How a conspiracy theory about Charlie Kirk’s killer being ‘MAGA’ spread online to Kimmel and beyond

An evidence-free conspiracy theory claiming that the left-wing assassin who shot and killed Charlie Kirk was actually right-wing quickly spread among the left since the murder, moving from online social media sites to Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show and beyond.

Authorities announced last week that they had arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a resident of western Utah, in connection to the killing of Kirk, a popular conservative influencer and ally of President Donald Trump.

Robinson is accused of gunning down Kirk on earlier this month at Utah Valley University during a question-and-answer session at the Turning Point USA event. Although all of the evidence that has emerged has pointed to the shooter having leftist motives and ideology, many on the left spread the claim that the killer was far right.

Kimmel, the host of the ABC late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, said on the September 15 episode of his show that “we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” The baseless implication about the shooter being MAGA had made its way from viral tweets to millions of TV viewers.

Despite the evidence all pointing to Kirk’s killer being on the left wing of the ideological spectrum, the conspiracy theory about a right-wing shooter was pushed by a host of Democratic members of Congress, high-profile left-wing activists, liberal social media influencers, and more.

The most common evidence-free claim on the left has been that the shooter was a follower of far right influencer Nick Fuentes.

The Hitler-admiring online streamer began a speech at one rally by saying that “I love you, and I love Hitler.” At least one segment of Fuentes’s online show featured Holocaust denial, with Fuentes questioning whether 6 million Jews were really murdered by the Nazi regime and laughing as he compared the burning of human bodies to baking cookies in an oven, which he has since said was just a joke.

Fuentes, a frequent critic of Kirk, refers to his followers as the “Groyper Army” — and his “Groyper War” sought to interrupt Turning Point USA events. There was and is zero evidence that the shooter was connected to Fuentes in any way nor that he identified as a Groyper.

Fuentes accurately lamented on X last week that “my followers and I are currently being framed for the murder of Charlie Kirk by the mainstream media based on literally zero evidence.”

Utah prosecutors provided evidence during a press conference and in a court filing last week that Robinson’s family members said he leaned to the “left” politically, and that he had recently become “more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” Robinson allegedly told his mother after the shooting that “there is too much evil and the guy [Charlie Kirk] spreads too much hate.” The suspect also allegedly messaged his roommate — a boyfriend who was allegedly seeking to transition from male to female — that Robinson had targeted Kirk “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

The rifle casings belonging to suspected Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson were, according to law enforcement, engraved with antifascist and anti-Nazi phrases as well as apparent sexualized online memes and video game references.

The casing belonging to the singular round fired by Robinson that fatally struck Kirk in the neck was allegedly inscribed with an online meme — “Notices bulges OWO what’s this?” — which Know Your Meme said is a “reference to a viral copypasta that parodies online furry and roleplay culture.”

The shell casing on one unspent round was inscribed with the phrase “Hey fascist! Catch!” accompanied by an up arrow symbol, a right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols, according to the governor.

The meaning of the arrows appears to be a reference to a weapons code in a parody-style fascist video game.

Robinson allegedly used Discord, an online communications platform commonly used by millions of video game players, and arrow combinations as described by the governor are commonly used as codes in video games. In particular, in the third-person shooter game Helldivers 2, online user guides state that the powerful “Eagle 500 kg bomb” is activated by using the up arrow, the right arrow, and three down arrows.

The Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt said earlier this year that the Helldivers 2 game was meant to be a fascist parody.

Another unspent shell casing was inscribed with “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,” according to the governor. The song is commonly associated with anti-fascist themes.

The 31-year-old Kirk and Trump have both been compared to fascists and Nazis by figures on the left for years.

Some leftists claimed that Robinson was a registered Republican, but the Wall Street Journal reported that he was a “registered as a nonpartisan voter in Utah” and had not voted in 2024 nor 2022.

