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In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination at an event at Utah Valley College last week, there was an outpouring of grief — as well as misinformation.
There was misinformation about who the killer was. About conservatives “canceling” people. And, more than anything, there was misinformation about what Charlie Kirk said and believed.
These quotes have been passed around so much that they’re basically gospel at this point. They’re also mostly bunk. As proof, let’s do a deep dive and look at six of the most commonly twisted Kirk quotes that we’ve seen peddled by the left in the wake of his death.
1. The racial slur quote.
The internet’s version: “I live like a capitalist every single day, chink.”
Reality: If you heard one quote that was manipulated to look as if that Charlie Kirk was a real figure of hate — David Duke, but slicker and with more avenues to power — it was probably this one.
The quote was posted multiple times in X threads related to Kirk’s death, along with the context-less clip of the alleged quote.
“I live like a capitalist every single day chink”
Well we now know the kids are gonna be racist
— Luciano (@highhistiorian) September 11, 2025
“I live like a capitalist every single day chink.” Yea, i don’t think he was racially motivated by some of the stuff he said either.
— Shay (@FactualShay) September 12, 2025
The problem is that he didn’t say it.
What he actually said was, “I live like a capitalist every single day, Cenk.” He was talking to Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, who was heckling him from the audience during this event.
From the event:
There is no version of this where it even looks remotely like he said a racial slur for Chinese people — and the context-free quote should have been deeply dubious to everyone who reposted it, earnestly believing that the right had countenanced someone who said a racial slur like this on stage at an event.
The debate where he said this took place at Politicon in 2018, where Kirk’s debate opposition was Hasan Piker, now an anti-Semitic Twitch streamer. It’s worth noting that, in spite of the fact that Piker has been an emissary of hate, calling for the death of his adversaries on multiple occasions, he was asked by multiple outlets — including The New York Times, for the love of Pete — to opine on how political rhetoric might have led to Kirk’s death. (Here’s several compendiums of some of his worst quotes, although we warn they are very much vulgar, hateful, violent, and not safe for work. Reader discretion is advised.)
This kind of duplicity will be seen elsewhere, it is sadly worth noting. It is, in fact, the primary leitmotif of the Charlie Kirk death disinformation campaign.
2. The “black pilot” quote.
The internet’s version: “If I see a black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’”
Reality: This has also been used to push a narrative that Kirk was a racist, albeit one who was a bit more subtle than someone who just blurts out a racial slur on stage.
The comment is usually included in a similar package of supposedly racist quotes by Kirk brought up in a litany of grievances against him:
Sorry but “black people are too dumb too fly planes” and “slavery was good for black people” arent moderate positions https://t.co/mhoiGTsQIW
— Ranthony (@ChiefTeef8) September 11, 2025
Let’s remember Charlie Kirk by his best work.
Black people
“Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”Black pilots
“If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ’Boy, I hope…— Walter Masterson (@waltermasterson) September 12, 2025
the same charlie kirk said women don’t deserve voting rights? & black pilots scare him?
— nia💌 (@niadawseyy) September 10, 2025
Kirk, instead, was talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring over merit, especially in places where safety is and should be a priority. The original quote is followed by a panelist who asked, “and you wouldn’t have done that before?”
Should Erika Kirk sue every leftist personality and “influencer” slandering and libeling Charlie online?
“No!” Kirk exclaimed. “That’s not who I am, that’s not what I believe.”
This, it’s worth noting, is in response to United Airlines indicating that it intended to hire 50 percent females and minorities as pilots, a clear indication that they weren’t looking for the most qualified candidates so much as the one who checks the most boxes. This might be palatable, if philosophically wrong, when it happens at a travel agency. When it happens in the cockpit of a jumbo jet, that’s another situation entirely.
Again, addressing the quote on the “Megyn Kelly Show”: “That’s not what I believe. But what it does is it makes us worse versions of ourselves, Megyn. That’s the whole point of what I was saying. It’s that I now look at things through a hyper-racialized, diversity quota lens, because of their massive insistence to try to hit these ridiculous racial hiring quotas. Of course, I believe anybody of any skin color can become a qualified pilot. That has never been my contention, I mean, it’s silly, it’s bigoted to think otherwise.”
As usual, leftists take clips out of context.. Charlie Kirk is talking about the consequences of DEI based hiring over merit based hiring:
“If I see a see a Black Pilot, I’m gonna be like, I hope he’s qualified!”
Other panelist: “And you’re wouldn’t have done that before!”… pic.twitter.com/4YOFPzHmnu— Suzanne 🇺🇸♥️ (@snoopsmom123) September 12, 2025
3. The hatred of empathy.
The internet’s version: “I can’t stand the word empathy … I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage.”
Reality: This is again a case where context matters and cutting off the whole quote is gain to blame. Yes, he did say something of this sort, but he wanted to emphasize the fact that “empathy” had become a code-word for leftist beliefs and that we ought to talk about that emotion in different terms.
From October of 2022: “So the new strategy for Democrats now that their polling advantage is collapsing in every single state … the new communications strategy is not to do what Bill Clinton used to do, where he would say, ‘I feel your pain,’ instead it is to say, ‘You’re actually not in pain.’ … Bill Clinton, in the 1990s, he was all about empathy and sympathy. I can’t stand the word empathy. Actually, I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage, but it is very effective when it comes to politics. Sympathy, I prefer.”
