The Left Is Denying the Evidence Again

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there were a lot of people on the left claiming that his killer was a far-right groyper. This idea was so popular that by the end of the week polls showed a plurality of Democrats believed it.

In the poll, a slim majority of respondents, 51%, said they believe Kirk’s killer was motivated by political beliefs. Twenty-one percent said they were fueled by “something other than political beliefs” and 28% said they were not sure…

Twenty-four percent said that, as far as they know, the person who shot Kirk is a Republican, while 21% said the shooter is a Democrat.

The idea didn’t just happen. There were a lot of people on the far left who pushed it very hard online, including some who kept going long after it was clear that Tyler Robinson was on the left and was motivated by leftist political concerns.

Eventually, even Vox pointed out that the left’s leading Substack blogger (with 2.5 million subscribers) had gotten this badly wrong in the midst of a post about how liberals are more committed to reality than conservatives:

In Richardson’s account, McCarthyism taught the American right the political utility of shameless lies. By crafting mendacious and simplistic “us” versus “them” narratives — and repeating them ceaselessly — conservatives found that they could “construct a fictional world,” which many voters would unknowingly come to inhabit. Liberals in the “reality-based community” — to use a phrase made famous by the George W. Bush administration — might feel compelled to align their claims with discernible facts. But the American right, feels no such obligation…

And yet, shortly after decrying the GOP’s privileging of “narrative” over “facts,” Richardson wrote the following:

[I]n fact, the alleged shooter was not someone on the left. The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a young white man from a Republican, gun enthusiast family, who appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical. Rather than grappling with reality, right-wing figures are using Kirk’s murder to prop up their fictional world.

Richardson’s post in fact deftly illustrates the hazards of tribalistic thinking and epistemic immodesty, just not quite in the manner that it intended.

When confronted with the error, Richardson would only say that Robinson’s motive was unclear, which is a lie.

All of this just happened a few days ago and yet here we are again. This morning there was an attack on an ICE facility in Texas and initially, people on the left were in agreement this was sick.

This us SICK!

A WHITE MALE (again) has reportedly opened fire at immigrants at an ice facility in Dallas, Texas.

We certainly have a problem in this country. A disgusting problem. pic.twitter.com/AEqrQzd0p7

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) September 24, 2025

Then FBI Director Kash Patel released this image suggesting a political motive for the shooter.

This morning just before 7am local time, an individual fired multiple rounds at a Dallas, Texas ICE facility, killing one, wounding several others, before taking his own life. FBI, DHS, ATF are on the ground with Dallas PD and state authorities.

While the investigation is… pic.twitter.com/SMOyxiKLqA

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 24, 2025

Immediately, there were howls of derision on the left from people who were eager to discount the claim that this was yet another left-wing shooter.

Who writes “Anti-ICE” on a bullet just before shooting 3 immigrants being detained by ICE?

Suddenly those who never trusted the FBI are suddenly convinced by this?

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) September 24, 2025

They mostly avoid outright denials, but are still trying to call the evidence into question.

Kash Patel wants us to believe the FBI “found” unspent anti-ICE ammo near a shooter who, from an adjacent building, killed two detainees, then offed himself…leaving all law enforcement unharmed. So…mission not accomplished? Not buying it. Release the Epstein files.

— Karly Kingsley (@karlykingsley) September 24, 2025

This person was also pushing the claim about Tyler Robinson being right-wing.

Anyone else find it odd that Kash Patel’s FBI wanted to make sure that everyone knew as early as possible that one of bullets had “anti-ICE” written on it?
They didn’t say anything specific about the victims, the shooter, the weapon… nope… just that?

And a photo… of that?

— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) September 24, 2025

Kash Patel tweeted this photo out. Allegedly the bullets belong to the Texas shooter who shot detainees.

Umm, I have questions-

Blue ink is weird, why not sharpie?

Anti-ice is weirder. Why not write fascist or nazi?

