On the evening of September 10, Donald Trump made a statement from the Oval Office blaming the “radical left” for the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Trump did this even as the identity and motivation of the shooter was still unknown. Trump is setting terms of blame and retribution – inflaming the MAGA social base and mobilizing the repressive apparatus to go after individuals, organizations, and media who oppose his regime and movement.

Trump selectively listed incidents of violence against hard-right and fascist figures – acts that have nothing to do with a just struggle for a better future. Trump creates a lying picture of the intents and methods of those of us who speak out and are committed to the mass action of millions to bring about a future where immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, Black people and the people of the world are treated as full human beings.

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of recent political violence has been carried out by the “radical right” and outright fascists like those associated with Trump’s MAGA movement.  In fact, right-wing extremists have killed more than 330 people in the U.S. over the last decade – that’s 75% of the people killed from political violence. This includes the violent, murderous attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump and his fascist MAGA movement are seizing on the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk to further demonize their opposition and to accelerate their repression of first amendment rights to protest and dissent.

Trump even claimed that Americans using their free speech rights to publicly recognize the parallels between the rise of the Nazis and what is happening under Trump today are “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”

This illegitimate attack on the first amendment right to speak freely, to draw the lessons of history, and to act on them with nonviolent determination must not be allowed!

The tens of millions of decent people in this country must not let the Trump fascist regime exploit the horrific and criminal assassination of the fascist youth leader Charlie Kirk to put us on the political defensive, scared into silence and submission to Trump’s many sided fascist offensive – including an escalating and vicious assault on Latino communities by his masked ICE and Border Patrol thugs.

We REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA: Fascism is not a curse word. It is a different form of brutal rule. Becoming silent or capitulating in advance to these threats will only facilitate a total lockdown of society and government – with no due process, no rights, no rule of law, and dire consequences for all of humanity. The need for an unrelenting nonviolent struggle of millions to drive Trump’s fascist regime from power grows ever greater. On November 5th, from across this nation, a million of us need to come to DC and fill the streets with nonviolent protest. From that day forward, we don’t stop until the regime is removed from power.