Charlie Kirk did not explicitly say that gay people should be stoned to death. But he came close enough for some people to allege that the young Republican influencer, assassinated last week on the campus of Utah Valley University, was advocating for it.

Now in the wake of a massive conservative backlash muzzling any criticism of the 31-year-old right-wing operative — who has attained martyrdom status among his supporters, including President Trump — well-known figures on the right are seeking to expose and oust social media users who mocked his murder.

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“The horrible, evil, twisted liar apologizes,” It author Stephen King replied on Friday to Sen. Ted Cruz, who called him just that after the author posted that Kirk “advocated stoning gays to death.” 

“This is what I get for reading something on Twitter (without) fact-checking. Won’t happen again,” King wrote.

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In fact, Kirk came as close to endorsing the Biblical passage as he could, in a discussion about cherry-picking Biblical verses in service of ideological arguments, something he made a profession of in promoting his own Christian nationalist views.

Kirk himself brought up stoning gays to death in 2024 while criticizing children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel for arguing that the Bible verse “love thy neighbor” in Leviticus 18 should apply to gay people. 

On a Thought Crime podcast with co-host and fellow right-wing influencer Jack Prosobiec, Kirk said, “By the way, Ms. Rachel, you might want to crack open that Bible of yours. In a lesser reference, part of the same part of scripture, is in Leviticus 18, is that ‘Thou shall lay with another man shall be stoned to death.’ Just saying.”

Kirk described the verse as “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”