silenced, censored, and destroyed. And when censorship fails, violence follows.

The truth is simple: a country that treats speech as violence will eventually treat violence as speech. That is where we are. The Democratic Party and its allies in the media have abandoned persuasion for destruction. They no longer see opponents. They only see enemies. And when politics becomes a war of annihilation, bullets follow words.

Charlie Kirk gave America's youth the courage to fight for freedom. His death must give us the resolve to carry on that mission-to speak boldly, to stand firmly, and to preserve the country he loved. And as we do, we pray for Charlie's family, that they may find peace in knowing his legacy will endure and his torch will be carried forward.