Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is under fire for mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination and scoffing at claims that his mission was rooted in civil political discourse.
The progressive ‘Squad’ member laughed during an interview while dismissing tributes to Kirk’s legacy, branding his views as ‘f***ed up’ and accusing him of a decade of spreading hate.
While speaking with Zeteo, Omar poured scorn on the very idea that Kirk had championed civil political dialogue.
‘There are a lot of people who are talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,’ Omar said with a sneer. ‘These people are full of s*** and it’s important for us to call them out while we feel anger and sadness.’
Her remarks came just a day after Kirk was killed by a sniper outside Utah Valley University, in an attack that has deepened partisan divisions and triggered a wave of controversial reactions from elected Democrats to public servants and educators, some of whom appeared to celebrate his death.
Omar pointed specifically to Kirk’s social media history and public rhetoric – his repeated denigration of George Floyd, his dismissal of Juneteenth, and his claims that efforts to recognize African American historical figures were part of a ‘neo-segregationist’ agenda.
‘What I do know for sure is that Charlie was someone who once said guns save lives after a school shooting. Charlie was someone who was willing to debate and downplay the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police,’ Omar said.
‘He would downplay slavery and what black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth should never exist and I think there are a lot of people out there who are talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate.
‘There is nothing more f’ed up than to completely pretend that his words and actions haven’t been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so,’ Omar laughed.
Kirk, 31, was one of the most visible and controversial figures in the conservative movement.
He rose to national prominence as the founder of Turning Point USA, which sought to galvanize young Republicans on college campuses through fiery speeches and unapologetically provocative events.
But many on the left saw Kirk not as a thought leader but as a lightning rod for division.
His repeated attacks on racial justice movements and particularly his caustic rhetoric on George Floyd and Juneteenth have been cited by critics as evidence of bigotry and radicalization.
In 2021, during a live appearance, Kirk dismissed Floyd as a ‘scumbag’ and repeated falsehoods that Floyd’s death was due to a fentanyl overdose, despite the autopsy ruling Floyd’s death a homicide due to ‘cardiopulmonary arrest,’ not an overdose.
He accused Floyd of ‘illegally counterfeiting currency’ and said he had ‘put a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach’.
In a 2023 Instagram post, Kirk blasted Juneteenth as a ‘race-based “holiday”‘, writing ‘Juneteenth isn’t about emancipation, which was one of America’s great moral achievements. It’s about creating a race-based “holiday”‘.
On a 2024 podcast, he escalated the claim further, ‘The push to elevate Juneteenth is not about unity or justice. It’s about anti-Americanism and replacing the Fourth of July.’
And just months before his death, in June 2025, he posted bluntly on X, ‘Juneteenth should not be a federal holiday.’
Kirk, who supporters have hailed as a ‘martyr’ for conservative ideals, had an outsized influence in US politics.
He co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to drive conservative viewpoints among young people, with his natural showmanship making him a go-to spokesman on television networks.
Kirk used his enormous audiences on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, outspoken Christianity and gun ownership, and to spread carefully edited clips of his interactions during debates at his many college events.