Other left-wing accounts claimed that the suspected shooter donated to Trump, but campaign expert Rob Pyers tweeted that “FEC contribution records will show Tyler Robinson of St George, UT, where the suspect was walked in to police, as a donor to the Trump MAGA Committee–but it’s from an entirely different 34-year old Tyler Robinson.”

One common leftwing claim was also that Robinson had dressed up as a Groyper meme, but the “Slav Squat” meme was popularized well before any Groypers attempted to use the meme, and there is zero reason to believe that Robinson was embracing the Groyper version of the meme.

The polling outfit YouGov released a poll on September 14 which showed that many Democrats believed the shooter was a Republican. The poll said that, among all respondents, 21% believed the shooter was a Democrat, 24% believed the shooter was a Republican, and 40% were not sure. 41% of Democratic respondents said the shooter was a Republican while 40% of Republicans said the shooter was a Democrat. Only 8% of Democrats said the shooter was a Democrat.

The conspiracy theory had quickly become rampant in many corners of the left.

The Atlantic and the MAGA / right wing / Groyper narrative: A case study

The Atlantic published an article on September 18 titled Why People Fell for an Outlandish Charlie Kirk Theory — but the article failed to call out any leftists who pushed the baseless narrative, including multiple leftwingers associated with The Atlantic.

“The evidence that Robinson was a ‘Groyper’ — a member of an online further-right-than-thou movement that had harassed Kirk and President Donald Trump — was paltry,” the article said. “Why did anyone believe that idea to begin with? Already it bore the marks of an incipient conspiracy theory, a soothing nugget of esoteric knowledge, suppressed for political purposes. Many of those suckered in were victims of their own motivated reasoning.”

But The Atlantic itself back on September 12 had seemed to attempt to cast some doubt on the idea that Robinson was definitely a leftist.

“Within hours of Kirk’s killing, when law enforcement had not released so much as a photograph of the suspected shooter, Donald Trump addressed the nation, accusing the ‘radical left.’ His assertion fanned breathless speculation on social media that the shooter was some kind of operative, an agent of organized political violence, or maybe even a point man in an elaborate conspiracy,” the outlet said, adding, “Not many of the people speculating the loudest online predicted that the killer was a young man from a deeply pro-Trump corner of Utah, raised by registered Republicans.”

Joan Donovan, a liberal “disinformation” researcher, was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times on September 12. Donovan said that some of the inscriptions on Robinson’s ammunition “reminds me of the manifesto of the Christchurch killer as well as the manifesto of the man in Buffalo, the man who shot up a grocery store” — shooters often linked to the right wing.

Donovan claimed that one of the inscriptions “is the typical kind of joking that comes from even more extreme right-wing movements, particularly a group that has dogged Charlie Kirk for years now, that are led by Nick Fuentes.” She repeatedly attempted to link the shooter to the far right and Groypers.

Jemele Hill, a former ESPN reporter and a current contributing writer at The Atlantic, pointed to Donovan’s claims and said on Bluesky that “the LA Times spoke with an expert (imagine that!) about the markings on the killer’s bullet casings and turns out … Charlie Kirk likely was the victim of a white supremacist gang hit. Well, well, well.” Hill later deleted her tweet.

The same day, conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza argued without evidence that Robinson had been radicalized during his short stint at college, and Norm Ornstein, who lists himself as a contributing editor for The Atlantic, responded by linking Robinson to the far right: “Wow, who knew Nick Fuentes was a sly, scheming leftist professor? He has disguised it so well!”

Juliette Kayyem — a Harvard professor, CNN national security analyst, and contributor to The Atlantic — tweeted on September 16 that “I have read a lot about Charlie Kirk’s killer’s family, his history, and writings” and contended that “to date, from what we know, there is no dominant political ideology.”

NBC News reported on September 20 that the federal investigation “has yet to find a link between the alleged shooter … and left-wing groups.” Kayyem seized on that and misleadingly claimed in a tweet that day that “reporting states the feds cannot find a nexus between Kirk’s killer and any dominant partisan or political ideology.” But the news report had been about leftwing groups, and had not cast any doubt on the alleged killer’s leftwing ideology.

