US-EYE
IT WASN’T too hard to find a bar in Ohio that was playing Charlie Kirk’s funeral. This used to be the classic swing state – older readers will remember the
Guardian
’s disastrous letter-writing campaign to sway voters against George W Bush – but lately it’s gone true red.
People saw no disrespect in grabbing a beer and watching the memorial to the assassinated podcaster and Christian debater, broadcast live from a football stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
And why not? This was a made-for-television special: there were fire w o r k s . What might have been an emotional tribute to a murdered husband and father instead became a cross between a MAGA rally, a revivalist tent and an infomercial. The video wall behind the stage was branded with logos from Kirk’s movement, Turning Point USA. Benny Johnson, once fired from BuzzFeed for plagiarism, urged the president to “wield the sword… in Charlie’s memory”. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested the left would regret killing Kirk the same way “a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus” regretted killing Jesus.