Trump's Chief of Staff Just Previewed a Crackdown on Free Speech
The plan, she revealed, was in the works even BEFORE Kirk's death
Before there was a suspect in Charlie Kirk’s murder, before Kirk was even dead, there was a plan.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles revealed this on a radio program Thursday. Speaking with right-wing host Scott Jennings, Wiles referred to “a more comprehensive plan on violence in America, the importance of free speech and civil speech, the ways that you can address these — they can only be called hate groups —that may breed this kind of behavior.”
The White House, Wiles said, is working on the plan:
“In the coming days the president will be telling the American people about what, what we plan to do. It will not be easy. There’s layer upon layer upon layer and some of this hate-filled rhetoric is multi-generational. But you gotta start somewhere and the president is committed to doing that.”
Trump alluded to this in his remarks after Kirk’s murder. Wiles, too, was speaking before anything was known of the killer’s motives or even political leanings.
Nevertheless, Wiles envisions high-profile conservatives ratcheting up their rhetoric, while the administration cracks down on the left wing.
She told Jennings Thursday, “We have a lot of high-profile people here [in the White House] that engage publicly here and in the media and they say things that others might not like.”
So, Wiles explained, the night of Kirk’s murder she told everyone to be careful and hug their loved ones Nothing about cooling political rhetoric. Just the opposite.
She told Jennings, “I called everybody before I went home last night and said … don’t let your voice get softer. Charlie would want everybody to speak as they had been and more.”
And more. The next morning, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted:
“There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved…
“…It is an ideology that leads, always, inevitably and willfully, to violence — violence against those uphold order, who uphold faith, who uphold family, who uphold all that is noble and virtuous in this world…
“…We see the workings of this ideology in every posting online cheering the evil assassination that cruelly robbed this nation of one of its greatest men … educators, healthcare workers, therapists, government employees — reveling in the vile and the sinister with the most chilling glee. The fate of millions depends upon the defeat of this wicked ideology.”
Wiles, however, said the goal of Trump’s plan will be free speech for everyone. “We believe in the First Amendment in this country. Period. Full stop.” This was, of course, the same day the State Department announced that mocking Kirk’s death is out of bounds for visa holders.
Nevertheless, Wiles claimed that “making sure that all Americans can do that, whether they agree or whether they don’t, is our priority.” But not for Democrats, based on the details she gave.
According to Wiles, the plan will be less radical than the security-state changes implemented after 9/11, but aimed at “hearts and minds.” But she also hinted at the prospect of “law enforcement” to keep speech “civil.”
“I don’t know exactly what form it’ll take yet,” Wiles said. “I just know we’ve redoubled our commitment to being, to free and, sort of, civil speech that is protected in every way. And that includes law enforcement if need be.”
Wiles didn’t say what she or Trump consider civil. But she did say that America “cannot tolerate” statements like those of former Pres. George W. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd, who was let go by MSNBC for discussing Kirk’s hate speech.
Jennings had asked Wiles about rhetoric from the left, from Democrats. Here’s what she said:
“When there are offenders like this, whether it’s on MSNBC or in academia, they’re removed from their jobs. And these are not easy decisions for management, whether it’s colleges or TV, but it’s the right thing to do. We just cannot as a country tolerate it.”
Jennings suggested that there’s a surge in violence against the right. Never mind that Democrats have been targeted and attacked more often. Or that right-wing politicians who don’t traffic in hate speech are seldom targeted.
Nevertheless, Jennings asked Wiles whether it’s “safe in America right now for an outspoken conservative?”
In response, Wiles embellished Trump’s portrait of America as a raging, bloody dystopia. “I think we have to recognize that America has become a violent place,” she said, although it’s actually become less violent. (National crime levels are at near-record lows.)
But it’s not just that this plan preceded any inkling of motive in Kirk’s death. Wiles revealed Thursday that the plan predated the murder itself. So what did prompt it? Here’s Wiles:
“We are working, um, we were actually already working — spurred as much by the Ukrainian woman who was killed on the train as by Charlie’s tragic passing — [on] a more comprehensive plan on violence in America, the importance of free speech and civil speech, the ways that you can address these, they can only be called hate groups, that may breed this kind of behavior.”
In other words, Kirk’s death can’t legitimize the coming crackdown. They were already working on it.
As I wrote on Monday, the right-wing outrage machine was ratcheting up over the weekend for a full-scale campaign to politically weaponize the killing of that Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, in Charlotte, NC. How did I know this?
Because a Trump advisor told Axios on Sunday. “[I]t's going to be an issue he's [Trump’s] going to highlight,” the advisor said. “This is not just about North Carolina. Other campaigns will deal with this."
Sure enough, on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shamed the media for having ignored Zarutska’s murder. Of course, the White House had ignored it, too, for roughly two weeks.
Zarutska wasn’t killed last week. She was killed last month, on Aug. 22. But right-wing media didn’t start pushing it until last week.
And Trump didn’t mention it until Sunday, Sept. 7. That’s when right-wing media put Zarutska on Trump’s plate for him to put on corporate media’s radar. Trump obliged, promising, “I'll know all about it by tomorrow [Monday] morning.”
Newsfuckers, he did not.
Trump did talk about it the next morning. Just, y’know, inaccurately:
“I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed this morning or last night in Charlotte by a madman. A lunatic just got up and started — it's right on a tape, not — not really watchable because it's so horrible. But just viciously stabbed. She's just sitting there. So there are evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don't handle that, we don't have a country.”
After claiming he would know all about it, Trump didn’t even say her name and seemed unsure whether Zarutska was stabbed Monday morning or Sunday night. Despite having been told the day before that it happened in August.
He also didn’t mention that Zarutska was a Ukrainian refugee. But it’s his premise that’s potentially so dangerous. After first claiming we can’t have a country without a secure border, now we can’t have a country unless we “handle” “evil” people.
So what exactly led to the right wing discovering last week what the corporate media were supposed to have discovered first? The right-wing coverage began after video of the murder was released late last week. Meaning, the right-wing media didn’t care, either, until they could see the young white woman getting stabbed by the Black guy.
Leavitt used visual aids on Tuesday to make sure no one missed the point:
After utter disinterest until the video came out, the White House campaign to weaponize Zarutska’s murder kicked into full gear this week.
Federal charges only came this week, more than two weeks after the killing. Trump on Wednesday morning called for the death penalty and Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday morning that they’re pursuing it.
Since Kirk’s death that afternoon, the White House hasn’t had anything to say about Zarutska, as far as I can tell. Now it’s Kirk. And now the plan, and fear, and violence against the left, are even easier to politicize.
Corporate media don’t seem to have noticed much of this. In fact, they don’t seem to have picked up on the White House chief of staff threatening any of their colleagues who might be tempted to fill Dowd’s shoes.
The only headlines I’ve seen about the Wiles interview are things like, “White House chief of staff Susie Wiles mourns Charlie Kirk” and “White House Chief of Staff Says Kirk Shooting ‘Shook Everybody to Their Core’.”
The only media outlet I found interested in what Wiles said about violence, and Trump’s plans for the future of free speech, was the right-wing Daily Caller.
Their story characterized Trump’s “comprehensive” plan as one that would “protect” free speech. Which is true, of course. For them.
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
This is so insane. Thanks again for your eyes on the ball. It’s too much. Also, Trump’s shit talk on the morning talk shows.
We all knew they were going to do this shit the second it happened. They're so fucking predictable 🙄 but now, it was YET AGAIN one of their own. But it's not gonna stop them.