In other words, this is far from an attack on the idea of empathy, it’s what the word empathy has become deployed for as a concept. But sympathy? He’s fine with that — including Bill Clinton’s “I feel your pain.” Again, bet you didn’t see that one coming.
4. Gun Deaths are “worth it.”
The internet’s version: “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment.”
Reality: Perhaps no inflammatory quote got passed around as much as this one to prove that Kirk somehow had his assassination coming — and yet again, it’s a case of omitting context to make something look completely different than it actually was.
Instead, what he was talking about, in the fuller context, was that if you’re going to look at the risks, you run a far greater risk to human freedom and life if you attempt to ban guns and thus encourage tyranny.
“I think it’s worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment — to protect our other God given rights,” the fuller quote delivered at a 2023 Turning Point USA event said.
“That is a prudent deal. It is rational,” he said, adding: “Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.”
Charlie Kirk (2023): “I think it’s worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the 2nd Amendment. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.” pic.twitter.com/sEHw5suXEW
— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) September 10, 2025
This is a longer, Second Amendment-centric version of the famous Thomas Sowell quote: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” What he’s saying is that, yes, guns will cause some deaths, including some that are legally obtained. The trade-off here — a hedge against tyranny — makes this a worthwhile thing. It’s not that he endorsed or minimized it. This is simply pointing out reality. In a country where you can be shot simply for speaking out about your political beliefs and have the media speak in fawning terms about your alleged assassin, his argument rings truer now than it did before.
5. Kirk wanted to stone gay people.
The internet’s version: “Thou shalt lay with another man shall be stoned to death … God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”
Reality: Kirk wasn’t talking about stoning gay people at all. Instead, he was posting a message about how a LGBT-cheerleading children’s show host was cherry-picking phrases from the Bible.
Last year, a YouTube personality who goes by the name Ms. Rachel, who tends to subscribe to virtually every left-wing movement possible while still teaching your children on social media, posted an Instagram reel explaining why she believed the Bible supported homosexuality during “pride” month. She used a verse from Leviticus: “Love your neighbor.”
The fuller comments, from Kirk:
She’s not totally wrong. […] The first part is Deuteronomy 6:3-5. The second part is Leviticus 19. So you love God, so you must love his law. How do you love somebody? You love them by telling them the truth, not by confirming or affirming their sin. And it says, by the way, Ms. Rachel, might want to crack open that Bible of yours, in a lesser reference — part of the same part of scripture is in Leviticus 18, is that thou shall lay with another man shall be stoned to death. Just saying. So, Ms. Rachel, you quote Leviticus 19, love your neighbor as yourself. The chapter before affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters. Now, so how do you best love somebody? You love them by telling them the truth. Don’t be cruel […] I would love for Ms. Rachel to respond to this: Is pride a Christian value? She thinks it is. Happy Pride Month everybody! […] In fact the Scriptures tell us the opposite. “Pride goeth before the fall.”
Stephen King is defaming the memory of Charlie Kirk.
King wrongly claims Kirk advocated for violence towards gay people.
The clip King is referring to actually shows Kirk illustrating how some people cherry-pick passages from the Bible.
Shame on King. He should apologize. pic.twitter.com/jF9AMVSY7y
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) September 12, 2025
In other words, you can’t quote from Leviticus then not look at the verses around it, which say specifically that homosexuality is an abomination and that those who practice it should be put to death. Kirk was advocating neither as a position anyone could logically have in a civil society — merely that selective reading was an inappropriate interpretation of it.
6. Black women are stupid.
The internet’s version: “You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
Reality: This quote was twisted to say that he was talking about black women in general. In fact, he was talking about four specific black women who have been given inordinate influence in American politics because of their race and gender.
The fuller quote:
Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks. We would have been called racist, but now they’re coming out, and they’re saying it for us. They’re coming out and saying, “I’m only here because of affirmative action.” You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.
So Karen Attiah says she quoted Charlie Kirk’s own words.
She did not. She said “you do not” — speaking of specific women — and Karen dishonestly changed it to “black women do not.”
She deserved to be fired, entirely, and without any question.pic.twitter.com/KeWDwbDykw pic.twitter.com/bqG7th5h5t
— Pudge (@pudgenet) September 15, 2025
Considering that Justice Jackson recently referenced a fictional space alien in a major dissent — something which brought mockery from all sides — and Joy Reid’s frequent lapses of judgment (and her fellow MSNBC hosts defending those lapses when she got fired simply, they said, because she was a black woman), it’s difficult not to say that these individuals got where they were because, again, they checked boxes. You may not like hearing it, but it’s the truth — and it’s not racist to say so, at least if you don’t cut off half the quote.
What’s sad is that just a few seconds of additional research on the part of the people reposting these tidbits of character assassination would have proved just how false the narrative they were pushing was. And that, one must conclude, is part of the point. Just as the left keeps up the drumbeat that we can’t understand the motive of an avowed leftist who allegedly shot Kirk, they say that maybe he had it coming out the other side of their mouths. And to justify it, they use quotes that are out of context or blatantly untrue.
Mr. Kirk and his family deserve better. These are all dirty lies, and some were posted the exact same day Charlie was assassinated. Every single one of these people with any actual following should be sued into oblivion for wildly reckless libel and slander by Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow. If they want to play hardball, so should she. And, as one would hope we’ve amply demonstrated, she’s in the right.
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