Last night I went to a Charlie Kirk memorial event in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. It turned out to also be a Republican campaign rally, which was not surprising; Charlie wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. So to honor Charlie, attendees were asked to sign up to volunteer for the NJ GOP gubernatorial candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, because if he’s victorious in November, this will “MAKE NEW JERSEY GREAT AGAIN!” Curiously, there was talk that Jack himself would be making an appearance, but he never showed up. Seems like a missed opportunity for him politically, since his operatives wisely understand that he needs to turn out “low-propensity Republicans” if he’s going to have any shot of winning. Charlie Kirk’s assassination could potentially be one of those “black swan” events that does actually motivate GOP-leaning voters who otherwise aren’t that inclined to bother voting, without Trump on the ballot. So if I were advising Jack, I would’ve told him to clear his schedule and haul his butt over to that VFW hall in Bergen County last night. But I guess he had better things to do? Strange.
The most amusing moment of the evening was when Mike Crispi, a New Jersey GOP operative, was reading off a list of notable persons in attendance. I had chatted with Crispi before the event started, as I recognized him as one of the speakers at Trump’s (strategically brilliant) rally at the Wildwood, NJ boardwalk in May 2024. (The rally was strategically brilliant because at that point in Trump’s political lifespan, there were only so many rallies he could do in the same “swing state” locations over and over. Whereas Wildwood had crossover with the Philadelphia media market, and a lot of PA residents vacation at the Jersey Shore. It also had a certain novelty that made it stand out from average Trump rallies.)
So anyway, Mike Crispi knew I was there, and he was shouting out local VIPs in the room. The Union County GOP chairman, the mayor of Hasbrouck Heights, etc. — and then he shouted out me. LOL. The crowd seemed a tad confused at first, but then duly applauded; I waved in recognition, having not expected this distinct honor. I was also wearing a big goofy “MAKE NEW JERSEY GREAT AGAIN” hat, because I love to blend in with the folks — so that added to the silliness.
Crispi’s speech was highly religious in nature, which he said was a bit unusual for him; he doesn’t come across as the most naturally spiritual guy. But the circumstances called for it, he said — it was time for a state-wide and nation-wide Christian revival. Because of Charlie, Crispi declared, “Millions of people who have not been in church, are back in church.” (Has anyone checked the stats on this? Did millions of people go to church last Sunday, who otherwise would not have gone to church?)
I also learned that Mike Crispi was chosen by the Trump 2024 campaign as their “Statewide New Jersey Delegate to the Republican National Convention.” And it’s true that Trump did significantly over-perform in New Jersey last November, which is probably good for Mike’s political aspirations. One of the most amazing factoids from the entire 2024 election was that Trump won Passaic County, NJ outright — largely on the strength of his support from Latino voters, who comprise a growing share of the county’s electorate. For comparison, Hillary Clinton won the county by 32 points in 2016, and Joe Biden won it by 17 points in 2020. So that’s a pretty staggering shift. And to whatever marginal extent Crispi might have been responsible for it, he can certainly claim it as a professional plaudit. Indeed, it was announced last night that Mike will soon be debuting a new afternoon show on Newsmax. He is also president of the newly-revamped Italian American Civil Rights League, which is extremely “on-the-nose” for the NJ GOP.
In his speech, Crispi talked about how “demonic far-left” instigators were responsible for Charlie Kirk’s death, although I haven’t seen any evidence that the suspect was involved in any left-wing groups. It’s possible he was, but there’s just not been any evidence presented to that effect. Crispi added, “I don’t think anybody could imagine that we’d be living in a country where we would have this force, this demonic force, that is taking people away from us, like Charlie Kirk.” Likewise, I have not yet seen any evidence that demons were involved in the killing of Charlie Kirk. But I realize that’s a claim not really subjectable to ordinary modes of empirical assessment.
Then came Kevin McCullough, a former colleague of Charlie’s at the Salem Radio Network. He proclaimed, “We are Bergen County. We are Charlie. We are Americans. We are God-fearing, and we are thankful for his work in Charlie’s life.”
“He wasn’t a political figure,” McCullough explained. This is odd, because you’d be hard-pressed to name a more thoroughly political figure than Charlie Kirk. However, with his untimely death, we are now informed that Charlie must be principally understood as a religious figure. Specifically, a fallen warrior for Christ. Or as Marjorie Taylor Greene declared: “Charlie Kirk is a Christian movement leader, a giant in American history. Charlie Kirk is a Christian martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“Believers, are you here?” bellowed McCullough, the radio personality, to cheers. In Northern New Jersey, if any moderately sized group of Christian believers are gathered in a room, they’re overwhelmingly likely to be Catholics, but the tenor of this preaching was full American Evangelical — the sensibilities of which had already bled over into lay Catholicism anyway, or at least the politically conservative variety.
