Tipsheet

Media Gaslighting Works: Here's How Many Voters Know Charlie Kirk’s Assassin Was a Leftist

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  December 05, 2025 12:15 PM

In case you needed a stark illustration of how the mainstream media distort news stories and hide the truth, you need look no further than this poll from the Media Research Center (MRC). Three months ago, Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a TPUSA event in Utah.

His assassin, Tyler Robinson, was arrested the next day after his father turned him in to the authorities. In subsequent weeks, we learned that Robinson is a pro-Palestine Leftist in a relationship with a transgender individual, and law enforcement had documents showing Robinson said he "had enough of [Kirk's] hatred." Despite that evidence, NPR said Robinson's political leanings and motivations were a mystery.

Thanks to this obfuscation, fewer than one in four likely voters have any idea about Robinson's Leftist political leanings, and roughly the same number believe Robinson was a conservative.

Here's more:

ABC late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t suspended for very long for preposterously claiming that Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson, was a right-wing MAGA type. In the wake of Kirk’s killing, the media aggressively played dumb, claiming the motive was “elusive” and “complicated.”

Now we’re seeing the effects of the misleading coverage. According to a November 25 McLaughlin & Associates national poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted for the Media Research Center, less than a quarter of respondents correctly described Tyler Robinson, the man accused of murdering TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, as left-wing.

The MRC then lays out the "voluminous" evidence that Robinson is a leftist, including the aforementioned text exchange where Robinson said he'd "had enough of [Kirk's] hatred," multiple family members confirming Robinson's Leftist political ideologies including his mother saying he'd become "more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans rights-oriented" in the year preceding Kirk's assassination, and the bullet casings with Leftist slogans including "Hey, fascist, catch" and "Bella Ciao" (a song popular with Antifa thugs).

It's very clear the Left has a problem with violent rhetoric. They've spent the past decade calling President Trump, Republicans, and ICE agents Nazis, the Gestapo, and an existential threat to our democracy and freedom. That's meant to push supporters to violence. Last month, Virginia elected an Attorney General — Jay Jones — who wanted to shoot a Republican colleague and wished death on that Republican's young children, calling them "little fascists." The same MRC poll showed that 18% of respondents also believed political violence was "sometimes justified." 

Others pointed out misinformation coming from others.

That, too.

That, too.