Less than 24 hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a Democratic state lawmaker in West Virginia ignited outrage with a series of inflammatory posts accusing the slain conservative activist of racism and even likening his work to domestic terrorism.
Rep. Anitra L. Hamilton, elected in 2023 to represent Monongalia County, took to Facebook on Thursday to draw a shocking comparison between Kirk’s activism and the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee fatally stabbed on a Charlotte light rail train last month.
“You can murder ONE woman on a train by stabbing her in the neck and be condemned by the masses or you can travel the nation spewing hatred and racism, harming thousands and be loved by the masses…… and both have the same outcome,” Hamilton wrote.
This is the ideology we are up against. Tolerating the warped mindset that leads to disgusting behavior like this from radical Leftists with no consequence is how we end up with a 31 year old dad being shot and killed in cold blood.
We cannot have representatives in our… https://t.co/nToy4zJDyS
— Riley Moore (@RileyMooreWV) September 11, 2025
In another post, Hamilton declared that “speaking words of a racist nature is not your First Amendment right but are acts of domestic terrorism upon the souls of American people.” She also targeted Kirk’s open expressions of Christian faith, writing, “You can profess Jesus, tweet about Him, and talk about Him in your speeches and yet be a racist.”
The timing and tone of Hamilton’s comments — coming just hours after the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder was gunned down in what Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called a “political assassination” — quickly drew condemnation.
West Virginia Republican Rep. Riley Moore blasted the remarks as “disgusting and shameful,” demanding Hamilton’s expulsion from the state legislature and her removal from West Virginia University’s Council for Gender Equity, where she also serves.
“We cannot have representatives in our legislature justifying murder,” Moore wrote, warning that such rhetoric is precisely the mindset fueling violence against conservatives.
Hamilton’s comparison also reignited debate about soft-on-crime policies, since the man she referenced — Decarlos Brown Jr. — was a career criminal with a lengthy rap sheet who was released from prison earlier this year before murdering Zarutska in cold blood. In a statement after her killing, the White House had criticized Democratic-backed reforms like no-cash bail and defunding the police for putting “depraved career criminals back on the streets.”