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‘SOMETHING DARK MIGHT BE COMING’: SENATOR REBUKES RIGHT’S
WEAPONIZATION OF KIRK MURDER TO ‘DESTROY DISSENT’  
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Brad Reed
September 15, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ “I hope I’m wrong. But we need to be prepared if I’m
right,” warned Sen. Chris Murphy. _

Sen. Chris Murphy (D.-Conn), (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

 

A Democratic US senator over the weekend issued an ominous warning
about Republicans using the murder of Charlie Kirk
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clamp down on political speech.

In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy
(D-Conn.) outlined
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President Donald Trump
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set to wage a campaign of retribution against political adversaries by
framing them as accomplices in Kirk’s murder.

“Pay attention,” he began. “Something dark might be coming. The
murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront
political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals
look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.”

Murphy then contrasted the recent statements by Republican Utah Gov.
Spencer Cox, who accurately stated that political violence is not
confined to a single political ideology, with those of Trump and his
allies, who have said such violence is only a problem on the left.

Murphy highlighted a statement from Trump ally and informal adviser
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Loomer, who said
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she wanted “Trump to be the ‘dictator’ the left thinks he is”
and that she wanted “the right to be as devoted to locking up and
silencing our violent political enemies as they pretend we are.”

He then pointed to Trump saying that progressive billionaire financier
George Soros should face racketeering charges even though there is no
evidence linking Soros to Kirk’s murder or any other kind of
political violence.

“The Trump/Loomer/Miller narrative that Dems are cheering Kirk’s
murder or that left groups are fomenting violence is also made up,”
he added. “There are always going to be online trolls, but Dem
leaders are united (as opposed to Trump who continues to cheer the
January 6 violence).”

Murphy claimed that the president and his allies have long been
seeking a “pretext to destroy their opposition” and that Kirk’s
murder gave them an opening.

“That’s why it was so important for Trump sycophants to take over
the DoJ and FBI, so that if a pretext arose, Trump could orchestrate a
dizzying campaign to shut down political opposition groups and lock up
or harass its leaders,” he said. “This is what could be
coming—now.”

Early in his second term, the president fired
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prosecutors who were involved in an earlier political violence
case—the prosecution of people involved in the violent attack on the
US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters who aimed to stop
the certification of the 2020 election.

A top ethics official and a lawyer who spoke out against the
president’s anti-immigration policy are among those who have
been fired [[link removed]] from
the DOJ.

Murphy ended his post with a call for action from supporters.

“I hope I’m wrong. But we need to be prepared if I’m right,”
he said. “That means everyone who cares about democracy has to join
the fight—right now. Join a mobilization or protest group. Start
showing up to actions more. Write a check to a progressive media
operation.”

One day after Murphy’s warning, columnist Karen Attiah announced
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from the _Washington Post_ over social media posts in the wake of
Kirk’s death that were critical of his legacy but in no way endorsed
or celebrated any form of political violence.

“The _Post_ accused my measured Bluesky posts of being
‘unacceptable,’ ‘gross misconduct,’ and of endangering the
physical safety of colleagues—charges without evidence, which I
reject completely as false,” she explained. “They rushed to fire
me without even a conversation. This was not only a hasty overreach,
but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and
rigor the _Post_ claims to uphold.”

Attiah only directly referenced Kirk once in her posts and said she
had condemned the deadly attack on him “without engaging in
excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black
women
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a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists
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claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim
Crow [[link removed]], said that
the Civil Rights Act was a mistake
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and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals ‘Unhumans
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_Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Charlie Kirk
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* U.S. right wing
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* attack on dissent
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