In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder last month, a rush to canonize — and demonize — the conservative influencer was only to be expected. A very public assassination, especially one with political overtones, naturally dominates multiple news cycles, offering a convenient platform for everyone to flaunt both their best and worst character traits.
More than a month later, though, certain people seem determined to keep the emotion-fest going well beyond its natural shelf life, dancing in Charlie Kirk’s blood to score political points with their political bases (or, perhaps, bosses).
Among those people, it seems, are US secretary of state Marco Rubio and/or the government employees he supervises.
The US State Department “continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” it boasts in a post on X.
The thread offers a list of unnamed people saying mean things about Kirk, each followed by the pompous pronouncement: “Visa revoked.”
Yes, even in the middle of a “government shutdown,” the State Department apparently has staff and resources available to:
- Monitor social media for negative opinions about ONE GUY;
- Determine whether the people expressing those opinions are abroad or in the US;
- If the latter, determine whether those people are US citizens/residents or visitors; and
- If the latter, revoke their visas.
I can’t help but think we’ve found a good place for Donald Trump to implement those permanent “Reductions In Force” he recently promised as a “shutdown” measure (unfortunately, a federal court has those layoffs on hold via temporary restraining order).
Charlie Kirk’s murder, like all murders, was an evil and ugly thing. We don’t all agree on that … but we should.
That he was murdered for his political opinions and his political speech should move us to more zealously guard everyone’s rights to political opinions and political speech, whether we agree those opinions and that speech or not. “Everyone” includes holders of, and applicants for, visas to visit the United States.
The desire to turn Charlie Kirk into a national saint, or a “good riddance” poster boy, isn’t a basis upon which we should allow Marco Rubio to condition the issuance, non-issuance, or revocation, of visas.
Rubio’s job, as an executive branch secretary, is to execute laws passed by Congress, and the Constitution forbids Congress to make laws “abridging the freedom of speech” … of anyone. There’s not, nor should there be, a “visa holders’ opinions of Charlie Kirk” exception.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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