Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez read a series of damning Charlie Kirk quotes on the House floor Friday afternoon after the passage of a resolution to mark Oct. 14, 2025 as “Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day.”
The resolution states Americans should use the day to remember the slain MAGA influencer—who was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while speaking during an event at Utah Valley University—as someone devoted to “strengthening public discourse, defending constitutional principles, and fostering active citizenship.”
However, Ocasio-Cortez argued this was a “whitewashing” of Kirk and his agenda.
(Ocasio-Cortez was one of 58 Democrats to vote “Nay” on the resolution. 38 other Democrats voted “Present” while the remaining Dems—and every Republican—voted “Yea.”)
“We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was,” she said: “A man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted Black Americans the right to vote was a mistake.”
The Civil Rights Act outlawed racial discrimination in public schools and prohibited discrimination in voting access. “We made a huge mistake,” in passing the legislation, Kirk said at a 2023 Turning Point USA event (as reported by Wired in 2024 and confirmed by Factcheck.org).
Ocasio-Cortez went on to quote other inflammatory and divisive comments made by Kirk, who called for an “amazing patriot” to bail out the man who was arrested in 2023 after attacking Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul with a hammer in their San Francisco home.
She also highlighted antisemitic statements the conservative influencer had also made during episodes of The Charlie Kirk Show.
And the congresswoman went on to condemn Republican efforts to quell critical speech of Kirk—and President Donald Trump—in the wake of Kirk’s assassination.
“It is equally important that Congress does unite to reject the government’s attempt to weaponize this moment into an all-out assault on free speech across the country,” she said.
She addressed steps taken by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission this week, saying, “In the name of Charlie Kirk, President Trump and the FCC are now cynically threatening to shut down ABC and any outlets who give air time to the administration’s political critics.”
On Thursday, after ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show from the air “indefinitely,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened to more broadly revoke the “bona fide news” status that gives shows license to allow their hosts to freely voice political opinions.
Trump said programs that criticize him “can’t do that,” and also said that “97 percent” of mainstream TV networks are against him—and may have their licenses stripped accordingly.
“This is a disgusting attack on the American people and the very First Amendment rights that define us as a country,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
The post AOC Offers Fiery Pushback as Congress Votes for Kirk ‘Remembrance Day’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
