New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani once signed a letter labeling conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last week, as an ‘extremist’ while calling on a venue to block his ability to speak in New York City. 

In a June 2023 press release by several local Democrats, Mamdani and his colleagues issued a statement ‘in response to Motif Studios agreeing to host a far-right extremist event on June 17th at Tammany House in Long Island City.’

‘As elected officials representing western Queens, we are deeply disappointed by the decision by Motif Studios to host an event by the far-right extremist groups Blexit and Turning Point USA at their Triplex LIC/Tammany House venue in Long Island City,’ the statement explained. 

‘Providing a platform for the kind of transphobic, bigoted views held by invited speakers Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk and others goes directly against the diversity and inclusivity that we hold dear as New Yorkers and is an insult to every member of our community.’

The elected Democrats went on to call on Motif Studios to ‘follow the lead’ of another local venue who was originally going to host the event but ‘canceled their booking after the community spoke out’ about the ‘bigotry’ of the event organizers. 

‘Hate has no home in Queens, New York City, or anywhere else and certainly not here in Long Island City,’ the press release said. 

The scheduled event was held according to plan and Kirk posted a video of an activist being removed after attempting to disrupt the proceedings. 

GOP Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz, who represents New York’s 15th District, told Fox News Digital that Kirk was murdered for exercising his free speech and that elected officials should be forced to ‘reckon with the culture of hate that has been allowed to grow.’

‘We cannot ignore that my colleagues, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and his radical DSA allies, once tried to silence Charlie Kirk in New York City, pressuring venues to cancel his events,’ Blumencranz said. 

‘That mindset of censorship and public shaming feeds the hostile climate we see today and corrodes the American ideal that speech must be met with more speech, not suppression.’

Kirk’s death has ignited a firestorm of political debate about free speech in the U.S. and Blumencranz told Fox News Digital he believes Mamdani, who holds a commanding polling lead in the race to be New York City’s next mayor, has been hypocritical on the issue of speech. 

‘What’s most telling is Mamdani’s double standard: the speech he rushes to protect — like ‘globalize the intifada,’ which many view as a call to violence against Jews — tears at America’s fabric, while the speech he vigorously fights to silence is the very kind that keeps our democracy alive,’ Blumencranz said.

Blumencranz continued, ‘New Yorkers must ask themselves what it would mean to have a ‘Silencer-in-Chief’ like Zohran Mamdani in City Hall. New York deserves a ‘Unifier-in-Chief,’ who will defend free expression and bring people together — clearly, Zohran Mamdani is not that leader.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment. 

Mamdani publicly addressed Kirk’s assassination, telling a group of supporters that the shooting was ‘horrific’ and ‘yet another victim of gun violence in a nation where what should be a rarity has turned into a plague.’

In a post on X, Mamdani said he was ‘horrified’ and declared that ‘political violence has no place in our country.’

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., clashed with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former CDC Director Susan Monarez over recommending vaccines for infants on Wednesday.

The back-and-forth arose during a Senate hearing on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to oust Monarez last month. Monarez claims she was forced out for refusing to fire individuals responsible for the CDC’s vaccine recommendations, arguing there is no scientific support for removing certain vaccines from the list.

Paul sought to turn the tables on the former official during his questioning.

‘When we’re discussing the science here, we have to discuss what is the science in favor of giving the vaccine to a 6-month-old, and what are the benefits from that? And there is no benefit of hospitalization or death. And then what would the risks of that vaccine be? We have large population studies of the risks of the vaccine in younger people,’ Paul said.

‘You won’t fire the people who are saying we have to vaccinate our kids at 6 months of age. That’s who you refused to fire,’ he pressed.

‘That assertion is not commensurate with the experience that I had with the individuals who were identified to be fired,’ Monarez replied as Paul cut her off.

‘Did any of the people you refused to fire,’ Paul began before Sanders then interjected himself: ‘She’s about to answer the question.’

Paul then argued that ‘we should’ remove recommendations that infants receive the COVID-19 vaccine and others that he said are not relevant for children.

‘What is the medical reason to give a Hepatitis-B vaccine to a newborn whose mom has no Hepatitis?’ Paul asked.

