Six days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus, Ta-Nehisi Coates published a piece in Vanity Fair in which he argued that, by "ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy." Coates is still trashing Kirk, this time on Ezra Klein's podcast for the New York Times. "Ta-Nehisi Coates is a writer I admire — somebody I have a genuine friendship with," Klein wrote. "In the days after Kirk’s murder, he published a piece in Vanity Fair that was pretty harshly critical of what I had written and what he saw as a whitewashing of this man’s legacy and role in politics. Coates compared what I was doing there to the whitewashing of the Southern cause after the Civil War."
Of course, he was. So Klein had Coates on his podcast recently to talk more about Kirk, and Coates didn't hold back.
And I don’t take any joy in saying this, but we sometimes soothe ourselves by pointing out that love, acceptance and warmth are powerful forces. I believe they are. I also believe hate is a powerful force. I believe it’s a powerful, unifying force. And I think Charlie Kirk was a hatemonger.
I really need to say this over and over again. I have a politic that rejects violence, that rejects political violence. I take no joy in the killing of anyone, no matter what they said.
But if you ask me what the truth of his life was — and the truth of his public life — I would have to tell you it’s hate. I’d have to tell you it is the usage of hate and the harnessing of hate toward political ends.
Yes, he made it clear in his Vanity Fair piece that Kirk was pro-life, "rejected" the separation of church and state, and was transphobic.
Here he is with Klein:
Ta-Nehisi Coates: “I think Charlie Kirk was a hatemonger. I take no joy in the killing of anyone no matter what they said. But if you ask me what the truth of his life was I would have to tell you it’s hate” pic.twitter.com/CJJja9hWiO
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) September 29, 2025
What a loathsome scumbag.
— JWF (@JammieWF) September 29, 2025
What a sick evil racist man Coates has become.
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) September 29, 2025
Coates has done so much more to justify hate and violence than Kirk ever did. This fact is eating at Coates, who's just smart enough to be afraid this is projection. Charlie Kirk was always clear he believed his opponents could be forgiven, and I hope Coates finds his humanity. https://t.co/UHVhEbu9GU
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) September 29, 2025
In fact he does take joy in slandering someone who would graciously invite him on to a stage to debate him.
— MethodOfKeynes (@MethodOfKeynes) September 29, 2025
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the Paul Krugman of Neil Degrasse Tysons
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 29, 2025
By this definition how is Ta-Nehisi Coates not a hatemonger also?
— Dig (@TyrannosaurusTT) September 29, 2025
You have to ignore 99% of Kirk's 4,000 available hours of interviews and events to come to this conclusion.
— ∆ (@whysprtech) September 29, 2025
I think Ta-Nehisi Coates is a hatemonger.
— Coffee and Chocolate Games (@RealCoffeeChoco) September 29, 2025
I take no joy in the killing of anyone no matter what they said.
But if you ask me what the truth of his life is I would have to tell you it's hate.
So your follow up question to him was, "Can you give me some examples?" Right?
— BartonBella (@BartonBella1) September 29, 2025
Klein would never have Kirk on his podcast. He waits until after he's been killed by a left-wing nut and then invites Coates on to tell us all how he really kind of deserved it.
Tell me you never listened to Charlie Kirk without actually saying you never listened to Charlie Kirk
— Bakes (@bakes) September 29, 2025
You can’t just say somebody’s a hatemonger and not give any receipt/proof in this case you’ll never find it because that’s the total opposite of what he was so that’s my challenge. Let me see some proof of this.
— micki (@micki_chester) September 29, 2025
Who is the asshole nodding along and not asking even a simple, “Can you tell us something Charlie said that you found hateful?”?
— Oh Hi Mark (@ColoradosMark) September 29, 2025
That's Ezra Klein.
Even POLITICO did a piece on Coates' "toxic world-view."
Same douchebag that called the first responders for 9/11 "menaces to society"https://t.co/SWgHSg4IYt
— Sean (@printedmedic) September 29, 2025
This interview is just the punctuation mark on a 60-year effort by Democrats to brand everything they disagree with as “hate”, all while elevating actual, visceral hatred to a level unseen in contemporary American politics.
— FirstRuleOfTheMeansTest (@MeansTestRule) September 29, 2025
Coates' entire brand is hate.
— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) September 29, 2025
Hatred towards white America is all he's ever done.
Hatemongering is how he makes a living.
So of course he can't even imagine someone like Charlie Kirk being motivated by love of America, God, or family.
As someone said above, Kirk would have politely debated with Coates given the chance, rather than agree like a bobblehead like Klein.
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