Kirk, 31, founder of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, died after being shot in the neck on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem. He was a leading figure in mobilizing young voters for Republican politics. A 22-year-old Utah resident named Tyler Robinson was arrested on Friday following a two-day manhunt. On Tuesday, he was charged with seven counts, including aggravated murder.

Kirk’s death has sparked fierce debate over whether and how he should be honored. Critics point to his incendiary remarks — such as calling Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and demanding Nuremberg-style trials for doctors who provide gender-affirming care. Others, meanwhile, are demanding consequences for those they believe are justifying the murder.

Murphy, speaking to NPR’s Michel Martin, warned about the risks of political violence, efforts to silence dissent and the dangers of heated rhetoric across the political spectrum.

Interview highlights

Michel Martin: You posted a message on X over the weekend saying, “Pay attention. Something dark might be coming.” What did you mean by that?

Sen. Chris Murphy: As we are all reeling over the assassination of Charlie Kirk and this broader increase in political violence, this was an opportunity, in the wake of the assassination, for the President to try to bring the country together around the work we need to do to try to make sure that violence is unacceptable in any circumstance. But he seems to be doing the opposite. As your reporter noted, they are readying what may be a dizzying, high-volume attack on the President’s political opponents, essentially exploiting the death of Charlie Kirk to try to eliminate those who are trying to politically stand in opposition to the President’s agenda. And I think that that could be a really dark time for this country if mainstream progressive organizations are just labeled as terrorists or as inciters of violence simply because they are working to undermine the President’s political agenda. This has been ongoing work for the administration for the last nine months. They’ve been doing it at a smaller scale, but they now may be readying to ramp up and attempt to really, truly do significant damage to our democracy, and we have to be watchful for it.

Martin: Is it possible that this is the heat of the moment, that, as our colleagues have been pointing out in the reporting, Charlie Kirk is somebody who had some very close relationships with some of the people in this White House? Is it possible that this is the emotion of the moment?

Murphy: I think that may be true, but I think it’s also straight out of the totalitarian’s playbook. If you look at other societies where you had an elected leader that decided that they wanted to rule forever, they end up trying to cast and label their political opposition as instigators of violence. So you have, I think, seen all of the ways in which the Trump administration has watched what’s happened in places like Turkey and Hungary and copied it, their attacks on the legal profession, their attacks on higher education. This would be a tactic that is not new or unique. It’s another mechanism that other would-be autocrats have tried to use to destroy and shut down their political opposition groups.

Martin: How are you advising people to prepare for that? What do you think people should do?

Murphy: First, it is important for us to recognize and say that political violence is unacceptable. We don’t yet know the full motives of this shooter, but there have been political assassinations and political assassination attempts that are due to right-wing radicalism and left-wing radicalism, and there should be no one in this country and no one on the left that is celebrating what happened here. But second, it’s just a moment where we have to show the President and his team that we are not going to be bullied into submission. That means that, you know, this is a moment for Americans who haven’t signed up to join one of these protest groups to do it, for them to support groups that are trying to save our democracy. What the President is going to try to do by going after either the Soros-funded groups or attacking more high-profile politicians that oppose him is to try to convince people to stay on the sidelines, and we’ve got to show him that that tactic is not going to work.

Martin: Before Charlie Kirk was killed, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, pointed to how you said in an interview that Democrats were essentially “at a war to save this country.” She was making the point that she thinks Democrats have contributed to this environment of heightened tensions. Do you think Democrats should change the way they talk about some of these issues as well?

Murphy: If you look at the question I was being asked, it was a question about the Republicans’ effort to destroy bipartisan redistricting. And I said, yeah, we have a fight on our hands right now to make sure that we can have fair elections in this country. So it is true that politicians on both sides use heated rhetoric when talking about policy.

Martin: But in fairness, do you think there’s something you need to do differently when you express yourself on issues like this, to lower the temperature?

Murphy: Well, none of us, including what I said during that interview, comes close to an endorsement or an incitement of violence. And I think this is an attempt by Republicans to try to distract this country from the campaign that they are readying to try to undermine legitimate dissent.