Sanders then interjected again as Paul spoke over Monarez, who did not directly answer the question.

‘You had your time Bernie, I’ve got mine,’ Paul said testily before turning back to Monarez. ‘What is the medical, scientific reason and proof for giving a newborn a Hepatitis-B vaccine if the mom is Hep-B negative?’

Monarez again refused to answer the question directly, and Paul argued that ‘the burden should be on you’ to prove that vaccines recommended for infants are actually helpful.

‘You want to make all kids take this? The burden is upon you,’ he said.

Former President Barack Obama said conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death was ‘horrific and a tragedy,’ while also taking a veiled shot at President Donald Trump with accusations of sowing political division in the country as the nation faces an unprecedented ‘political crisis.’ 

‘Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy,’ Obama said Tuesday night at the Jefferson Educational Society’s 17th annual global summit in Erie, Pennsylvania. 

‘Obviously I didn’t know Charlie Kirk,’ Obama said. ‘I was generally aware of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong, but that doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family.’

Obama, who said Tuesday that the nation is facing a ‘political crisis of the sort that we haven’t seen before,’ did not mention Trump by name in his remarks. 

Kirk, 31, was killed after suffering a gunshot wound in the neck during his American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley University Sept. 10. The shooting suspect, Tyler Robinson, was charged Monday with aggravated murder, along with other charges. 

The assassination comes a year after two attempts to take the president’s life.

While Obama admitted that extremists are present at both ends of the political divide, he distanced himself and his administration from far-left ideologues. 

‘Those extreme views were not in my White House,’ Obama claimed. ‘I wasn’t empowering them. I wasn’t putting the weight of the United States government behind them. When we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we’ve got a problem.’ 

Additionally, Obama signaled that the current White House was seeking to ‘silence discussion’ in the aftermath of Kirk’s death, comments that come as Trump and administration officials have vowed to take action against those who have cheered for Kirk’s death on social media and cast blame on the ‘radical left’ for recent political violence. 

‘When I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents ‘vermin,’ enemies who need to be ‘targeted,’ that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now, and something that we’re going to have to grapple with — all of us,’ Obama said. 

In response, the White House said that Obama is the ‘architect’ for creating political division within America. 

‘Barack Hussein Obama is the architect of modern political division in America — famously demeaning millions of patriotic Americans who opposed his liberal agenda as ‘bitter’ for ‘cling(ing) to guns or religion,’’ White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a Wednesday statement. ‘Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it.’ 

‘His division has inspired generations of Democrats to slander their opponents as ‘deplorables,’ or ‘fascists,’ or ‘Nazis,” Jackson said. ‘If he cares about unity in America, he would tell his own party to stop their destructive behavior.’ 

Obama previously weighed in to express his condolences to Kirk’s family immediately after the shooting. 

‘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,’ Obama said in an X post Sept. 10. ‘Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.’ 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a campaign event Tuesday evening that he stayed close with Charlie Kirk after he appeared as his debut guest on his podcast, ‘This is Gavin Newsom,’ in January.

‘He was gracious enough, to not only say, yes, he flew out, to do it in person,’ Newsom said to progressive political commentator Bryan Tyler Cohen. 

‘And I spent not just the hour plus, in a very civil conversation with Charlie, I spent time with him after, and we stayed in touch, including my team, stayed in touch pretty consistently,’ the liberal governor said.

Kirk and Newsom clashed over transgender athletes in women’s sports on the podcast, but Newsom — breaking with his progressive base — sided with Kirk, calling it ‘an issue of fairness’ and ‘deeply unfair.’ He also noted that his own children watch Kirk’s videos.

‘Obviously, we have deep differences of opinion,’ Newsom said Tuesday. ‘Obviously, he was very offended by positions I hold dear, and I, in turn, very offended by things that he said in positions he held. But the fact is, we had that opportunity to engage.’

‘It’s all at stake,’ the governor continued. ‘This is a profound and consequential moment in American history. We can lose this republic if we do not assert ourselves. And stand tall at this moment and stand guard, to this republic and our democracy.’

