Social media erupts over ‘Squad’ Dem’s interview after Charlie Kirk assassination: ‘Needs to resign’

Social Media Erupts: Calls for ‘Squad’ Democ­ra­t’s Res­ig­na­tion After Con­tro­ver­sial Inter­view on Char­lie Kirk Assas­si­na­tion

In the wake of a shock­ing polit­i­cal assas­si­na­tion that has gripped the nation, social media has become a bat­tle­ground of out­rage, grief, and demands for account­abil­i­ty. On Sep­tem­ber 10, 2025, con­ser­v­a­tive activist Char­lie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turn­ing Point USA, was fatal­ly shot dur­ing a speak­ing event at Utah Val­ley Uni­ver­si­ty in Orem, Utah.

The inci­dent, described by Utah Gov­er­nor Spencer Cox as a “polit­i­cal assas­si­na­tion,” has sparked wide­spread mourn­ing among con­ser­v­a­tives and renewed debates about polit­i­cal vio­lence in Amer­i­ca. Just days lat­er, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ilhan Omar—a promi­nent mem­ber of the pro­gres­sive “Squad”—faced intense back­lash for com­ments she made in an inter­view, lead­ing to viral calls for her res­ig­na­tion.

The Assassination of Charlie Kirk: A Nation in Shock

Char­lie Kirk was no stranger to con­tro­ver­sy. As a vocal sup­port­er of for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and a key fig­ure in mobi­liz­ing young con­ser­v­a­tives, Kirk had built Turn­ing Point USA into a pow­er­house orga­ni­za­tion focused on cam­pus activism, free speech, and tra­di­tion­al val­ues.

On that fate­ful Wednes­day evening, Kirk was address­ing approx­i­mate­ly 3,000 atten­dees at the uni­ver­si­ty’s out­door venue when a sin­gle gun­shot rang out from a rooftop about 142 yards away. The bul­let struck him in the neck, near his carotid artery, caus­ing him to col­lapse on stage. Eye­wit­ness­es, includ­ing a Deseret News reporter, described a scene of chaos and hor­ror as blood poured from the wound and Kirk went limp.

The man­hunt for the sus­pect was swift. By Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 12, author­i­ties announced the arrest of 22-year-old Tyler Robin­son, a Utah res­i­dent with no pri­or crim­i­nal record but a his­to­ry of dis­dain for Kirk’s con­ser­v­a­tive view­points. Robin­son was booked on charges includ­ing cap­i­tal mur­der, weapons offens­es, and obstruc­tion. Accord­ing to offi­cials, he con­fid­ed in a fam­i­ly mem­ber about his involve­ment, which led to his cap­ture just 33 hours after the shoot­ing.

FBI Direc­tor Kash Patel praised the rapid progress, call­ing it “his­toric” in the inves­ti­ga­tion.

Pres­i­dent Trump, a close ally of Kirk, ordered flags flown at half-staff nation­wide for four days and posthu­mous­ly award­ed Kirk the Pres­i­den­tial Medal of Free­dom. In a White House video state­ment, Trump lament­ed:

“The Great, and even Leg­endary, Char­lie Kirk, is dead… He was loved and admired by ALL, espe­cial­ly me.”

Don­ald Trump Jr. went fur­ther on Fox News, blast­ing the “vil­i­fi­ca­tion” and “cel­e­bra­tion” of Kirk’s death as “tru­ly dis­gust­ing.”

Kirk’s wid­ow, Eri­ka Kirk, vowed to con­tin­ue her husband’s mis­sion:

“The move­ment my hus­band built will not die.”

She con­firmed that Turn­ing Point USA’s fall cam­pus tour and Amer­i­caFest con­fer­ence will go ahead, fram­ing the tragedy as a call to action against “evil­do­ers.”

The assas­si­na­tion has been placed in the con­text of a trou­bling rise in U.S. polit­i­cal vio­lence, from the 2024 assas­si­na­tion attempts on Trump to the 2025 killing of Min­neso­ta leg­is­la­tor Melis­sa Hort­man. Bipar­ti­san lead­ers, includ­ing Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som and Penn­syl­va­nia Gov­er­nor Josh Shapiro, con­demned the attack. New­som called it “dis­gust­ing, vile, and rep­re­hen­si­ble.”

