Ezra Klein Hits Back at Critics Who Accused Him of ‘Whitewashing’ Charlie Kirk

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein hit back at critics of the article he wrote in the immediate aftermath of the murder of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk. Klein penned a column following the shooting titled, “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way.”

In a Tuesday conversation with Ben Shapiro, Klein summed up the criticism he received.

“In the hours after Kirk’s murder, while trying to process my own shock, I wrote a piece about him. In that piece I said: You can disagree with virtually everything Kirk believed about politics, you can detest some of what he said and did — yet still believe that he was, there on that stage, practicing politics the right way: showing up to college campuses and inviting people who disagreed with him to talk with him,” Klein explained.

He went on to say he “wished” some on the left “exhibited more of that spirit” before pivoting to discuss the backlash.

“I’ve published a lot of pieces over the years. I’m not sure I’ve published any as polarizing as that one,” he said, adding:

Many appreciated the piece, particularly on the right. It saw their friend and ally more as he saw himself. There were many, closer to my own politics, who were infuriated by it.

Privately and publicly, they offered the worst things Kirk had said and done: starting a watchlist of leftist professors, busing people to the protest that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection, telling his political foes that they should be deported, saying the Democratic Party hates this country, saying the Civil Rights Act was a mistake. Friends said to me: Look, we can oppose political violence without whitewashing this guy.

Klein spoke more about his critics before addressing them.

“My reaction to this, honestly, is that it is too little to just say we oppose political violence. In ways that surprise me, given what I thought of Kirk’s project, I was and am grieving for Kirk himself. Not because I knew him — I didn’t. Not because he was a saint — he wasn’t. Not because I agreed with him — no, most of what he poured himself into trying to achieve, I pour myself into trying to prevent,” Klein explained, adding:

But I find myself grieving for him because I recognize some commonality with him. He was murdered for participating in our politics. Somewhere beyond how much divided us, there was something that bonded us, too. Some effort to change this country in ways that we think are good.

I believe this so strongly: We have to be able to see that the bullet that tore into him was an act of violence against us all.
Klein concluded his comments, before introducing Shapiro as his guest, by making clear the Americans are going to have to find a way to bridge their divides and live together if we as a country are to stop the rising tide of violence.

“We are going to have to live here with one another, believing what we believe, disagreeing in the ways we disagree,” he argued, concluding:

To recognize that does not mean we don’t disagree. It does not mean we are not appalled or afraid of what others say or want. But I think it means that we do more than that, too. I think we also have to be looking for what we can recognize in one another. Sometimes that might mean overlooking what we can’t recognize in one another.

Watch the full interview above.