Report those who celebrate employers’ shooting, says Vance

People who celebrate the murder of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk should be held responsible, said US vice-president JD Vance.

“Call them and devil, call their employer,” said Vance while held an episode of the Charlie Kirk show. “We do not believe in political violence, but we believe in civility.”

Pilots, health professionals, teachers and a secret service employee are among those who have been suspended or dismissed for publications on social networks deemed inappropriate for the death of Kirk.

Critics argued that layoffs threatened freedom of expression and employee protections, although US companies have wide latitude to dismiss employees.

Vance’s comments were broadcast on Monday in an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, a daily podcast that Kirk organized before being shot down last Wednesday while organizing a debate at Utah Valley University.

He was joined by the deputy chief of staff to the White House, Stephen Miller, who promised to dismantle the “left terrorist networks,” he said, was responsible for the murder. Police said the 22 -year -old suspect in detention had acted alone.

In the episode, the vice-president said that the Americans on the left “are much more likely to defend and celebrate political violence”, and added that “there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination”.

A recent Yougov survey revealed that liberal Americans were more likely than conservatives to defend the joy of the death of political opponents.

However, a survey by the Research Institute on Public Religion in 2023 – when Democrat Joe Biden was in the White House – noted that a third of the Republicans agreed with the declaration: “Because things have become so far from the track, real American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

Only 13% of the Democrats of the survey agreed.

Vance’s remarks come when the other Republican American legislators have echoed calls for those who publicly celebrate Kirk’s death are punished.

“I will demand their dismissal, their funding and their license revocation,” said the member of the Florida Congress on Sunday in an article on X on Sunday, when he called for these people to “be expelled from civil society”.

The criticisms underlined the previous comments of Fine, in particular by calling the Muslim members of the “terrorists” of the Congress and by proposing a bill allowing people to run on peaceful demonstrators who block traffic, an initiative which he nicknamed the “Thump Thump Act”.

The deputy for Southern Carolina, Nancy Mace, urged the Ministry of Education to “cut every central at any school or university” who refuses to retaliate against employees making insensitive positions on Kirk.

Kirk, a dedicated Christian, professed points of view on sex, race and abortion that attracted the backlash of many liberals, especially on the campuses he has shot.

In some cases, those who went to social networks to rejoice in his death or to publish comments which caused an offense were dismissed or put on leave by employers.

Among them, Anthony Pough, an employee of American secret services, who wrote on Facebook that Kirk “spit the hatred and racism in his program … In the end, you answer God and say things in existence”.

He revoked his security authorization.

The director of secret services, Sean Curran, wrote staff in a memo that political motivation attacks are up and that protection details should not exacerbate the problem.

“Men and women of the secret services must be focused on the solution, without adding to the problem,” wrote Curran.

Americans employed by private companies have also been examined. Office Depot dismissed employees in a Michigan branch after a viral video has shown that the staff refused to print posters for a Kirk vigil, the company confirmed to the BBC in a press release.

A spokesperson from Office Depot said that employee behavior “was completely unacceptable and insensitive” and had violated business policies.

Professors and journalists are also faced with their punishment for their comments, provoking a debate on the so-called culture of culture.

Karen Attiah, longtime columnist for the Washington Post, wrote in a substantial article that the newspaper had dismissed after a series of messages that she published on the Bluesky social media platform after Kirk’s death.

In Southern Carolina, the University of Clemson said in a statement on Monday that he had dismissed an employee and had placed two teachers on leave for what he called publications on “inappropriate” social networks linked to the murder of Kirk.

The repercussions have reached beyond the United States.

In Canada, the professor of the University of Toronto, Ruth Marshall, was put on leave after having seemed to write in an article on social networks that “the shooting is honestly too good for so many fascists”.

American employers generally have a large discretionary power for firefighters for any reason, because most staff members are hired in the context of “at will” contracts.

Steven Collis, professor of law at the University of Texas Austin, said that the right to freedom of expression under the American Constitution does not cover private employers.

This applies rather to the actions of the government restricting the freedom of expression of citizens, he said.

But Risa Lieberwitz, head of the Cornell University Institute of Workers, said that public figures may infringe the rights of freedom of expression if they call for responsibility for articles on Kirk.

She said that the wave of shots was not surprising, given the current stormy political rhetoric in the United States.

“I think that reflects the kind of fear that currently exists in the United States of reprisals by the Trump administration for not having joined their political program,” she said.

Some have criticized layoffs, such as the American Association of University Professors, which said in a statement on Monday that academic freedom should be protected and “not reduced under political pressure”.