Trump allies, mean­while, point­ed to “rad­i­cal left orga­ni­za­tions” as fuel­ing such vio­lence, with Stephen Miller vow­ing to dis­man­tle them through RICO charges.

Ilhan Omar’s Interview: Criticism or Context?

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ilhan Omar, known for her out­spo­ken pro­gres­sive stances, appeared in an inter­view on Sub­stack with jour­nal­ist Meh­di Hasan on Sep­tem­ber 11—just one day after Kirk’s death.

In the dis­cus­sion, Omar did not cel­e­brate the assas­si­na­tion but instead crit­i­cized Kirk’s past rhetoric, call­ing it “hor­rid” and harm­ful to mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. She ref­er­enced his provoca­tive state­ments on race, gen­der, and immi­gra­tion, argu­ing that such rhetoric deep­ens divi­sions in soci­ety.

“Char­lie Kirk was a white man who spews hor­rid words against every mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ty,” Omar report­ed­ly said.

While Omar con­demned vio­lence in gen­er­al, her deci­sion to focus on Kirk’s lega­cy rather than offer­ing sym­pa­thy for his fam­i­ly was wide­ly crit­i­cized as tone-deaf.

The clip went viral, boost­ed by con­ser­v­a­tive media. Fox News cor­re­spon­dent Mike Emanuel high­light­ed the back­lash on The Faulkn­er Focus, not­ing Omar’s com­ments came amid nation­al mourn­ing. Influ­en­tial accounts like Libs of Tik­Tok post­ed:

“Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) is now ATTACKING and SMEARING Char­lie Kirk after he was assas­si­nat­ed. She needs to RESIGN. EVIL.”

Social Media Backlash: A Firestorm of Calls for Resignation

On plat­forms like X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter), hash­tags such as #Omar­Resign and #Jus­tice­For­Char­lieKirk trend­ed nation­al­ly. Con­ser­v­a­tives, still griev­ing Kirk’s death, viewed Omar’s com­ments as tac­it jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the killing.

Some posts even went beyond res­ig­na­tion demands, reviv­ing past con­tro­ver­sies around Omar’s Soma­li her­itage and 9/11 remarks.

One viral post read:

“This ‘Squad’ Dem needs to resign imme­di­ate­ly.”

Even out­side con­ser­v­a­tive cir­cles, some mod­er­ates and pro­gres­sives felt her tim­ing was inap­pro­pri­ate. Left-lean­ing stream­er Hasan Pik­er, who had once debat­ed Kirk, called the assas­si­na­tion “ter­ri­fy­ing” but cau­tioned against let­ting grief spi­ral into vengeance.

Omar has not per­son­al­ly addressed the res­ig­na­tion demands, but her office released a short state­ment con­demn­ing polit­i­cal vio­lence while stand­ing by her cri­tique of divi­sive rhetoric. For crit­ics, this was far from enough.

Broader Implications: Political Violence and the Future of Discourse

Char­lie Kirk’s assas­si­na­tion high­lights America’s esca­lat­ing polit­i­cal vio­lence and the blurred line between rhetoric and action. Omar’s com­ments, while root­ed in pol­i­cy dis­agree­ments, became fuel for a polar­ized cli­mate already on edge.

Eri­ka Kirk con­tin­ues to car­ry her husband’s lega­cy, while Tyler Robin­son faces poten­tial cap­i­tal charges. Mean­while, the nation is left grap­pling with free speech, account­abil­i­ty, and civil­i­ty in pol­i­tics.

As one user on X summed it up:

“In the wake of Char­lie Kirk’s assas­si­na­tion, right-wing influ­encers have active­ly encour­aged peo­ple to scour the inter­net for remarks cel­e­brat­ing the killing.”

Whether Omar faces real polit­i­cal con­se­quences remains uncer­tain, but the fall­out under­scores the fragili­ty of civ­il dis­course in 2025.