CNN Star Says Charlie Kirk Would Oppose Firing People Who Mocked Shooting

CNN commentator S.E. Cupp said that efforts to punish those who disparaged or mocked slain activist Charlie Kirk after his killing are “the opposite of what Charlie Kirk would have wanted.”

Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi has drawn criticism for threatening to go after people over what she described as “hate speech” — including those cheering Kirk’s assassination.

There have been other examples of people being fired for commentary about Kirk, and a concerted effort online to claim more scalps in the aftermath of the killing. Vice President JD Vance has explicitly urged those efforts.

On Monday’s edition of CNN News Central, anchor Kate Bolduan played Vance’s remarks and asked if this is just an example of the “cancel culture” that President Donald Trump and his fans say they abhor:

BOLDUAN: It’s so interesting you say silencing the voice of others because that does seem to be a trend in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s killing is you’ve got workers across the country who–. They have mocked his death online and quickly learned that words can get them fired, right — from airlines to Nasdaq to restaurants, and schools, and law firms.

There’s — I mean, there’s a lot of people who are losing their jobs, which is separate and apart from should you be able to say anything you want. It doesn’t mean you should be able to be employed by anyone you want as well.

I mean, JD Vance just yesterday was promoting people finding those who are speaking out and mocking — speaking out and mocking or disparaging what has happened and trying to call people out and hold them to account.

Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: It — the way the Playbook put it this morning is “While for so long, especially the president and those around him have lamented cancel culture. It appears cancel culture is in fashion once again.”

I just — quickly, if you both — S.E., kind of what you think of this.

CUPP: Um, it’s illiberal and it’s the opposite of what Charlie Kirk would have wanted. Charlie Kirk was a debater. I didn’t like what he said, and I was offended by what he said. That’s alright, you know. It’s — you’re — it’s not illegal. It’s not a crime to offend someone.

And yeah, I think this is the opposite of what we need. And we’re just as violent is the opposite of what we need to, um — to counteract speech we don’t like, we need more speech; not less. When we meet speech we don’t like, we meet it with more free speech. We have to debate our ideas. We have to be able to talk about the things that we disagree with. We have to do that civilly.

But we can’t punish people for disagreeing with us. We can’t punish people for being jerks and celebrating the death of someone. That’s not illegal and that shouldn’t be who we are.

Watch above via CNN News Central.