Tucker Carlson cautions Charlie Kirk’s murder could be used by ‘bad actors’ to implement hate speech laws

Tucker Carlson added a sobering concern during a special on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, warning about any attempts by “bad actors” to implement hate speech laws in the wake of the tragedy.

The host spent the opening monologue of “The Tucker Carlson Show” episode that aired on Wednesday, on the aftermath of Kirk’s murder and the free speech that the Turning Point USA co-founder always championed.

Carlson shared a clip of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said on a recent podcast that “there’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society.”

(Video Credit: Tucker Carlson)

“There’s almost no sentence that Charlie Kirk, and I’m not running the risk of appropriating his memory for my own ends by saying this, it’s provable. There’s no sentence that Charlie Kirk would have objected to more than that,” Carlson contended.

“And you’ve got to think the attorney general didn’t think it through and was not attempting to desecrate the memory of the person she was purporting to celebrate. That she just threw that out there, that she hadn’t thought about it,” he added, giving Bondi the benefit of the doubt.

“You hope Charlie Kirk’s death won’t be used by a group we now call bad actors to create a society that was the opposite of the one he worked to build. You hope that,” Carlson emphasized.

“You hope a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of his murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that – ever, and there never will be,” he continued.

“Because if they can tell you what to say, they’re telling you what to think, there is nothing they can’t do to you because they don’t consider you human. They don’t believe you have a soul,” he said.

“A human being with a soul, a free man, has a right to say what he believes. Not to hurt other people, but to express his views,” Carlson declared.

Bondi’s remarks raised eyebrows and sparked criticism as many pointed out that Kirk was a staunch defender of free speech and willingly engaged with those who often vehemently disagreed with him.

The attorney general took to social media to clarify.

Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.

Under 18 U.S.C. §…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) September 16, 2025

“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over,” Bondi wrote.

“You cannot call for someone’s murder. You cannot swat a Member of Congress. You cannot dox a conservative family and think it will be brushed off as ‘free speech.’ These acts are punishable crimes, and every single threat will be met with the full force of the law,” she added. “Free speech protects ideas, debate, even dissent, but it does NOT and will NEVER protect violence.”

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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