In the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the House of Representatives tried to do the right thing. Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silence in honor of the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder, husband, and father, who had been gunned down hours earlier while engaging students on a Utah campus.
But what should have been a solemn and unifying gesture devolved into a spectacle that revealed, once again, how poisoned our politics have become.
As lawmakers stood silently, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert broke the stillness. “Silent prayers get silent results,” she declared, demanding that a prayer be spoken out loud for Kirk and his grieving family.
To millions of Christians across the country, her words resonated. Prayer is not meant to be muted, hidden away, or treated like an afterthought. It is meant to be offered boldly, especially in moments of darkness.
But instead of responding with compassion, Democrats erupted in protest. Shouts broke out across the chamber. According to reports, some began yelling about Republicans ignoring a school shooting that had occurred the same day — weaponizing tragedy in real time rather than honoring the life that had been taken.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida rose to respond, firing back at the other side of the aisle: “You all caused this.” Her words, sharp as they were, spoke to a deeper truth: years of rhetoric from the Left painting conservatives as Nazis, fascists, and threats to democracy has consequences. And on Wednesday, those consequences came in the form of a sniper’s bullet aimed at a conservative leader in the middle of a college quad.
Speaker Johnson banged his gavel in a futile attempt to restore order. “We will join for prayer right after this, OK?” he promised, but the damage was already done. A moment meant to honor Charlie Kirk became yet another battlefield, another place where civility was sacrificed to shouting.
Charlie Kirk lived his life in the arena. He thrived on debate, on taking the tough questions, on never backing down when the world demanded his silence. To see his death memorialized with bickering instead of prayer is not only shameful — it’s the very opposite of what he stood for.
A man is dead. A wife is widowed. Two young children will grow up without their father. And still, even in that moment, partisanship trumped decency on the House floor.