The Atlantic article on September 18 also had said that “it hurts to admit that a movement you like has produced a bad person, and it hurts even more to admit that bitter truth to a gloating member of a movement you hate.”

Leftists argue that Robinson was a right-wing Groyper

The effort to paint Kirk’s assassin as a rightwinger began quickly, within 24 hours of the shooting. Leftwing activist Alex Cole claimed on September 11 that “at every news conference, they’re slowly breaking it to MAGA that Kirk wasn’t killed by a liberal.”

The next day, September 12, saw an explosion in left-wing claims that Robinson was a rightwinger or a Groyper.

MSNBC “misinformation” reporter Brandy Zadrozny suggested that Robinson’s ammo inscriptions may have been him “trying to set up another ideological enemy for the shooting.”

Peter Hamby, the host Snapchat’s Good Luck America and a partner Puck News, sent a viral tweet claiming that “the groyper antennaes are vibrating on 4chan.”

Fellow Puck News reporter Julia Ioffe quote tweeted Hamby and said, “So I’m sure that Fox and the rest of the American right, including in the WH and Congress, will quickly correct the narrative and walk back the calls for political purges.” She has since deleted the tweet.

Laura Windsor, the leftwing executive producer of The Undercurrent, also quote tweeted Hamby, saying, “even the groypers think he’s a groyper.”

Olivia Julianna — a self-described “Big Mouthed Liberal” and an abortion rights activist — also quote tweeted Hamby and said that “the groypers are claiming him on 4chan.”

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann tweeted that Robinson was “an ultra-right gun-nut Republican-raised Groyper monster.” Olbermann has continued calling Robinson rightwing and a Groyper numerous times.

A massive X account purporting to represent the Anonymous hacktivist group claimed that “Tyler Robinson, the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk, is speculated to be a Groyper based on his memes and rhetoric.”

And former MSNBC anchor David Shuster baselessly claimed on X that “according to Utah officials + police interviews with his family, Tyler Robinson hated Charlie Kirk because Kirk wasn’t conservative enough. (Robinson reportedly admired Nick Fuentes). GOPer’s now scrubbing X posts about dems faster than DOJ erases Trump name in Epstein files.”

Democrats claim the shooter was MAGA

The next day, Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., claimed on X on September 12 that “the Charlie Kirk assassin has been identified as  MAGA” and sarcastically added that “I’m sure Donald Trump, Elon Musk and all the insane GOP politicians who called for retribution against the ‘RADICAL LEFT’ will now shift their focus to stopping the toxic violence of the RADICAL RIGHT.”

Leftwing podcaster Benjamin Dixon tweeted that “GROYPERS are NOT beating the charges. Anything can happen. So, I’ll hedge a bit longer. But Tyler Robinson is looking more and more like a far-right Groyper.”

Actor Billy Baldwin tweeted that the shooter was “a white Christian, Conservative, Republican male with a gun… again.” The actor and brother of Alec Baldwin tweeted the next day that “I stand corrected… White. Christian family. Conservative upbringing. Pro 2A family around guns his entire life.”

A Twitter user named “Mike from PA” — a self-described “Proud @DemSocialists [Democratic Socialists of America] member” — said on X that “I’ve seen some Millennials saying that Bella Ciao being on the casing means that the 22-yr old shooter was a leftist. Here is a remix of Bella Ciao on the ‘Groyper War’ America First playlist. Groyper War refers to their targeting of CHARLIE KIRK.”

Leftwing activist Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu tweeted that “Charlie Kirk was killed by A White American CIS Male Christian Conservative Republican.”

Wajahat Ali, a leftwing writer, tweeted that day about “MAGA’s Groyper Problem: Tyler Robinson, Nick Fuentes, and the Murder of Charlie Kirk” as he hinted that Robinson had dressed up like a Groyper meme.

