_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
A Texas man has been charged with making terroristic threats after allegedly plotting to bomb a Turning Point USA event where Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, was scheduled to speak.
The arrest comes as threats against political figures have reached historic levels, as a recent report from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) links the threat against Kirk to a broader pattern of "assassination culture" and anti-Christian extremism spreading online.
_THE FACTS_
Jacob Wenske, 26, was charged with a third-degree felony for making terroristic threats involving public fear of serious bodily injury.
Wenske sent an email to Turning Point USA threatening to bomb an event where Erika Kirk was the keynote speaker, specifically targeting Kirk and "Christian nationalists."
NCRI linked anti-Christian extremism and an emerging "assassination culture" to the threat against Erika Kirk in a study published this month.
“Christian nationalism” is being used as the pretext to justify political violence.
A 2025 NCRI study found that 38 percent of US adults, and 55 percent of those left of center, considered it "somewhat justified" to murder President Donald Trump.
Just 153 days before his murder, Charlie Kirk cited the study, arguing that left-wing protest culture was fueling a rise in political violence.
Travis Hawley, a cyber threat analyst at the Institute, warned that foreign influence operations are shaping Western discourse through social media to accelerate political violence and civil unrest.
Threats against members of Congress increased 58 percent from 2024 to 2025, according to the US Capitol Police.
Overall threats against political figures have nearly doubled since 2020.
_OUR TAKE_
Tyler Robinson, Luigi Mangioni, Cole Allen, the myriad of school, church, and synagogue shooters, and the shocking number of left-wing Americans who agree that murder is justified against prominent figures — all point to a culture in the US that is increasingly more comfortable with violence.
And according to the NCRI studies, conservatives — especially religious conservatives — are even greater targets.
Charlie Kirk, tragically a victim of the same violence he had just called out half a year prior, said it best: “This is the natural outgrowth of left-wing protest culture tolerating violence and mayhem for years on end. The cowardice of local prosecutors and school officials have turned the left into a ticking time bomb.”













