A member of Congress has expressed his support for allowing members of the Armed Forces to cheer the murder of an unarmed and decidedly non-violent American citizen because it would be "un-American" to do otherwise. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that the member of Congress is Colorado's Jason Crow or that he is supporting people seal-clapping over the assassination of Turning Point USA icon Charlie Kirk.
Crow was responding to a directive issued over the weekend by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that created a zero-tolerance policy for members of the Armed Forces approving of murder on social media accounts.
We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable. https://t.co/9weALT5Pb7
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 11, 2025
The service secretaries quickly echoed Hegseth's order.
Without mentioning Kirk by name, Dan Driscoll, John Phelan and Troy Meink – the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force – also put out similarly-worded statements on social media hinting that posts from servicemembers and employees celebrating or mocking the assassination will be monitored and could trigger retaliation.
Except it isn't retaliation, celebrating the murder of a well-known American could reasonably be expected to compromise the "good order and discipline" of the Armed Forces by creating divisions, thus corroding unit cohesion, and causing members of the Armed Forces to believe superiors engaged in such gloating might punish them for having conflicting beliefs. All of this is covered by Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which covers "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."
To Crow, this represented the suppression of individual political beliefs."
.@PeteHegseth hunting down and prosecuting service members for their individual political beliefs is dangerous and un-American.
— Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) September 14, 2025
We must condemn political violence AND allow peaceful speech that doesn’t impact the chain of command. https://t.co/2a7R7SDQQw
This is bigger than Jason Crow being a douchenozzle who trades on his service in the U.S. Army to undermine America. He refers to him self as an Army Ranger, but he is what is referred to by that community as a "tab wearer." Yes, he completed the requirements to graduate from Ranger School, but he's not what is exemplified by the Ranger ethos, nor is he someone you want on your left or right. See Hegseth and Kennedy Challenge America to Better Fitness, the Left Responds As You Would Imagine for his childish, petulant response to two men trying to move America forward.
Over the weekend, I wrote a post on the current wave in political extremism that Kirk's murder brought to the forefront: The US Military Has an Extremism Problem and Charlie Kirk's Murder Put It Under the Spotlight. In it I noted that where Lloyd Austin's 2021 campaign targeting straight white guys as "extremists" basically found nothing, the 12 years of Obama, with four of that being under the nominal control of Joe Biden, has created a hotbed of communism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Americanism within the Armed Forces that was made startlingly apparent on September 10 and the days following.
In the case of the Austin purge, the targets were literally people who only talked about their political beliefs in a non-violent manner. How did Crow react to that assault on freedom of conscience?
Ahem. pic.twitter.com/2t8TaZzgbl
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) September 15, 2025
In fact, what Hegseth is doing seems precisely like what Austin purported to do, except Hegseth is not using the policy to target specific racial groups and political opinions.
Officials said the new policy doesn’t largely change what is prohibited, but is more of an effort to make sure troops are clear on what they can and can’t do, while still protecting their First Amendment free speech rights. And for the first time, it is far more specific about social media.
The new policy lays out in detail the banned activities, which range from advocating terrorism or supporting the overthrow of the government to fundraising or rallying on behalf of an extremist group or “liking” or reposting extremist views on social media. The rules also specify that commanders must determine two things in order for someone to be held accountable: that the action was an extremist activity, as defined in the rules, and that the service member “actively participated” in that prohibited activity.
The U.S. Government defines terrorism as "an activity that (1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and (2) appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking." This seems to clearly encompass the celebration of Kirk's murder.
What has been revealed within the military is very dark. It shows that people who have sworn to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic," are actually opposed to core principles of the Constitution and are completely fine using violence to get their way. It also shows that some members of Congress, and probably Senators as well, fully support extremism in the ranks so long as that extremism is of the leftwing kind.
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