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Charlie Kirk and others call for Democrats to be indicted following Fulton County charges against Trump

Written by Sophie Lawton

Research contributions from Jack Wheatley

Published

Conservative influencers are calling for retaliation against Democrats over indictments of former President Donald Trump by encouraging Republican prosecutors to go after leftist figures.

In early August, following Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president, right-wing media figures called for a “revenge tour” of prosecution and indictments after Trump wins reelection. This narrative is once again being revived following a fourth indictment in Fulton County, Georgia. 

Charlie Kirk has been among the loudest voices demanding that state and local Republican legal authorities prosecute Democrats in retaliation. 

    • On August 15, a day after the Fulton County indictment was filed, Kirk wrote an op-ed for right-wing media site The Federalist titled, “How Should Republicans Respond To Fulton County? Indict The Left.” In it, Kirk claimed that the goal of indicting Trump is to “rig the 2024 election” then listed possible Democratic targets for prosecution, including Hunter Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, Black Lives Matter, and “literally any Democrat, for anything.” Other right-wing figures, including Mark Levin, Donald Trump Jr., and Sebastian Gorka, praised the article on X (formerly Twitter).  
    • Prior to publishing his Federalist op-ed, Charlie Kirk asked on his own show, “Will a single republican DA or attorneys general do anything?” Kirk went on to criticize “gutless wonder, Vichy French, Republican Attorneys General” who are too scared to investigate crimes committed by Democrats.

  • From the August 15, 2023, edition of Real America's Voice's The Charlie Kirk Show 

    • Kirk asked his guest, Revolver News founder Darren Beattie, “Is it time for Republicans to start to realize the only way we stop it is we have to have a mutually assured destruction pact with the American Democrat Party?”
    • Beattie told Kirk, “We need our people, our DAs so to speak, our attorneys general in the respective states in which we have control and jurisdiction, to play the same game, tit for tat, and say ‘Okay, you want to indict Trump in Georgia, we’ll indict Hunter here,'" adding, "Democrats are so criminal we're not at a loss for opportunities here if we wanted to play that game.”
    • Kirk took to Twitter to once again promote his idea, writing, “The only way this stops is if we start indicting criminal Democrats. There's plenty to choose from. Will a single DA or Attorney General step up?” 
    • A guest on Kirk’s show, known by the pseudonym Citizen Kane, claimed that Republicans “have to take revenge at this point, we have to punch back” and specifically called out “state attorney generals — Texas, Florida, South Carolina — there are places where things can start happening and and none of it's happening.”
    • After calling the Georgia charges “ridiculous” and “a farce,” Matt Walsh asked, “Where are the red state DAs investigating and prosecuting corrupt Democrats?” He went on to argue that the correct response to Trump being indicted is to “get our own DAs, we find corrupt Democrats who are all over the country, and you prosecute them. You throw them in jail.”

  • From the August 15, 2023, edition of The Matt Walsh Show

    • During his August 17 show, Walsh claimed “we are holding Democrats to no standard while Trump is persecuted for political reasons and obviously that's not OK.”
    • Glenn Beck insisted that Republicans should be indicting Hunter Biden “right now.” He said, “I mean, I can't believe that we're not charging for racketeering. I mean, look at what they're doing.”
    • Ben Shapiro declared on his Daily Wire show that “the glass has now been broken” with the Trump indictments and that “what we’re about to see next is Republican DAs all over the country start to indict people like Joe Biden for things like racketeering and corruption."

  • Fox News hosts and guests are also falsely complaining that Democrats have gotten away with similar crimes, though without directly calling for them to be indicted today.

    • On her evening show, Laura Ingraham and guests Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) whined that Stacey Abrams and the Biden family have never been indicted for various controversies. Ingraham declared, “That’s not justice.”
    • While filling in for Jesse Watters, Fox host Pete Hegseth complained that Democrats were never indicted for claiming Russia interfered in the 2016 election and played a montage of clips from Democratic politicians, including Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.
    • Sean Hannity played a remarkably similar montage in the next hour, saying,  “Democrats, they are appalled that anyone would question the results of any election. They would never themselves do anything like that. They value democracy too much. Really?” 
    • The next evening, Hannity complained that Hillary Clinton “never faced legal consequences” for her comments on the 2016 election.
    • On his radio show, Hannity asked, “Where was that indictment?’ when “Hillary Clinton and her supporters were calling Trump an illegitimate president and looking for other electors?”
    • Mark Levin took to his radio show to ask the audience, “What about the conspiracy to prevent Donald Trump, the rightful winner, from taking office?” and “What about all the Democrat lawyers involved in pushing the Russia collusion argument? What about them? How come none of them are facing sanctions or disbarment? How come none of them have been charged?” 
    • Levin complained that no Democrats were indicted for challenging “election after election on the floor of the House.”
    • As a guest on America Reports, former Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz claimed, “Hillary Clinton was one of the biggest election deniers.” He went on to ask, “How come they didn't go after her? If you can't criticize an election and exercise your First Amendment rights, how come Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams and all these other Democrats get away with it?”

  • From the August 15, 2023, edition of America Reports