Ali was hosting Mary Trump Live, where he said, “It seems folks, based on what we know today that this shooter, the suspect, Tyler Robinson, was radicalized in part online and belongs — again, what we know so far — he if not belongs to and/or is using many of the catchphrases, idioms, and pop culture that is expressed by the groyper movement.” 

Ali listed out the inscriptions on the shooter’s ammunition and said of the phrases that “this is what is radicalizing … a majority of young white young men within MAGA and the right wing.”

Comedian Patton Oswalt shared a screenshot and said “Amen.” The screenshot he shared criticized those on the right and claimed that “it was one of your boys who did this.”

The leftwing “Secular Talk” host Kyle Kulinski argued that “the more that comes in, the more clear it is — the shooter was rightwing. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it. … The guy was rightwing, in fact he was very rightwing.”

News outlets get in on the action

Newsweek wrote on September 12 that “social media users have also questioned whether early claims by officials that the suspect, apprehended late Thursday, was tied to left-wing extremism were premature, pointing instead to possible links to the far-right.”

Vanity Fair claimed that there was “a Facebook photo in which Robinson appears to reference a Groyper meme.” Boing Boing argued that “alleged Kirk shooter’s bullet casings reveal far-right Groyper connections.”

The Daily Beast tweeted that “MAGA may have been quick to point fingers at the left for Charlie Kirk’s death, but Tyler Robinson’s grandmother insists that they come from a family of Trump supporters.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., quote tweeted that article and said, “It doesn’t matter that Kirk’s killer was a straight white male. Or that he was from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump. Violence has NEVER been the answer.”

Leftists claim Republicans were moving on from assassination

Some leftists embraced a baseless narrative that Republicans were now moving on from caring about Kirk’s assassination because, in the minds of these leftists, it was now apparently proven that the shooter was rightwing.

Jamelle Bouie, an opinion writer for the New York Times, said on Bluesky on September 12 that “as soon as it was clear they couldn’t use his death to launch a purge they started to treat it like a nothingburger.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times correspondent, said on Bluesky that “I want you all to just watch how quickly mainstream media moves on from this story now.”

Leftwing Princeton University professor Kevin Kruse said on Bluesky that “it was an all-out call for war against ‘them’ when the right didn’t know who ‘they’ were, but now that it’s clear that Kirk’s assassin came from their world they’ve shifted back to meaningless ‘thoughts and prayers’.” He added there that “when they thought he was on the left they blamed the entire left, but now that they know he is on the right they’re … blaming the entire left.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a tweet that Kirk “would want us to pray for such an evil and lost individual” like Robinson. The leftwing account Patriot Takes crowed that “the tune has changed.”

Martina Navratilova, a leftwing commentator and former tennis star, responded to the Patriot Takes screenshot by saying, “lol!!! So now that the killer is a right winger, we need to pray for him!!!  Got it Nance, you effing hypocrite.”

Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy suggested without evidence that Robinson may have been radicalized at college, and called the shooting an attack on conservatives and Christians.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., argued in response on X that “this is their new thing, instead of acknowledging that the conclusion they jumped to was wrong, they find something else to blame.”

Prominent leftist activists continue claiming Robinson was rightwing

The following day, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten tweeted on September 13 that “this seems important to state” as she shared a post which claimed that “the right winger who didn’t want Charlie Kirk to speak did what right wingers do and shot him.” Weingarten confusingly tweeted the next day that “I have deleted because some on the right thought it was a false flag.”

Hillary Clinton promoted “my friend” Weingarten’s book — Why Fascists Fear Teachers — on X just a few days later.

Heather Cox Richardson, the author of the extremely popular Substack Letters From An American, wrote that day: “But in fact, the alleged shooter was not someone on the left. The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a young white man from a Republican, gun enthusiast family, who appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical. Rather than grappling with reality, right-wing figures are using Kirk’s murder to prop up their fictional world.”

Richardson also claimed that the shooter “appears to have been deeply immersed in gamer culture and in a division of MAGA called the Groypers, and it appears at this point that that is the group with whom Robinson is associated.”

