The speech obviously took on an ominous and bitter quality with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I will be addressing his murder today, but I have been speaking with reporters and academics about its implications. I will also be writing again about it tomorrow in my Saturday column in The Hill.
We have clearly entered the most dangerous stage of an “age of rage” with two attempted assassinations of President Trump, the assassination of Democratic politicians in Minnesota, and now the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The death of Charlie, who I knew and respected, was unnerving given his effort to create debates in higher education and to challenge the intolerance for opposing views.
Some in the anti-free speech community are already using the Kirk assassination to call for additional controls over what they consider hate speech and disinformation. It is a crushing irony to use the murder of a free speech advocate to justify greater censorship.
Charlie spent his life fighting against speech controls and orthodoxy on college campuses. To use him as an excuse for additional limits on free speech is the ultimate dishonoring of his life and his legacy.
I look forward to today’s event and the opportunity to interact with this esteemed group of academics, journalists, and advocates in Prague.