ALLENTOWN, Pa. — State Rep. Josh Siegel doubled down Wednesday on comments condemning both the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and the era of violence that he said Kirk helped usher into modern American politics.
"He should not be martyred or remembered as a hero," Siegel, D-Lehigh, said of Kirk in an interview Wednesday afternoon. "He should not be getting moments of silence on the Capitol steps.
"He doesn't deserve a [expletive] state holiday as some of my colleagues in the state House have suggested."
Siegel's renewed comments came after drawing heat from critics for his earlier remarks on Kirk.
"Siegel's extremist comments are[...] a projection of himself and his ideology."Committee Chairman Joe Vichot, in a release
A news release issued Wednesday by the Lehigh County Republican Committee condemned Siegel's "outlandish and inflammatory comments."
"Siegel's extremist comments are[...] a projection of himself and his ideology," Committee Chairman Joe Vichot said in the release.
In an interview, Siegel accused far-right extremists in the Republican Party of looking to use Kirk's death as a "Reichstag moment" that would let government officials crack down on speech and political opposition.
While all political violence must be opposed at every turn within a functioning democracy, Americans cannot let politicians canonize Kirk given his history of racist, sexist and bigoted messaging, Siegel said.
Historians credit the arson of the Reichstag, the German parliament, with cementing Adolph Hitler's grip on power in 1933. The Nazi Party saw its share of elected representatives grow in the fire's wake, and Hitler successfully lobbied for the suspension of civil liberties following the disaster.
'Find it ironic'
After years of painting liberals as "snowflakes," conservative pundits are rushing to cancel voices who are not sufficiently sorrowful of Kirk's death, Siegel said.
When government officials lead the charge, it rings of a dictatorship, he said.
"You know who would have supported a lot of the comments that got them canceled? Charlie Kirk," Siegel said.
"I find it ironic that in order to honor the legacy of a man who pushed free speech as far as it can go, they are literally attempting to castigate every human being who is not in perfect alignment with how they think you should mourn and observe Charlie Kirk."
Siegel accused Vichot and other Republican leaders across the country of trying to limit comments critical of Kirk while simultaneously promoting candidates who dehumanize their opponents.
By focusing more on creating angry, motivated voters than on solving problems or unifying the nation, Republicans have created an environment where assassinations have become an increasingly common part of modern politics, he said.
"When pundits go on the news and refer to Democrats as rats and vermin, when Donald Trump says Democrats are the enemy from within, when you do things like pardon insurrectionists, you've created a permission structure and normalized violence," Siegel said.
And while he accused the right of fomenting much of the violence — the U.S. Department of Justice recently removed a paper from its website that reported a surge in far-right domestic terrorism — Siegel said political violence is spiraling beyond anyone's control.
Not even the best security on the planet could prevent a gunman from nearly ending Trump's life in Butler County last year, Siegel said.
"When you convince people that the gun or the Molotov cocktail or the knife is the only path forward, democracy dies in a bloodbath," he said.
Siegel is in the home stretch of a campaign for Lehigh County executive.
Republican opponents for months have criticized him as a political opportunist who's out of touch with local voters.
Despite the attacks, many political observers concede Siegel is the frontrunner over Republican Roger MacLean, Allentown's former police chief.
As of June, Siegel's campaign's bank account had nearly $200,000 more than MacLean's.
'Casualty of climate he helped to build'
The latest exchanges are a more public version of a Facebook fight Siegel and Vichot waged in earlier this week.
The day after Kirk's murder, Siegel condemned the violence in a post, calling it "corrosive, destructive and disgusting."
But he said Kirk contributed to the current era of political violence by promoting divisions in America with his demonization of trans kids and immigrants.
"The purveyors and perpetrators of hate soon become its causalities," Siegel wrote. "The fires they fanned soon rise to consume us all, victims and victimizers.
"No one is safe and no one is sacred.
"There is a dangerous and extreme right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist movement that has succeeded in creating a politics of perpetual outrage."
Vichot fired back online, saying Siegel was contributing to the division he accused Kirk of sowing.
"You have just exposed yourself as the ringleader of the most radical extremism that our country has ever witnessed — the ungodly woke left — filled with hatred and violence," Vichot wrote before making apparent derogatory references to Democrats' support for abortion.
As part of the news release, Vichot sent screen grabs of the Facebook exchange as well as an unrelated Facebook post from a different Josh Siegel.
'Can have two thoughts at once'
Siegel drew a line Wednesday between his remarks and those of Northampton County Councilwoman Kelly Keegan, who drew widespread condemnation this week for a social media post following Kirk's assassination.
Images posted to social media over the weekend appear to show a Facebook post in which Keegan said Kirk was a "monster" and that “his wife and kids are better off without him as is the rest of the world.”
LehighValleyNews.com could not independently verify the image's authenticity, and Keegan did not return requests for comment. A Facebook account with Keegan's name and likeness is no longer publicly accessible.
Pundits and politicians like Kirk must be defeated at the ballot box, Siegel said. For democracy to function, people must be free to express themselves without fear of retaliation or assassination, he said.
Otherwise, the system will become a series of attacks and reprisals where no one can safely express their views or petition the government to find solutions to society's problems, he said.
"Nobody's family is better off. No child is better off. No wife is better off with a dead husband," Siegel said. "You can have two thoughts at once."