Cox would write a few days later that “it appeared MAGA leaders were trying to make fetch happen … by trying to gin up the idea that the United States is being torn apart by political violence coming from what MAGA figures called ‘the left,’ or ‘Democrats,’ or just ‘THEM’” as she insisted that “the motive of the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, remains unclear.”

Harvard University professor emeritus Laurence Tribe tweeted on September 13 that “Kirk’s apparent assassin seems to have been ultra-MAGA, exploding the GOP/MAGA attempt to pin the blame for this tragedy on liberals.”

Tribe then soon tweeted that “my reaction saying he was to Kirk’s right was premature, and I’m sorry I reposted a tweet to that effect before deleting my repost.” But he still insisted that “those calling the suspected assassin trans, liberal, or a radical leftist are exploiting a tragedy for political gain by making stuff up.”

Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of the leftwing Mother Jones, said on Bluesky that “if you want to understand the ‘groyper wars’ and the rivalry between Charlie Kirk and Nick Fuentes this is a pretty good backgrounder.” She was sharing a TikTok video which began with the claim that “to really understand the far right brain slop that went into the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we’re going to have to understand groypers.”

Jeffery also said on Bluesky that “based on what we know now the shooter was a registered Republican.”

Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband, George, tweeted that “I wouldn’t discount the interesting possibility he’s a Groyper, or anything else as wacky, at this point.  But though we can’t be certain, what’s seemingly the biggest tell that he probably isn’t a radical lefty is the orange dog that isn’t barking. “

Former CNN host Don Lemon claimed that Robinson “had at least some association or affinity or fascination or interest in this Groyper group… which would lead you to believe that he’s not actually a leftist.”

Media outlets continue pushing Groyper claims about the assassin

The Canary — a leftwing and “proudly anti-Zionist” outlet — said on September 13 that “the suspect in the murder of far-right speaker Charlie Kirk is a white, gun-loving, Trump-coddling, apparent member of the Groypers.”

The Economic Times posted an article with the headline, “After Charlie Kirk shooting, Tyler Robinson’s alt-right links to Nick Fuentes spark outrage”

Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, did an interview with Reuters where the outlet claimed she pointed to Robinson’s alleged association with Groypers — claims that news outlets soon deleted from their stories.

Reuters soon said that their story “has been corrected to remove the inaccurate reference to Kleinfeld saying that the symbology on bullet casings suggests that the shooter was a part of the so-called Groyper movement.”

Forbes also pushed the claims from Kleinfeld, and also had to issue an “update” with the outlet saying that “this story has been updated to remove an earlier reported suggestion of a link between Robinson and Groypers.”

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also wrote that its story ”was amended to reflect a correction made by Reuters, which removed inaccurate quotes attributed to Rachel Kleinfeld linking engravings on the bullet casings to the so-called Groyper movement.”

Kleinfeld later argued on X that “I never mentioned a specific group or movement to Reuters or any reporter.”

Richard Carlbom, the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, shared the Reuters story and tweeted, “The shooter didn’t think Kirk was right-wing enough. The reference to groyper is linked to a rival right-wing ideologue.”

Evidence-free Groyper claims continue

The following day, Claude Taylor, a leftwing activist who heads up the Mag Dog PAC and helps run the Room Rater account, tweeted on September 14 that “this is 8 minutes long. It’s twitter so few will watch the whole thing-but I did and I now have a much better understanding of what motivated Tyler Robinson.”

The TikTok video he was sharing stated that there were “two major rightwing groups that are involved in recent events.” The video characterized these two main groups as “Christian nationalism” represented by Kirk and the “Groyper scene” represented by Fuentes.

The Telegraph initially published an article with the headline claiming that “Charlie Kirk suspect spoke the language of the far-Right.” The headline was updated slightly to say that “Charlie Kirk suspect may be a ‘Leftist’ but used language of the far-Right.”