The comments came during a three-hour livestream rebranded as a Voter Registration Day Rally after Kirk’s death. Newsom framed his ‘FAFO 50’ (F— Around and Find Out) redistricting measure as part of a broader battle against what he called a ‘code red’ threat to American democracy. Joined by Democrat politicians, celebrities and influencers, Newsom claimed President Donald Trump and his allies are undermining institutions from universities to the Justice Department, and pushing to redefine dissent as ‘hate speech.’ 

Newsom urged Democrats to wield their ‘moral authority’ with ‘muscularity’ to counter Republican redistricting efforts.

‘We need to win this,’ he said, ‘or we lose this republic, we lose this democracy.’

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA — the nation’s largest grassroots conservative youth movement — was assassinated last week at Utah Valley University during his ‘American Comeback Tour,’ where he invited liberal students to challenge him in open debate and ask questions.

Suspect Tyler Robinson was formally charged by the state of Utah on Tuesday. Robinson espoused far-left ideology and had a ‘hatred’ for Kirk’s views, according to an indictment.

Ahead of Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, his organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), added new commemorative merchandise to its online store this week. 

The 11 new items are available ahead of Kirk’s celebration of life ceremony, which is scheduled for Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Arizona. President Donald Trump will speak at Kirk’s memorial service along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

One T-shirt features a line-art illustration of the Kirk family walking hand in hand, with a halo above Charlie Kirk’s head. Under the image, in bold block letters, the shirt reads ‘NEVER SURRENDER,’ and beneath, in script, it says ‘Love, An American Mother.’ A black shirt dubbed as the memorial tee, features a bold distressed graphic with the words ‘This Is Our Turning Point.’ The new merchandise also includes baseball hats and stickers.

In addition to the new merchandise, Kirk’s books are charting in Amazon’s top 20, and his podcast has soared to the No. 1 position in multiple categories. Meanwhile, millions have gravitated to Kirk’s social media presence in the wake of his assassination. The spike has been especially pronounced on YouTube, where subscriber growth has translated into higher view counts and a jump in estimated earnings.

Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10 during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University. The gathering was the first stop on TPUSA’s planned ‘American Comeback Tour,’ and, at first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The charismatic founder of TPUSA gained recognition for his signature political debates on college campuses. Before the shot that killed him was fired, Kirk sat under a white tent marked with the slogan ‘Prove Me Wrong,’ fielding open-mic questions from thousands. 

After his death, TPUSA has seen a massive surge in inquiries for new college chapters as the organization works to advance Kirk’s vision. Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of ‘The Charlie Kirk Show,’ said the organization has received more than 54,000 requests to establish new campus chapters, adding to its current network of 900 official chapters. 

He also told Fox News Digital that he has ‘personally received hundreds of offers to work’ for TPUSA.  

The House of Representatives voted along bipartisan lines on Wednesday to table a resolution to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., over comments about Charlie Kirk.

Four House Republicans voted with Democrats to table the legislation, effectively blocking it from receiving its own House-wide vote. A vote to table is a procedural mechanism allowing House members to vote against consideration of a bill without having to vote on the bill itself.

The measure was blocked in a narrow 214 to 213 vote. The four Republicans who voted to table the measure are Reps. Mike Flood, R-Neb., Tom McClintock, R-Calif., Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., and Cory Mills, R-Fla.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., moved to force a vote on the resolution Tuesday by introducing it as ‘privileged,’ a mechanism that requires House leaders to deal with a measure within two legislative days. 

It’s part of the continued fallout from Omar’s remarks made days after Kirk’s assassination, which conservatives have accused of disparaging the conservative activist’s legacy.

She specifically faced backlash over an interview with progressive news outlet Zeteo, where she criticized Kirk’s past commentary and Republicans’ reaction to the shooting. She later accused Republicans of taking her words out of context, and she called Kirk’s death ‘mortifying.’

She previously told Zeteo days after Kirk’s assassination that he had ‘downplayed slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth shouldn’t exist.’

‘There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,’ the ‘Squad’ member said. ‘There is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that, you know, his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.’

She later posted on X amid the backlash, ‘While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone. My faith teaches me the power of peace, empathy, and compassion. Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis.’

