Here’s how political influencers are responding to Charlie Kirk’s fatal university shooting

The conservative USA influencer Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at an event at Utah Valley University. Here’s a look at the viral reactions of different political influencers’ to Charlie Kirk’s death.

Charlie Kirk was the founder of the Turning Point USA organisation. He became famous for speaking at USA university campuses. His debates with other political influencers in the US and the UK often went viral.

Dean Withers

The 21-year-old left-wing influencer became famous for debating Trump supporters in TikTok videos. He challenged Charlie Kirk to debate with him several times. Dean posted an emotional video in response to Charlie Kirk’s death, which already been viewed more than 30 million times on different social media platforms.

He said: “I am sad, I am distraught, in fact I just cried on my livestream in front of 250,000 people.”

Dean continued: “If you want to end gun violence, it is something that you can never celebrate. It is always disgusting, always vile, and always abhorrent. It should come as no shock to yourself when I tell you that I think Charlie Kirk was a bad person. I’ve made that very clear over the last year. But does that mean I think he deserves to lose his life? No.”

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Dean faced backlash for crying about Charlie Kirk’s death. He then wrote on his Instagram story that he believes crying was “a natural, uncontrollable human reaction” to thinking about Kirk’s family at the event, and to knowing his own friend was also nearby.

Dean Withers’s Instagram Story

Turning Point USA

That’s the organisation that Charlie Kirk founded when he was 18. Turning Point USA aims to spread conservative ideas at more liberal USA university campuses. Charlie Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University as part of Turning Point USA’s The American Comeback Tour.

The organisation posted on Instagram: “May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior, who suffered and died for Charlie. We ask that everyone keep his family and loved ones in your prayers.”

Tilly Middlehurst

Do you remember in May when Charlie Kirk came to the UK and debate students at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge? Clips went viral of the Cambridge student Tilly Middlehurst discussing feminism with him.

She said in a TikTok video: “Whatever you think and feel about Charlie Kirk, he has a wife and a child, and I always would want us to fight for democracy not political violence… it makes me upset that this is how politics is going.”

@blondepraxis

I’m a leftist. I’m pro-democracy. Listen to what I was trying to get across.

♬ original sound – Tilly

Tilly shared a longer statement to her Substack this morning. She wrote: “So I speak directly to the leftists, the socialists, and to those who feel revolutionary excitement at this news, who felt satisfaction watching Charlie Kirk bleed to death on a college campus: the martyrdom of the far-right’s most formidable figure will not  give you what you want.”

Ben Shapiro

He is a very conservative political commentator, who founded The Daily Wire. He is a vocal supporter of gun ownership, who went viral in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting in 2017 for saying, “banning all guns would be unwise as well as immoral”.

In a long tribute to Charlie Kirk, he wrote: “We must fight for a better America – an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet.”

“Charlie was a good man,” he said, “a man who believed in right and wrong, who stood by his Biblical values.”

Like all of you, I am utterly stunned and heartbroken and sick to my soul today. It is unimaginable to write these words. I met Charlie Kirk when he was 18 years old, a young man so eager and determined that I immediately turned to a friend and said, “That kid is going to be the…

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 10, 2025

He also shared a video of him reading Bible verses in response to Charlie’s death.

Barack Obama

He wrote on Twitter last night: “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 10, 2025

Featured image of Charlie Kirk by Maxim Elramsisy / Shutterstock. Other featured images by @deanwithrs and @blondepraxis.