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On Friday morning, President Donald Trump revealed that a suspect had been arrested in connection with the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was shot and killed on Wednesday during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University.
By Thursday night, the FBI had apprehended 22-year-old Tyler Robinson in connection with the shooting.
Now, the media and general public are eagerly dissecting all available information about Robinson in search of a possible motive.
What were Tyler Robinson’s political beliefs?
Robinson, a third-year student in Dixie Technical College’s electrical apprenticeship program, is registered as an “unaffiliated” voter, meaning he’s neither a Democrat nor a Republican.
Newsweek reports that Tyler’s parents, Amber and Matt Robinson, are both registered Republicans.
All signs point to a fairly standard middle-class, suburban upbringing, but there are indications that Robinson had become politically radicalized in recent years. But his beliefs are difficult to pin down.
Several X users have pointed to signs that Robinson was a fan of the “Groyper Army,” which Wikipedia defines as “a group of alt-right, white nationalist, and Christian nationalist activists led by Nick Fuentes.”
Many have speculated that Robinson wished to involve himself in the Groypers’ campaign against mainstream Republicans, but it’s too soon to arrive at any specific conclusions about the alleged shooters’ beliefs.
Fuentes is a controversial figure on the far-right, who, in the past, had criticized Kirk for being too moderate in his views and messaging.
In the wake of this week’s shooting, Fuentes took to social media to mourn Kirk and call for an end to political violence.
“I am devastated. It feels like a nightmare that we’ll never wake up from,” he wrote, adding, “The violence and hatred has to stop. Our country needs Christ now more than ever.”
On September 12, Fuentes urged the White House to release more information about Robinson:
“We need more from the Trump administration than what we’re getting,” he wrote on X (via Newsweek), adding:
“Release all the information about the assassin and his Discord contacts. Everyone must be investigated. Tell us the plan. How will the government stop this from ever happening again? Where is the leadership???”
Again, it’s far too early to make any generalizations about Tyler Robinson’s ideology or the state of his mental health.
It’s human nature to try and sense of such a tragedy, but it might be impossible to do so even once all the facts are in (and at this point, we still know very little).
Robinson’s Discord activity receives scrutiny
Robinson’s roommate reportedly shared his Discord account with the authorities, but despite initial claims that Tyler posted about violent crimes on the streaming platform, a spokesperson for the company says no such content has been discovered.
“In the course of our investigation, we identified a Discord account associated with the suspect, but have found no evidence that the suspect planned this incident or promoted violence on Discord,” the rep tells TMZ.
“The messages referenced in recent reporting about planning details do not appear to be Discord messages. These were communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting, where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere.”
Needless to say, there’s still a great deal that we don’t know about the alleged shooter.
What we do know is that as a young, middle-class, cisgender male, he fits the profile of the average mass shooter, a fact that might make his motives more difficult to discern.
“Not Black. Not Trans. Not Muslim. Not an Immigrant. Not a Democrat. Meet Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson. A white Christian, Conservative, Republican male with a gun … again,” actor Billy Baldwin wrote on X (according to TooFab).
“Charlie Kirk’s assassin Tyler Robinson, 22, killed him because he hated his opinions and thought he was a fascist. Yet ironically, HE was the fascist, killing someone to silence their opposing views. The woke left love to say ‘speech is violent.’ It’s not – violence is,” journalist Piers Morgan remarked on the platform.
Meghan McCain quickly racked up thousands of likes with a post that read simply, “Death penalty.”
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Tyler Robinson’s Discord Page, Alleged ‘Groyper’ Affiliation Spark … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.