Mehdi Hasan and Ilhan Omar Rag on Charlie Kirk One Day After His Murder
Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) held nothing back while criticizing Charlie Kirk on Thursday, one day after the conservative activist was assassinated in Utah.
Both Hasan and Omar expressed their horror at Kirk’s murder, but nevertheless were scathing in their criticism of him.
“I just think to myself: How cynical is it for big name figures on the right — Donald Trump, Elon Musk, many others, Nancy Mace yesterday — saying this is a Democratic Party problem, as if people like you are not getting death threats all the time, credible ones,” said Hasan, prompting Omar.
“I mean, it’s actually disgusting,” replied Omar who argued that Trump’s speech addressing Kirk’s murder “denigrated” the “status of the office he holds.”
“What I do know for sure is that, you know, Charlie was someone who once said, you know, guns save lives after a school shooting. Charlie was someone who was willing to debate and downplay the death of George Floyd in the hands of Minneapolis police,” she continued.
“I think he [Kirk] called him a scumbag,” offered Hasan.
“Right, have no regard, downplay slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth should never exist. And I think, you know, there are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,” observed Omar.
“It’s bullshit. A complete rewriting of history!” interjected Hasan briefly.
“Yeah, there is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so,” submitted Omar.
The progressive pair continued:
OMAR: You have people like Nancy Mace who constantly harass, you know, people that she finds inferior, and wants them not to exist in this country or ever. And you know, you have people like Trump who has incited violence against people like me. And so, you know, the these people are full of shit, and it’s important for us to to call them out while we feel anger, and sadness, and you have, you know, empathy, which Charlie said, “No, it shouldn’t exist, because that’s a newly created word,” or something. Like, I have empathy for his kids, and his wife, and what they’re going through because I do not want that-
HASAN: No one should through that and and we hold ourselves, I hope, to higher standards.
OMAR: And we consider, you and I, as people of deep faith, and our faiths are based on grace and mercy — which is empathy. And we want, you know, like for people not to dance on our grave because that is not what our faith teaches us. We want to be able to mourn and pray for-
HASAN: But the problem is the politicizing is being done by-, the politicizing is being done by the right, right? Like, this is always my problem when a public figure dies and people say you shouldn’t say anything negative. I’m happy to not say anything negative and, you know, let the family mourn. But it’s when everyone else tries to kind of do a whitewashing of who that person was.
