A new poll found that more people think Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a Republican than a Democrat, a perception fueled in part by the spread of misinformation.
A survey conducted by YouGov on Sunday, four days after the conservative activist’s assassination, found that, based on the available information, 24% of U.S. adults believed a Republican had assassinated Kirk compared to just 21% who believed the individual was a Democrat. Another 15% said they were unsure, while 40% stated they didn’t know.
Responses were especially polarized by age and politics. Among Democrats, 41% believed the shooter was a Republican compared to just 8% who thought he was a Democrat. Among Republicans, 40% believed the shooter was a Democrat compared to 13% who believed he was a Republican.
Nearly a third of 18-29 adults, the most online cohort, believed the shooter was a Republican, while 16% believed he was a Democrat.
Alleged Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson was raised in a conservative family, but his family, friends, coworkers, and others who knew him all maintained he rejected the beliefs of his upbringing and became increasingly left-wing and resentful of Kirk, who he claimed was “spreading hate” at a family dinner shortly before the murder. Authorities have said the suspect subscribed to a leftist ideology.
Robinson was living with a transgender individual, who was believed to be his romantic partner. On the bullet casings found within the rifle he allegedly used to assassinate Kirk, authorities found two explicitly left-wing messages. “Hey fascist, catch!” was written on one, while on another was inscribed, “oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,” the refrain of the most popular anti-fascist songs, popularized among mostly communist partisans in Italy in World War II.
The other references on the bullet casings referenced popular memes, some dating back over a decade.
Despite this, several large left-wing commentators attempted to portray Robinson as right-wing, frequently spreading misinformation in the process. The most popular theory claimed that Robinson was a “groyper,” an unofficial movement of followers of the right-wing personality Nick Fuentes.
The claim appears to originate with a Sept. 12 post by left-wing Twitch streamer Mike from PA, who posted a screenshot of a “Bella Ciao” remix on a Spotify playlist, “Groyper Wars (America First).” The claim soon blew up to users, who claimed that the song was an anthem of the groypers.
The claim was reposted by former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who boosted other claims that Robinson was a groyper.
The playlist was found to have come from an account with four followers and had been saved less than 400 times, most likely accumulated after its renewed attention on social media.
“Bella Ciao” is an iconic left-wing song and has never been adopted by a right-wing movement in any significant capacity. The song has become a staple of antifa and left-wing groups, earning a rendition from the Red Army Choir.
Aside from the single, sparsely viewed playlist, no evidence has emerged that “Bella Ciao” was ever used by, or even popular among, the groyper movement.
The popular Occupy Democrats social media page, with over 700,000 followers on X, said in a post that the bullet casings were inscribed with messages used by the “groyper movement.”
“One bullet was engraved with the phrase ‘Hey fascist! Catch!’ but it does not appear to be a left-wing ‘antifa’ message as Republicans originally claimed. Instead, it seems to be a reference to a satirical slogan in the popular video game Helldivers 2,” the post read, appearing to confuse the message with another bullet casing, which had arrows referencing the game. The post garnered nearly 50,000 likes.
Another claim cited a 2018 post from Robinson’s mother’s Facebook, which showed the future alleged assassin dressed in an adidas tracksuit and squatting — a popular, apolitical meme that blew up in the 2010s, poking fun at Eastern Europeans.
Despite its former popularity, many left-wing users claimed the cultural phenomenon was owned by the groypers, citing an old meme of a Pepe squatting in a tracksuit. Pepe is a green, cartoon frog that was adopted as a symbol by many Trump supporters and right-wing figures in the late 2010s, but was never adopted by the groypers — a “groyper” is a different meme, though similar in design.
These claims were all repeated by experts speaking with several reputable outlets. Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow with the U.S. government-funded Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Reuters that the “symbology found on the bullet casings suggests the shooter had affiliation with the so-called groyper movement,” the outlet wrote.
Reuters removed her comments suggesting a link with the groypers after public outcry.
The misinformation became so widespread that AI chatbots, sourcing information from social media, began saying that Robinson was likely a groyper. X’s AI summation tool even summarized Kirk’s assassination as saying he was shot by a “fellow conservative.”
The spread of misinformation affected much of the public, with the search term “groyper” exploding in popularity.
Left-wing journalists familiar with the groyper movement quickly poked holes in the perceived connections.
The YouGov survey polled 2355 U.S. adults on Sunday.