Because of Charlie, the crowd was told, “What was once Republican versus Democrat is now good versus evil.” Therefore, we must make sure that Republican Jack Ciattarelli wins the upcoming New Jersey gubernatorial election, instead of Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who I guess is now to be considered the embodiment of “evil,” despite being one of the most annoyingly performative “moderates” in the entire US House of Representatives. If the shooter of Charlie Kirk was really radicalized by “far-left” forces, he would’ve been radicalized by an ideological tendency that has precisely nothing to do with Mikie Sherrill — a snooze-worthy “national security centrism” type, former Naval Aviator, and former federal prosecutor who rode the 2018 midterm wave to get elected in an affluent suburban district. But I’m sure she’ll be called “antifa” anyways. OK.
Mario Kranjac, the former mayor of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, also spoke at the event. He ran an abortive campaign in this year’s GOP gubernatorial primary, losing in a blowout to Ciattarelli, who had received the endorsement of Trump and was therefore automatically assured the nomination. Perhaps Ciattarelli did not show up last night because he didn’t want to interface with his defeated GOP rivals; the primary was rather contentious, and Bill Spadea, a bomb-throwing radio host who came in second place, has refused to support Ciattarelli.
A few comments from Kranjac made my ears perk up. He denounced what he called the “hateful speech” and “violent opinions” that have proliferated in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. Those who engage in such unacceptable political speech, Kranjac said, “have invited the righteous storm of firings, suspensions, and disciplinary actions. They deserve it.”
The crowd roared, apparently all in favor of this aggressive eruption of Right-Wing Cancel Culture. And apparently not caring that the latest casualties include a New Mexico security guard who cracked a dumb joke on his personal Facebook page, a Pennsylvania college administrator who simply shared a political commentary meme that in no way celebrated or glorified Charlie Kirk’s death, and an Indiana college administrator who posted to her personal Facebook that “His death is a tragedy, and I can and do feel for his wife and children… I can and do pray for his soul” — but she nonetheless had certain criticisms of Charlie Kirk’s political legacy. All three of these people have been falsely impugned as having celebrated or relished in Charlie Kirk’s death, but none of them actually did so. GOP operative Scott Presler, who claimed personal credit for getting the first two fired by whipping up a social media mob, outright lied about their statements, claiming they had “celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination” — which they had not. But congratulations, Scott. Keep raking in the GOP donor cash, while you destroy the livelihoods of low-level workers by publicly humiliating them, lying about them, and tattling to their bosses. What disgraceful behavior. One of Scott Presler’s underlings was apparently at the function last night, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. I would’ve loved to confront Presler directly on his revolting conduct. Maybe next time.
Anyway, what was Mario Kranjac talking about when he brought up “hateful speech” and “violent opinions”? How can a political opinion be “violent”? Didn’t the entire right-wing media complex, including Charlie Kirk’s own outfit Turning Point USA, just get done bombastically telling us for a decade straight that “speech is not violence”? (Which is true, by the way?) But now, after the Right finally got its “George Floyd Moment,” suddenly certain opinions are “violence” — and we’re all supposed to quiver in fear of “hate speech.” Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, even declared a new prosecutorial jihad against “hate speech” perpetrators. And Trump swiftly backed her up on it.
One of the speakers last night made some reference to Jimmy Kimmel, but I couldn’t quite hear it at the time, so I didn’t know what happened. Turned out, Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show had just been canceled, only hours after Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, went on a podcast and publicly threatened ABC executives that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” when it comes to Jimmy Kimmel — whose political speech Brendan Carr didn’t like. I also really do not like Jimmy Kimmel. He’s painfully unfunny, politically pretentious, generally obnoxious, and seems to have been 100% captured by 28-year-old activist “joke” writers in Burbank. However, what I dislike astronomically more is government encroachments on political speech — of which this is now an indisputably egregious example, however strong my distaste for Jimmy “Not Funny” Kimmel might be.
Yet, the NJ crowd of course clapped and hollered in approval when the announcement came down about Kimmel.
Mario Kranjac also expressed some very curious ideas about Constitutional law. To anyone who might try to claim that their “hateful remarks” are protected under the First Amendment, Kranjac argued, “that’s certainly not the case when it rallies division.” Because, he said, this could at some point lead to unspecified “violence.” So now these Republican operators want to tell us that any political speech which they deem to be “hateful,” or which they can claim “rallies division” — and which down the line could theoretically result in something “violent” happening — is hereby proscribed in the United States. Amazing.
I asked Kranjac afterwards about his absurd comments, and the best he could muster was, “You can’t yell fire in a crowded movie theater.” Really. If anyone is still falling for this tedious cliche, please read this article ASAP. The author, Ken White (aka Popehat) has since gone insane, but he was still clinging to enough sanity in 2012 to have produced a very useful primer on this endlessly overused, censorship-justifying slogan.
What a total nightmare. The folks at last night’s event were perfectly pleasant and approachable, but the political energy being fomented right now is really, really dark.
Good account. There's a lot of emotion right now. Let's hope people calm down and the First Amendment continues to protect speaking freely, debating, and disagreeing about anything and everything.
The degree the MAGA movement has become so openly, unapologetically religious in nature is really striking, and something that should get more attention than it does.