Department of War (DOW) Secretary Pete Hegseth has denounced the military service members who made statements justifying or celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk, promising that they will be addressed “immediately.”
Numerous men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces took to social media shortly after the Turning Point USA founder was fatally shot in front of a crowd in Utah, including a Navy petty officer who posted a nasty video to his 1.5 million TikTok followers and an Army public affairs official who wrote, “if you talk sh*t, you’re gonna get hit.”
After Breitbart News and other outlets reported on several of the posts being made, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell called them “unacceptable”:
“It is unacceptable for military personnel and Department of War civilians to celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American,” he wrote on X. “The Department of War has zero tolerance for it.”
Hegseth followed up with his own statement shortly thereafter:
“We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately,” the secretary said. “Completely unacceptable.”
Other public servants and notable people who have made light of Kirk’s tragic death include a Secret Service agent, a Democrat Florida city councilman, public school teachers, journalists, and doctors.
Kirk was shot in the neck while speaking to students at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 31 years old.
The FBI has released images of a suspect who appears to be male, asking the public for help identifying him:
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