Kirk was shot and killed during a college campus speaking event in Utah. 

Mace introduced her resolution on the House floor Tuesday by reading it on the House floor.

‘Charlie Kirk was a lifelong advocate for freedom of speech, civil political discourse and the political engagement of youth,’ Mace read aloud. ‘One day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Representative Ilhan Omar gave an interview on Zeteo’s town hall with Mehdi Hassan, in which she smeared Charlie Kirk and implied he was to blame for his own murder.’

Mace also accused Omar of reposting a video that said, ‘Don’t be fooled, these people don’t give a single s— about Charlie Kirk. They’re just using his death to further their Christo-fascist agenda.’

Other progressives leaped to Omar’s defense, including Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., who posted on X, ‘Babe, those are not direct quotes from Ilhan Omar. According to the APA, if you use a direct quotation, it must sustain your claim. The quotes you used are not Ilhan’s words, they are not in context and do not prove your point. Read before you tweet.’

It’s one of several measures targeting Omar over her comments.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who is running for Senate, introduced his own measure to strip Omar of her committee assignments on Monday.

The House voted Wednesday to advance a resolution honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, clearing the way for floor debate later this week.

Lawmakers voted in favor of advancing the measure and a bill to avert a government shutdown in a joint mechanism known as a ‘rule vote.’

The rule was adopted in a 216 to 210 vote along party lines. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is known to be opposing the federal funding bill, was the lone lawmaker from either side to vote ‘present.’

Massie explained to Fox News Digital that he vehemently supports the Kirk resolution, but opposed an unrelated provision in the rule that blocks Congress’ ability from weighing in on tariff policy.

‘I’m a cosponsor of the Kirk resolution, and obviously I will vote for it, but shamefully they turned off Congress’s ability to vote on tariffs with this rule,’ Massie said.

Rule votes are procedural hurdles that commonly tie together unrelated pieces of legislation that, if adopted, allow House lawmakers to debate each measure individually before respective votes. 

The current rule’s adoption means House lawmakers could vote on the resolution to honor Kirk on either Thursday or Friday.

A vote on the measure to avert a government shutdown – a short-term extension of current federal funding levels called a continuing resolution, or CR – is expected Friday morning.

It is not surprising that no Democrats supported the rule’s adoption on Wednesday; rule votes traditionally fall along party lines and have rarely seen bipartisan crossover, even if the legislation they include has wide support from both Republicans and Democrats.

And while Democrats are largely expected to buck the GOP-led government funding patch, the resolution to honor Kirk’s legacy is expected to get healthy bipartisan support.

The Turning Point USA founder was assassinated last week during a college campus speaking event in Utah.

The resolution to honor him, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., lauded Kirk as ‘one of the most prominent voices in America, engaging in respectful, civil discourse across college campuses, media platforms and national forums, always seeking to elevate truth, foster understanding and strengthen the Republic.’

It also said Kirk’s ‘commitment to civil discussion and debate stood as a model for young Americans across the political spectrum, and he worked tirelessly to promote unity without compromising on conviction,’ and it called his killing ‘a sobering reminder of the growing threat posed by political extremism and hatred in our society.’

Both Democrats and Republicans have released statements condemning political violence in the wake of Kirk’s killing.

The latter measure that advanced on Wednesday evening, the CR, will keep government agencies funded at current levels through Nov. 21 of this year – if it’s passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump.

That bill includes a combined $88 million in added security funds for Congress, the judicial branch and the executive branch.

Conversations about boosting lawmaker security, in particular, had been ongoing but took on new urgency after Kirk’s death.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sharply criticized Kash Patel’s tenure as FBI director Wednesday, telling reporters that he viewed Patel’s leadership as deeply partisan and a ‘terrible tragedy’ for the nation’s sprawling law enforcement agency. 

Speaking at a news conference alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House Democrats, Schiff took umbrage at Patel’s testimony one day earlier before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Schiff said further crystallized his concerns about politicization within the bureau.

The FBI ‘has been the premier law enforcement agency in the country, and the world, because they’ve been constantly professional and non-partisan,’ Schiff said Wednesday, noting the close working relationship he had with FBI agents during the years he spent as a federal prosecutor. 

