At an event sponsored by right-wing student group Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the head of that organization, Charlie Kirk, was speaking to students at Boise State University and repeating lies about the 2020 election when a member of the audience inquired:

“At this point, we’re living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns? No, and I’m not — that’s not a joke. I’m not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where’s the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?”

Mediate notes that Kirk refused to go along with the premise of the question:

Kirk immediately denounced the question and claimed that those on the left are “trying to provoke you and everyone here,” adding, “They are trying to make you do something that will be violent that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties, the likes of which we have never seen.”

The audience member replied by saying that Democrats are already provoking him enough to get violent, prompting Kirk to push for the use of “peaceful means.”

Kirk then added:

“A mistake would all of a sudden be getting into physical, violent confrontation. You think that this regime has all of a sudden sprung into action? Wait until they get what they want. They want that. Why would we give that to them? Follow up point.”

Apparently not happy with what Kirk was advocating, the audience member asked where exactly Republicans will draw the line. Kirk responded:

“The line is when we exhaust every single one of our state ability to push back against what’s happening.”

And then Kirk suggested that the government wants Republicans to use violence because it would serve their purposes:

“And so what is the line? Look, man, I think, I think we’re – I think we’re at the teetering edge of a regime that knows that good and decent Americans are going to get to the place in the movie Network, I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore, right? Well, guess what? Know that there’s a deeper game at play. Understand the psychological warfare that’s being played here. They’re trying to animate you. They’re trying to get you to do something that then justifies what they actually want to do.”

Trump acolytes stormed the Capitol earlier this year, but the government is the threat? That’s classic right-wing rhetoric and projection: Accuse the other side of your own despicable crimes.

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