Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly used her YouTube show on Thursday to promise she will double down on her anti-trans rhetoric following the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Kelly framed her remarks around a Wall Street Journal report claiming that ammunition found near the scene of Kirk’s death had engravings tied to “transgender and antifascist ideology.”
Kelly, a longtime critic of trans rights, made it clear she would not soften her stance. “To Charlie’s killer: There’s no such thing as a trans child. Men cannot have babies or ‘chestfeed an infant.’ A man cannot become a woman. A woman cannot become a man. Those are truths and you will hear them here relentlessly,” she declared.
She then insisted the shooting would not intimidate her or others who share her views. “And it won’t just be me. It’ll be many of us on the right who will not be silenced and who will make it our mission now, to continue saying all the things that you thought you silenced with that bullet,” Kelly said.
Her comments sparked immediate pushback online, with critics arguing she was exploiting Kirk’s death to stoke hostility toward trans people rather than focusing on the tragedy itself. But Kelly’s tone made it clear she saw the killing not as a reason to pause her culture war rhetoric but as a rallying cry to amplify it.
The conservative firebrand has long used her platform to rail against what she sees as progressive overreach, often zeroing in on trans issues in schools, sports, and healthcare. Thursday’s episode was no exception. By connecting Kirk’s death to her crusade against trans rights, Kelly positioned herself as a standard-bearer for a movement she claims won’t be silenced.
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While The Wall Street Journal report cited by Kelly added fuel to her framing, law enforcement has not confirmed the exact motive behind the shooting. Despite that, Kelly leaned into the narrative that Kirk’s death was part of a broader ideological conflict, one that she now says she is more committed than ever to fighting.
Her vow comes at a time when violence, misinformation, and political polarization continue to escalate online and off. Rather than pulling back in the wake of the killing, Kelly’s pledge suggests she intends to escalate her rhetoric even further, using her sizable audience to amplify the culture war battles she’s been fighting for years.