‘It is a terrible tragedy, I think, for the men and women of the bureau to have such poor leadership that is replacing expertise with incompetence, that is replacing non-partisanship with the most rabid partisanship,’ Schiff told Fox News Digital. ‘And this is not unrelated to why we’re here today.’

His remarks come as Patel appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a second day of testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary committees.

Both hearings were marked by sharp lines of questioning from Democrats, who grilled Patel on issues ranging from a flurry of FBI firings, the bureau’s handling of the Epstein files and concerns of politicization, among many other topics.

Schiff, in particular, pressed Patel on his tenure at the FBI, saying the bureau’s agents — mostly assigned to its 52 field offices across the country and loath to see their work politicized — wanted to know what, if any, marching orders Patel had received from President Donald Trump.

The heated back-and-forth devolved into a shouting match between the two as Schiff pressed Patel repeatedly on the firings of FBI agents and whether those individuals were removed for political reasons.

Patel, for his part, described Schiff as a ‘political buffoon.’ 

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Schiff said Patel’s appearance did little to assuage his broader fears of weaponization within the bureau.

‘You can’t have a vibrant democracy without the rule of law,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘You can’t have the rule of law if you have a weaponized FBI and a weaponized Justice Department, and, sadly, that’s what we have here today,’ Schiff said.

He also weighed in on Patel’s remarks yesterday on the Epstein files, another issue that sparked intense criticism from lawmakers, after Patel claimed Tuesday that there was ‘no credible evidence’ that Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking women other than for himself. 

Schiff said it was a ‘startling claim,’ particularly from someone who had previously promoted the belief that Epstein maintained a vast client list of powerful people.

‘So, it was completely contradictory to everything he said in the past,’ he said. He also noted Patel’s ‘refusal’ to answer his questions on why Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to press Ghislaine Maxwell further on the Cabinet members she identified as being ‘close’ to Epstein or having a relationship with him during a two-day interview in July.

‘Blanche refused to ask who they were and just ignored her comment,’ Schiff added. 

‘And this is, again, the kind of incompetence we’re seeing,’ he said. ‘Incompetence is probably the most polite thing I can describe, but it certainly looks like a cover-up.’

The Justice Department and FBI have struggled to quell the mounting public pressure on them to release more information related to the Epstein investigation, underscoring the story’s sticking power in a fast-moving news cycle and among Trump supporters, who have been some of the leading voices in demanding the information be released.

Former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., said he spoke more with President Donald Trump in the first two years of Trump’s term than with former President Barack Obama during Obama’s eight years in office.

In his new book, ‘Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,’ released this week, Manchin outlined a cordial working relationship with Trump and a far chillier, less active back and forth with Obama.

Manchin, who switched from the Democratic Party to become an Independent before retiring from the Senate last year, wrote that he considered Trump a fellow ‘outsider’ when he arrived in Washington, D.C., for his first term and lauded him as the ‘most engaged president I ever worked with’ since former President Bill Clinton.

‘From the start, President Trump had an open line of communication with me,’ he wrote. ‘I spoke to him more in the first two years of his presidency than I did to President Obama during all eight years of his time in office.’

He noted, ‘If you want to have influence with Donald Trump, you have to be the last person he talks to about a topic,’ and said he would jokingly ask that the president ensure he was the last person he called.

‘He’d laugh, and we’d talk it out,’ he said.

He recalled his 2018 election campaign in the wake of Trump’s dominant, 40-point win in the state. Trump told Manchin that he was being pressured to campaign against him and promised he wouldn’t. Ultimately, Trump visited the state five times, but Manchin still came out on top.

He was later invited to the Oval Office to meet with Trump, where, in front of then-Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump, the president ‘blurted to his other guests, ‘I told you we couldn’t beat him,’’ Manchin wrote.

Manchin’s relationship with the former president goes back to his time as governor of West Virginia, when Obama was still a senator. The two worked together on a coal deal in Illinois that had previously excluded West Virginia.