News outlets continue casting doubt on shooter’s leftism

One day later, The New Republic on September 15 asked rhetorically, “Weren’t most mainstream observers at least somewhat surprised to find that the suspect in Kirk’s murder is no stranger to MAGA?” In fact, there was zero evidence linking Robinson to the MAGA movement.

CBS News host John Dickerson argued that “the shooter’s motive remains elusive” and claimed that Robinson left “no writings left behind.” Dickerson argued that Robinson may have been motivated by “nihilistic violent extremism.”

Dickerson then turned to his guest, Matthew Kriner, the executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, who then discussed “nihilistic violent extremism” and “neofascist accelerationism.” Kriner had written earlier this year about “fascist signals” from the Trump administration.

The FBI says that NVEs are “individuals who engage in criminal conduct in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive from the hatred of society and a desire to bring about its collapse by encouraging social instability.” There is no evidence that this is what motivated Robinson.

CBS News soon deleted its tweet touting the segment.

Leftists continue claiming assassin was far right

The next day, Malcom Nance — a U.S. Navy veteran, leftwing commentator, and International Spy Museum board member — claimed on September 16 that “#CharlieKirk was killed by a young white man from Utah from an ultra conservative Trump loving family who introduced him to guns very early. His only university education was a trade school.  He used his own hunting rifle and apparently was radicalized by extremist ultra right wing Groyper Nick Fuentes.”

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said on CNN that he wasn’t sure that Robinson was a leftist, arguing, “First of all, I had heard different things about his ideology. He wasn’t a registered Democrat or Republican. He may have been a Groyker [sic], which is a follower of Nick Fuentes, who is on the right.”

The leftwing Palmer Report tweeted, “We know what comes next. The Trump regime is about to leak all kinds of nonsense to make it look like Charlie Kirk’s killer was someone other than a fellow right wing extremist. Remember, the truth still matters.”

Independent leftwing reporter Ken Klippenstein argued in an article that “Trump and company portray the alleged Utah shooter as left-wing and liberals portray him as right-wing. The federal conclusion will inevitably be that he was a so-called Nihilist Violent Extremist (NVE).”

Leftwing activist “Jo Jo from Jerz” — real name Joanne Carducci — tried to cast doubt on the authenticity of the messages that Robinson allegedly sent his boyfriend, tweeting, “No one is buying these text messages. No one on the left or the right. We cannot agree on a damn thing anymore. But we agree on this. If that doesn’t speak volumes, nothing does.” Fellow leftwing activist Majid Padellan — who goes by “Brooklyn Dad” on social media — also tweeted that “I don’t believe these text messages were written by Tyler Robinson for a second.”

Carducci and Padellan visited the Biden White House and were pictured with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.

Dave Jorgensen, a former senior video reporter for the Washington Post, said of the ammunition inscriptions in a TikTok that “these kinds of memes are commonly used by people who follow Nick Fuentes” and suggested that the shooter was a “Groyper” although he added that it was not clear if Robinson was leftwing or rightwing.

Some leftists continue to push narrative that shooter was rightwing

The claims about the shooter being right wing have not fully abated.

Politico pointed to the alleged “incoherence of the shooter’s missives” on September 17.

Washington Examiner editor Conn Carroll on September 18 criticized Kimmel’s implication that the shooter was a MAGA supporter, and leftwing blogger Marcy Wheeler tweeted, “What is the evidence it’s a lie? The guy is a gun-lover raised as a Mormon by a MAGAt.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, during a congressional hearing that day entered into the record a Yahoo News story, with the congresswoman saying that “it says Charlie Kirk suspect’s grandma says family is all MAGA.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., retorted that “the 22 year old man, Tyler Robinson, that murdered Charlie Kirk is not MAGA.”

Just ahead of the September 21 Sunday memorial for Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, the popular far left account “Evan Loves Worf” — who describes himself as a “communist” and “anti-Zionist” — continued to claim, against all evidence, that the alleged assassin “isn’t a leftist.”