Earl Ofari Hutchinson
“Awful,” “a bad guy,” “not a good person,” “He’s not worthy of God like status.”
Charlie Kirk when occasionally called out on these shots he took at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. not only did not deny them, but doubled down on King. He labeled one of his podcasts, “the King Myth” And just to make sure there was no misunderstanding about his new view of King he plopped it on YouTube.
I say new view because Kirk at one time claimed to be a King fan. He heaped fulsome praise on King as a “hero “and “civil rights icon.” That didn’t last. Kirk’s first big public broadside against King came at his Turning Point USA convention in 2023.
By the time of the King national holiday celebration in January 2024, Kirk went full blown anti-King mode. He ticked off a string of pejorative hits on him.
But whether it was heartfelt praise or now virulent attack on King, Kirk showed a perverse backhanded respect for King. He obviously and correctly viewed King as the embodiment of the battle for and ultimate triumph of the civil rights movement to end legal segregation and for equal rights. Something he now railed against.
There was more. King was not just the civil rights leader. He was the Black civil rights leader. This rammed race squarely into the current ferocious debate over the past and present struggle over any and all civil rights related laws or actions.
Kirk picked King as his whipping boy to make the point that when he attacked any and everything remotely that dealt with race and racism, King was the go-to focal point that would always stir heat.
Kirk’s fascination with and targeting of King wasn’t lost on Georgia House Representative Andrew Clyde. He penned a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson a couple days after Kirk’s slaying demanding that Congress authorize the funding and building of a monument to Kirk in the Capitol. A slew of other GOP representatives quickly and eagerly backed the demand.
Clyde took his cue from Kirk and linked Kirk to King “We have a statue of MLK in the Capitol, don’t we?” There would be lots of debate, protests, and rage at the never-ending effort to cast Kirk in the King mold, monument, and all.
Kirk was not the first nor will he be the last on the far side of the political moonscape to latch onto King to cast a halo on themselves. The only thing that could be more mind blowing would be to actually build a Kirk monument. And then plop it right next to King’s.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is Trump for Sale (Middle Passage Press) He is the publisher of thehutchinsonreport.net.