Democrats silent as Republicans seem galvanised after Charlie Kirk memorial

Democrats maintained a wary silence on Monday as Donald Trump’s Republican party appeared galvanised by a memorial service for the late rightwing activist Charlie Kirk that was part religious revival, part political rally.

Nearly 100,000 people filled an American football stadium and overflow arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday to pay tribute to Kirk, according to his his organisation Turning Point USA. The 31-year-old staunch Trump ally was shot dead on 10 September.

The service was a show of force that blended politics with religion, putting Christian nationalism at the heart of Trump’s “Make America great again” (Maga) movement. It also cast Kirk as a martyr who could be a rallying point in future elections. “Today is the day democrats lost 2028,” posted Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Republican senator John McCain.

Kirk’s widow, Erika, earned widespread praise for a tearful address in which she said she forgives the man charged with her husband’s killing. She told the crowd: “My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. I forgive him.”

Erika Kirk is taking over as leader of Turning Point USA, which was crucial in mobilising young voters for Trump in last year’s election. The organisation has received a wave of support from big donors and Trump allies since Kirk’s death, along with young conservatives pledging to start new branches.

The memorial featured leading Christian rock artists, giving it the air at times of a megachurch Sunday service. As music filled the arena, some mourners dressed in red, white and blue closed their eyes and swayed with their arms in the air, tears rolling down their cheeks.

But there was a mark shift in tone with Trump and other political figures took the stage. They cast Kirk‘s death as a pivotal moment in the conservative movement, exhorting followers to finish the work he began in sometimes aggressive and ominous language.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said in a fiery speech: “We will carry Charlie and Erika in our heart every single day, and fight that much harder because of what you did to us. You have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilisation, to save the west, to save the republic.”

Closing out the five-hour service, Trump insisted “the violence comes largely from the left”, without citing any evidence and leaning into campaign-style grievances. He quipped that Kirk “didn’t hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry.”

Mehdi Hasan, a leading political broadcaster and commentator, posted in response: “Donald Trump is the most openly and proudly divisive president in modern American history.”

The speech was unlikely to quell fears that he intends to use Kirk’s murder to intensify a crackdown on political opponents. Last week Walt Disney’s ABC network pulled late night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air after Trump’s head of the Federal Communications Commission threatened the network over comments Kimmel made about Kirk’s death.

Democrats trod carefully in responding to the memorial service, aware that any hint of criticism might be misconstrued and exploited. But Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman who now co-hosts a prominent politics show on the liberal MSNBC network, told viewers: “There were two beats and it did sound, when the politicians got up there, very discordant.”

“Instead of a celebration of a life and talking about Jesus’s words and Jesus’s commandments of us to forgive others, at times there was another tone that was taken. So I found that to be discordant.”

On the same edition of Morning Joe, presidential historian Jon Meacham touched on the political dilemma for Democrats, a party that has been accused of being out of touch with America’s Christian heartland. Meacham urged viewers not to feel “reflexively uncomfortable” about the religious outpouring.

He added: “There was a feeling, particularly with Mrs Kirk, that it was something that had what appeared to be a genuinely religious component. And then came the president who spoke the way President Trump speaks. And that should be considered on its merits.”

Kirk, 31, was a provocateur who at times made statements that were racist, misogynistic, anti-immigrant and transphobic. He killed with a single bullet as he answered an audience member’s question at a campus event in Utah.

A 22-year-old technical college student has been charged with Kirk‘s murder, and investigators say he told his romantic partner in text messages that he killed Kirk because he had “enough of his hate”.

Tyler Bowyer, a Turning Point executive, recalled of Kirk on Sunday: “He always said to me: ‘If we could just figure out how to bring the Holy Spirit into a Trump rally.’ Think you’ve done it.”