During the 2008 election cycle, he said he invited both then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama to come to West Virginia to campaign, but said Obama shook off the invitation and told him, ‘Let’s be honest with each other —­ my demographics don’t work well in your state.’

‘But he didn’t come, and that night belonged to Hillary,’ he wrote. ‘She made the most of her visit and won the primary by 41 points.’

He said their relationship became even chillier when Obama launched his ‘war on coal’ with a push for green initiatives that targeted fossil fuels and states like West Virginia.

Manchin argued that the Democratic Party had grown dismissive and lost touch with the working class as a means to reshape their agenda through a progressive lens. That led to a seismic shift in West Virginia’s political alignment, from Democratic to now largely Republican, he said.

And in the process that began when Obama won in 2008, he said that rural states like his felt ‘overlooked and undervalued.’

‘But that’s exactly how Democrats handled West Virginia, and no one embodied that disconnect more than President Obama,’ he wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to Obama’s office and the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

I’m writing today about anger.

And I’m ticked off about it.

I actually think it’s America’s biggest problem right now. Half the country hates the other half of the country. And vice versa.

There are online mobs ready to pounce on any available target. That could be loathsome human beings, like the remorseless madman who killed Charlie Kirk.

Or it could be a deranged person at a lower level, like the crazed, screaming woman who stole a Phillies home run ball from a 10-year-old kid. Or the man who brought his assistant and side squeeze to a Coldplay concert and was outed by the Jumbotron — which turned more serious when both were fired.

Can a country withstand so much rage?

Passion is good. Railing at people you don’t know, not so much.

The irony is that the vast majority of these people wouldn’t say such things to you on the street. Then they’d have to deal with your reaction. 

But in the dark expanse of social media, they can spew all kinds of garbage, curse like sailors — especially if they’re hiding behind screen names. That should be punishable by the death penalty — okay, maybe I’m getting too worked up here.

Some public figures harness anger as a political tool. In private, Donald Trump can be funny and charming. But his constant battles–with the media, law firms, universities, big cities, Democrats, judges, prosecutors, critics, adversaries, allies around the world–are fueled by his sense of grievance. Just read his Truth Social page.

I first began covering Trump in New York in the 1980s, and he was the same way. He would pick fights with the likes of Leona Helmsley, knowing it made good copy.

But I could also argue that without the contempt he has for people and institutions who stand in his way, the president wouldn’t be driven to accomplish all that he has in the past eight months.

Elon Musk clearly has the same anger-management issue, having declared ‘the left’ to be ‘the party of murder.’ 

So do such Democrats as Adam Schiff, who relentlessly hammered Kash Patel at a hearing this week, ‘You want the American people to believe that? Do you think they’re stupid?’ And so does the FBI director, ‘You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate, you are a disgrace to this institution, and an utter coward!’

But we all know the game. In our echo-chamber world, you have to be harsher and angrier than the last person to break through the static and have your sound bite featured on cable or X or podcasts. So these institutions reward outrage, faux or otherwise.

Silicon Valley giants make their money from engagement, and nothing fosters engagement like pissed-off people.

The last few Democratic presidents haven’t been purveyors of anger. (putting aside what they’re like behind closed doors). Joe Biden was so secluded we barely heard from him–we now know why–and was a backslapper and conciliator. Barack Obama was all about the audacity of hope. Bill Clinton ran as a southern moderate against the ‘brain-dead’ politics of both parties.

You have to go back to LBJ to find a Democrat who relished beating the crap out of others, based on his years of threats and arm-twisting as Senate majority leader. ‘Ah got Hubert’s pecker in my pocket,’ he would say, and other variations on that quote.

He also said this about disloyal lawmakers: ‘I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses.’

What has been truly sickening, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s heartbreaking murder, are the sickos who flooded social media to celebrate his demise. 

Professors, teachers, journalists and many others have been fired for such conduct, though they had no need to vent their fury online. They didn’t know Kirk. Who would want to employ someone so heartless that they don’t care about his wife, and the children, 3 and 1, who have to grow up without him?

No wonder I’m angry. This is disgusting and pathetic.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that this is one of the most famous lines in movie history, delivered by the sweating, wild-eyed anchor played by Peter Finch: 

‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’