Anything for a Reichstag Fire

It so happens that the shooter at Brown University killed the VP of that campus’ College Republicans. There is a 99.9% chance this was completely random. When you walk into a classroom and just start opening fire, presumably you are just shooting everyone and there’s nothing particularly ideological about an intro economics class in any case. But don’t let any of this get in the way of right-wingers claiming this was a left wing attack on conservatives. They didn’t get their Reichstag fire after Charlie Kirk’s killing and they aren’t going to get it here, but boy do they want one.

Vice-President J.D. Vance posted his condolences for both students on X, highlighting in Cook’s case that it “takes special courage to lead an organization of conservatives on a left wing campus, and I am very sorry our country has lost one of its bright young stars.”

Far-right figures have fixated on Cook’s death in particular to claim that the shooter sought to harm conservatives, even though investigators have not identified a suspect. “I’m told she was allegedly targeted for her conservative beliefs, hunted, and killed in cold blood,” William Donahue, president of the College Republicans of America, said on X, offering no evidence supporting his allegation. Far-right podcast host Benny Johnson also claimed without proof in an X post that the shooting appeared to be a targeted attack, saying, “The left’s violent rhetoric has turned into nationwide violence. If we don’t crush this threat now, we lose everything. It’s only escalating.” Chaya Raichik, who runs the far-right social media account LibsofTikTok, quote-tweeted an unconfirmed report on X claiming the attack was planned against Cook and added that her death meant it was “open season on Conservatives now.” Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, New York City Councilwoman Vicky Paladino, and podcast host CJ Pearson amplified these allegations, too.

While conspiracy theories around mass shooters are not new, the right is still mourning high-profile activist Charlie Kirk, who made his career in part by debating liberal students on college campuses and who was assassinated in September. Conservatives called for Trump to crack down on the movement’s perceived liberal enemies in Kirk’s case, and they’re now calling for the same in regards to Cook, who as a conservative leader at an Ivy League school — which they view as as having left-leaning bias, though the reality is not clear-cut — mirrored Kirk’s path. “If people thought I became radical after we lost Charlie, they’re really not going to like me now,” Donahue wrote in another X post. “There’s 300 college republicans chapters in our organization. Every single member is family to me. I just lost a sister and I’m really fucking pissed off. The left wants us dead.”

Meanwhile, and I am hardly the person to note this, after being told that saying anything about the assassination of the fascist Charlie Kirk was the worst thing anyone could say in human history, Donald Trump openly laughs about Rob Reiner’s murder and tries to politicize it make it about himself. I’m sure all those Kirk lovers will seek to fire Donald Trump now…..