The investigation isn’t finished but they are already… pic.twitter.com/ER0ubWHVI9

— LanaQuest aka RosaSparks (@LqLana) September 24, 2025

“In another bizarre attempt to incite hate against the left…”

Trusting glorified moll cop Kash Patel to deliver accurate and honest information is like trusting Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell to babysit your teen daughters. In another bizarre attempt to incite hate against the left, Patel actually posted this Anti-ICE photo. pic.twitter.com/9VGCqUSVOu

— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) September 24, 2025

Some pretty large accounts on the left were directly saying this couldn’t be trusted.

You cannot trust information coming from Kash Patel’s FBI. You cannot trust information coming from ICE. You cannot trust information coming the Trump administration. You cannot trust information coming from Republicans.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2025

JD Vance says there is some not-yet-public information suggesting the shooter was left-wing.

JD Vance: “What we know is that in Dallas, Texas, an ICE facility was opened fire open by a violent left-wing extremist, a person who wrote anti-ICE messaging on their ballots. These’s some evidence we have that’s not yet public.” pic.twitter.com/cxDg1leZUI

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2025

But Aaron Rupar sees this as comparable to Nazi propaganda.

a Reichstag fire, but one of them every week

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2025

Even Yashar Ali is saying this sounds off to him and calling the message written on the bullets into question.

I know nothing, but would like to know a lot more before accepting this evidence as fact.

A leftist would likely scrawl something more radical than “anti-ICE” which sounds so academic,

To quote W. Edwards Deming, In god I trust, all others must bring data.” pic.twitter.com/sUySB7qzej

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 24, 2025

The argument being made by some is that if the shooter were really anti-ICE he would have shot and killed ICE agents instead of detainees.

Lmao ah yes the shooter who only shot immigrants (which Kash Patel doesn’t even mention) definitely used a sharpie to write “anti-ice” on a piece of evidence that the FBI Director decides to tweet out during an ongoing investigation.

Dumbest people to ever run a country. https://t.co/gF4rwaDiKc

— David Doel (@daviddoel) September 24, 2025

So now the FBI offers no acknowledgement that detainees were killed and only mentions anti-ICE messaging. Maybe just provide all the facts, even the ones that don’t fit your political narrative? https://t.co/6cjvp87nOj

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 24, 2025

The people who were killed were detainees—not ICE.

Maybe wait a beat before trying to capitalize on every tragedy?

You’re the Vice President of the United States. Not a random shit poster. https://t.co/DqcMQdLBVH pic.twitter.com/N9Me65ZzO8

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) September 24, 2025

There is a pretty simple explanation for why this happened. The shooter was reportedly firing at the ICE facility at random. He also fired multiple shots at a van entering the facility. It’s likely, according to this CNN report, that the van had tinted widows. If so, the shooter wasn’t aiming at specific people, he was just shooting blind.

CNN’s John Miller on how the ICE Dallas attack unfolded: “What we now are hearing from people briefed on this investigation is the following, which is this was a busy morning. It’s prior to 7 a.m. Teams that have been out executing arrests in the early morning hours are coming… pic.twitter.com/cYfQK4cRLg

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 24, 2025

The Acting ICE Director says this was an attack on law enforcement.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons: “It wasn’t directed at the detainees. It wasn’t directed at civilians on the street. It was a definite attack on law enforcement.” pic.twitter.com/NAoycccAtW

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2025

Is that what happened here? It seems likely based on what we know so far.

Of course it’s still very early and we don’t know what we don’t know. There could be new information in the coming hours or days that shifts our view of what happened. But for the moment, we seem to be replaying the same thing we saw after the Charlie Kirk assassination. There is preliminary evidence suggesting this is another left-wing shooter looking to make a political point. And the left appears to be furious about that and is doing all they can to downplay or question it, even going so far as to insinuate the evidence was planted by the head of the FBI.

I’m happy to wait for more evidence before drawing any final conclusions. That is generally the best approach after any incident like this. But I do think it’s fair to say the evidence (including the fact that there have been numerous prior attacks on ICE facilities) seems to be leaning in one direction at the moment.

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