Call their employer? "If we want to stop political violence like what happened to Charlie Kirk, we have to be honest about the people who are celebrating it and the people who are financing it," wrote Vice President J.D. Vance on X, promoting his guest hosting of Kirk's show, following Kirk's killing. "When you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer," he said on the program.
"I'm desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the actions and the ideas that killed my friend," Vance added. "I want it so badly that I will tell you a difficult truth. We can only have it with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable."
At East Tennessee State University, two faculty members were placed on administrative leave, allegedly due to comments such as "you reap what you sow" and "[Kirk's killing] isn't a tragedy. It's a victory." Oklahoma's state superintendent is investigating at least one middle school teacher for her posts (calling Kirk a "racist, misogynist piece of shit," which seems nasty, but not actually advocating political violence). The Texas Education Agency is reviewing 180 complaints filed against teachers for comments related to Kirk; some of those are surely murder cheerleading, while others are scathing criticism that should probably be tolerated. Four different high school teachers were placed on leave in Massachusetts for their commentary. One elementary school teacher in that same state has been placed on leave for her TikTok video mocking Kirk's death. Both Delta and American Airlines have axed a few employees each for social media posts on Kirk. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the University of Miami's health care system fired one worker each. An Office Depot worker at a store in Michigan was fired after allegedly refusing to print flyers about a Kirk vigil for a paying customer—which makes an awful lot of sense, given that printing flyers is literally their job. These cases are all different, and some seem like they do actually call for or celebrate political violence, whereas others are just tasteless expressions of hatred for Kirk that don't violate that norm.
