Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, an American nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics, once questioned whether Ukraine would murder him. Kirk was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University yesterday.

Kirk was known for using direct and blunt language, and he often interrupted those speaking to him. He disparaged women several times, calling them “angry and bitter” if they used birth control and stated that women past the age of 30  were “over their prime.” He also spoke at a Young Women’s Leadership event held by his organization, where he was approached by a 14-year-old girl who asked him what she should do when she gets to college. Kirk said that the purpose of her going to college should be to find a husband.

He was confrontational about many subjects, including religion, often using it as an excuse to push for a Christian Nationalist theocracy. Many media outlets have also pegged Kirk as a racist who was known for his xenophobia. 

A lone shooter opened fire from a rooftop, striking Kirk in the neck before fleeing the scene in Utah. The fatal shooting was widely viewed as politically motivated and has elicited broad condemnation, including from US President Donald Trump, this outlet, and the political center and right at large.

Kirk also claimed that he received death threats daily for speaking out on difficult issues. One of those tough topics was Washington’s funding of the Ukraine conflict. He said at least one assassination threat from a Ukrainian spokesperson could have targeted him personally, accoridng to a report by RT.

Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, a US transgender woman who at the time was leading the Ukrainian Territorial Defense’s English-language outreach program, vowed to “hunt down” those she called “Kremlin propagandists,” adding that a strike against an individual favored by Russian President Vladimir Putin was imminent. –RT

“Are they going to murder, or try to murder Steve Bannon or Tucker Carlson, or myself?” Kirk asked in response, referencing other conservative American media personalities who have also spoken against the funding of the Ukraine war.  “None of us are Putin puppets or Russian propagandists, but The New York Times calls us that, Twitter calls us that,” Kirk said on his show. “And that person, who is funded by the US Treasury, says: we are gonna come murder you.”

Ashton-Cirillo was quickly removed from Ukrainian forces after her comments went viral. Kirk remained vigilant in his condemnation of Ukraine’s ruler, Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he was “an ungrateful, petulant child,” a “go-go dancer” undeserving of a single US tax dollar, and “a puppet of the CIA who marched his own people into a needless slaughter.”

For his part, Kirk referred to the LGBTQ+ community as a “social contagion.” He did appear to be referring to transgenerism itself, according to a report by Newsweek. “This social contagion that is spreading [across] the country at a rapid pace that disguises itself as ‘transgenderism,’” Kirk told Young Women’s Leadership Summit attendees. “And it is accelerating; it is not slowing down.”

Regardless of his opinions and whether or not he was a controversial political figure, murder is never the solution. Kirk left behind a wife and two young children. Please send them prayers and keep them in your thoughts.

Did his views on transgenderism and the threat from a transgender woman have any bearing on his murder, or was this just an interesting coincidence? Let us know what you think in the comments.