Los Angeles Police Officer Deon Joseph, a 25-year veteran in the department, is a “proud” lifelong Democrat who, in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, announced his “official divorce from the Democratic Party” in a ten-minute video that has gone viral. He is part of a growing army of liberals, most little known but some high profile, that is speaking up to condemn what happened on that terrible day in Utah.
The law enforcement consultant, author, and inspirational speaker posted on X that he had been “quietly changing his votes.” As a born-again Christian, Joseph said the Democratic Party does not reflect his values or ethics, and he does not approve of the “extreme” bombast it “has been spewing for the last 10 years or so.
“That rhetoric resulted in [the death of] a man who was professing his love for Jesus to strangers and having an open and civil dialogue, something we all should celebrate,” Joseph said. “I don’t care if you agree with his opinions or not … He just wanted to talk.”
Joseph’s post earned 79,000 likes, 15,000 reposts, and nearly 4,000 replies. It was viewed more than 1.1 million times in three days.
Other Democrats Speak Out
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), in a Sunday interview, criticized leftists for calling Trump “Hitler” and an “autocrat.”
“Look what happened to Charlie Kirk,” Fetterman said. “A man was shot. Now, we have to turn the temperature down. We can’t compare people to these figures in history.”
While some Democratic leaders have publicly condemned political violence in general, few have spoken pointedly about the extreme hatred and violence coming from the left.
Bill Maher, who talked with Kirk in April, had harsher words than the Democratic senator for those celebrating Kirk’s assassination. “He was shot under a banner that said, ‘Prove me wrong,’ because he was a debater,” Maher said. “And too many people think the way to do that, to prove you wrong, is just to eliminate you from talking altogether.”
Another lifelong Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had already left the party to make his own independent presidential run when Trump recruited him to join his 2024 campaign. The Health and Human Services secretary, who spoke at Kirk’s memorial in Washington, DC, on Sunday, reminded everyone, “[Kirk] ended up being the primary architect of my unification with President Trump, [and] I did my endorsement at his rally at the Turning Point in Scottsdale.”
Kennedy recounted a conversation with Kirk about the slippery slope of losing our constitutional rights during the COVID pandemic. He said our children growing up in such slavery would be in a situation “worse than death.” The secretary continued: “Charlie gave his life so that the rest of us would not have to suffer those fates worse than death. Now it’s our job. He’s no longer there to lead us.”
Kirk challenged young people’s minds by debating and reasoning with them on college campuses where they were supposed to be learning how to think critically. His success, in part, seemed to be a threat to the far left, and he acknowledged that attacks would get worse.
Increasing Interest in Kirk
In July, Kirk discussed with Tucker Carlson what he called a “distress signal.”
“[The election of] Donald Trump was a distress signal by a lot of young people, especially young men, that were stuck in a credit-centric, renter economy,” Kirk said. “The rise of [Zohran] Mamdani is just another iteration of this, only from the left.”
Ultimately, Kirk’s assassination may be the “distress signal” needed to stop the hatred that justifies the murder of a political opponent. There are indications that concerned citizens from both parties are uniting behind a desire to end the vitriol and violence that is poisoning the country. Evidence is Officer Joseph’s message that reached more than a million people on social media.
In addition, Turning Point USA reportedly saw a surge of 32,000 inquiries to open new chapters in high schools and colleges in the 48 hours following the murder. The Charlie Kirk Show, hosted on Monday by Vice President JD Vance, ranked at the top of both Apple Music and Spotify’s top trending podcasts in the United States. Three of his books, including one about to be released, are in the top 10 on Amazon. His social media following has grown more than fivefold.
Kirk’s work, his message, and ultimately his murder may be the “distress signal” for the First Amendment that Republicans can use to crack down on the left-wing organizations spewing hatred and justifying violence against conservatives and Christians.
Still, more Democrats, like Joseph, Fetterman, and Maher, should call out the leftists for their hypocrisy. True fascists prohibit free speech and suppress freedom of religion – the very values Kirk preached and for which he was assassinated.
