{"id":29120,"date":"2025-09-22T16:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T20:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=29120"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T20:35:13","slug":"influencer-destiny-warns-charlie-kirk-might-be-alive-if-americans-hadnt-elected-trump-mocks-erika-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/09\/influencer-destiny-warns-charlie-kirk-might-be-alive-if-americans-hadnt-elected-trump-mocks-erika-kirk","title":{"rendered":"Influencer Destiny Warns Charlie Kirk Might Be Alive if Americans Hadn&#8217;t Elected Trump; Mocks Erika Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_29123\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29123\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/09\/Kirk-Destiny_credit-Left-Gage-Skidmore-commonswikimediaorg-Right-Piers-Morgan-Uncensored-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29123\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/09\/Kirk-Destiny_credit-Left-Gage-Skidmore-commonswikimediaorg-Right-Piers-Morgan-Uncensored-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29123\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Gage Skidmore \/ commons.wikimedia.org | Right: Piers Morgan Uncensored \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Young Turks&#8217; Ana Kasparian expressed disgust during a heated debate with Destiny over his response to Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination, condemning the streamer for refusing to denounce the Christian conservative\u2019s murder and for mocking his widow.<\/p>\n<p>Destiny, whose real name is Steven Kenneth Bonnell II, joined a Monday panel discussion on &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uyzXA1HJlfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Piers Morgan Uncensored<\/a>&#8221; that focused on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/5-things-to-know-about-charlie-kirk-murder-suspect-tyler-robinson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fatal shooting<\/a>\u00a0of the 31-year-old conservative activist during an event at Utah Valley University last week.<\/p>\n<p>When asked by Morgan if he thinks his response to Kirk\u2019s murder has been appropriate, Destiny argued that the country can only move forward into a \u201cbetter world\u201d if conservatives \u201ccan finally realize that they need to turn the temperature down on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you wanted Charlie Kirk to be alive, Donald Trump shouldn&#8217;t have been president for the second term,\u201d Destiny asserted.<\/p>\n<p>During the discussion, the streamer also said he wouldn&#8217;t condemn someone with a left-leaning ideology for killing Kirk over his political opinions until President Donald Trump \u201ccan go on air and say all of us need to calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response, Kasparian questioned why the streamer\u2019s behavior is contingent on Trump, to which Destiny cited Trump\u2019s position as the president of the United States. Kasparian started to say that the influencer has a \u201cresponsibility\u201d because a large number of young men listen to him before Destiny retaliated by saying that her \u201cbrain has been broken by online rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, it hasn\u2019t been broken,\u201d Kasparian told Destiny. \u201cI actually care about the country and want to bring people together. You do the opposite! You represent the worst of us, Destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Kasparian declared that people like the streamer are why she stopped identifying as a Democrat, saying that &#8220;people like [Destiny] are so embarrassing on the Left.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In previous\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/progressive-journalist-unleashes-liberal-intolerance-drove-her-away-from-democratic-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interviews<\/a>, Kasparian has said that her political views have changed over the years. While she still holds leftist beliefs when it comes to several economic policies, such as universal healthcare, the TYT host has expressed equal disillusionment with both the Democratic and Republican parties.<\/p>\n<p>Based on Destiny\u2019s comments about \u201cdialing down the temperature,\u201d Morgan asked the streamer how mocking Erika Kirk for posting a photo of herself beside her husband\u2019s casket &#8220;constitutes turning down the temperature?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The TPUSA founder\u2019s widow shared the photo in an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mrserikakirk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0post last week, writing, \u201cThe world is evil. But our Savior. Our Lord. Our God. \u041d\u0435&#8230;\u041d\u0435 is so good. I will never have the words. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Destiny shared a screenshot of Erika Kirk&#8217;s post in a Saturday\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheOmniLiberal\/status\/1966937513874124987\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">X post<\/a>, mocking her for having tagged her deceased husband in the photo. The streamer also accused the widow of \u201cfake crying\u201d in her first\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/erika-kirk-vows-to-carry-on-husband-charlies-tpusa-movement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">public address<\/a> after her husband\u2019s murder, in which she promised to continue carrying out the TPUSA founder\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n<p>In response to Morgan\u2019s question on Monday, Destiny claimed that Erika and conservatives are \u201cweaponizing a widow\u2019s grief to try to do recruitment for [their] political party,\u201d calling it \u201cone of the most disgusting things [he has] ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the TYT host acknowledged that she agreed with Destiny about wanting to see Trump bring down the temperature, she condemned Destiny for mocking a mother with two children under the age of 5 whose husband was murdered.<\/p>\n<p>The TYT host also praised Erika for how she conducted herself during her speech, with Kasparian saying that she would not have managed to compose herself if it had been her husband who was assassinated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow could you mock that? What is wrong with you? I just don\u2019t understand it,\u201d she asked. \u201cThat\u2019s it, I don\u2019t understand it. I don\u2019t understand you, Destiny. You have so much hatred in your heart, and at the same time, you judge others as hateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the interview, TYT co-creator Cenk Uygur applauded Kasparian\u2019s response to Destiny, commending his co-host for having \u201cunshakable principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019ll take on anyone on either side without giving a damn about partisanship,\u201d Uygur wrote in a Tuesday\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/cenkuygur\/status\/1968060367369801784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">X post<\/a>, adding that \u201cMorality isn\u2019t left or right, it\u2019s about empathy for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Destiny\u2019s comments in the wake of Kirk\u2019s murder have also drawn criticism from billionaire Elon Musk, who referred to the streamer as a \u201cjack\u2014\u201d in a Tuesday\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1967924913161097256\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">X post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s comment was in response to\u00a0 footage shared online of one of Destiny\u2019s streams, in which the influencer said that conservatives should \u201cbe afraid of getting killed when they go to events, so that they look to their leadership to turn down the temperature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The billionaire called Destiny\u2019s position \u201cinsane,\u201d saying that the streamer shouldn\u2019t be banned, but Amazon should stop \u201cpaying him to incite murder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Article written by Samantha Kamman and originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/destiny-defends-refusal-to-condemn-charlie-kirks-assassination.html\">The Christian Post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Young Turks&#8217; Ana Kasparian expressed disgust during a heated debate with Destiny over his response to Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination, condemning the streamer for refusing to denounce the Christian conservative\u2019s murder and for mocking his widow. Destiny, whose real name is Steven Kenneth Bonnell II, joined a Monday panel discussion on &#8220;Piers Morgan Uncensored&#8221; that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":29123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Influencer Destiny Warns Charlie Kirk Might Be Alive if Americans Hadn&#039;t Elected Trump; Mocks Erika Kirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Destiny defends refusal to condemn Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination, sparking debate over political rhetoric and responsibility.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/09\/influencer-destiny-warns-charlie-kirk-might-be-alive-if-americans-hadnt-elected-trump-mocks-erika-kirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Influencer Destiny Warns Charlie Kirk Might Be Alive if Americans Hadn&#039;t Elected Trump; 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