NEED TO KNOW
Members of Congress are canceling and altering public events this week following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was shot and killed during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10. The right-wing media personality, who founded conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, was manning his signature “Prove Me Wrong” table on the first stop of his American Comeback Tour in Orem, Utah, when a shot was fired. Video from the event show Kirk being struck in the side of the neck as he spoke to the crowd from under a white pop-up tent.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, outspoken South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor of her state, announced that she and her staff won’t be doing any public or outdoor events “anytime soon.”
“I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, any politician across the country, if you are vocal, your life is at risk,” she told reporters, noting that she won’t be making appearances “until we have a better handle on greater security controls… I will have a firearm on my person all the time, and I will have security.”
Mace also said that she had local police officers posted at her office in South Carolina “as a deterrent” against attacks from any opponent.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Another highly polarizing member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, postponed an event on Thursday night and a speaking engagement in Raleigh at a North Carolina Democratic Party rally this coming Sunday due to security concerns.
“From the moment I was elected, I have felt that I accept a certain level of risk in doing this job,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the Capitol on Thursday, though she added that she believes current congressional security protocols are out of date. “They’re not designed for a digital threat environment era.”
Following Kirk’s death, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X, “The scourge of gun violence and political violence must end. The shooting of Charlie Kirk is the latest incident of this chaos and it must stop. We cannot go down this road. There is no place for it in America and we wish for his recovery.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida who has faced death threats in the past, said, “People are scared to death in this building.”
“I mean, not many of them will say it publicly, but they’re running to the speaker talking about security, and that’s a lot of Republicans in there. People are scared, really scared,” he added.
Also on Thursday, which happened to be the 24th anniversary of 9/11, the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. went on lockdown after a bomb threat was called in.
A DNC spokesperson later said in a statement, “This afternoon, there was a bomb threat to DNC HQ that was determined to not be credible by the U.S. Capitol Police. Out of an abundance of caution, Capitol Police is conducting an interior sweep of the building. As DNC Chair Ken Martin has said, political violence in every form has no place in our country. We are grateful to the U.S. Capitol Police and DNC building security for responding quickly and professionally.”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Emotions over Kirk’s death erupted into chaos in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. After Speaker Mike Johnson started their session with a moment of silence in Kirk’s honor, Rep. Lauren Boebert requested that the chamber also offer a spoken prayer, saying, “I believe silent prayers get silent results.”
Several Democrats grew audibly frustrated, with mumblings about how Republicans have overlooked other victims of gun violence.
“What about the kids in Colorado?” one Democrat was heard shouting, referencing the Colorado high school shooting that transpired in Boebert’s state on the same day and left three people in critical condition. Others were heard telling their colleagues to “go pass some gun laws.”
“You all caused this!” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) — a former colleague of Kirk’s at Turning Point USA — yelled back in response before uttering at least one expletive, according to The New York Times and Politico.
Speaker Johnson raised his voice repeatedly to try and get the room to calm down.
Boebert, Luna and 10 of their Republican House colleagues have also signed a petition to Speaker Johnson, asking for Congress to erect a statue of Kirk in the Capitol building.
“I owe my entire political career to Charlie Kirk. I would quite literally not be in office today if it weren’t for him,” Luna wrote on X. “Even when my own party was working against me, Charlie endorsed me and campaigned to help me win election. Today, I am urging @SpeakerJohnson to place a statue of Charlie in the US Capitol to honor his legacy and to serve as a permanent testament to his life, work, and sacrifice.”
