Mexican lawmaker resigns over 'insensitive' comments about Charlie Kirk's death

A congressional staffer from Mexico’s ruling party had to resign after being called out online over his remarks on the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. While speaking on a major Mexican television network, Milenio, Salvador Ramírez, a social communications coordinator for the ruling Morena party, mocked Kirk’s death, saying the Turning Point USA’s executive director “received a spoonful of his own chocolate”.

The Mexican news network later released a public apology after the United States’ deputy secretary of state, a former ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, threatened to have US President Donald Trump revoke US visas on which it may count. Ramírez’s resignation came amid a trend of people losing their jobs over their remarks on Kirk’s death after Conservatives called them offensive.

Kirk, who was a close ally of Trump, was shot dead on Wednesday while he was speaking at a rally at a university in Utah. Following his death, conservative commentators, activists and public officials in the US have engaged in social media campaigns against people accused of disrespecting Kirk’s memory. According to Reuters, at least 15 people had been fired or suspended over their remarks.

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How the Ramírez situation played out

On Thursday, Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state and the US’s former Mexican ambassador, warned on X that “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country”. “Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the state department can protect the American people,” said Landau, who was appointed US ambassador to Mexico and served from 2019 to 2021 during Trump’s first presidency.

While all this was happening, the clip of Ramírez’s remarks started circulating online. “I think if Charlie Kirk lived, he may like what I am about to say, because what I am about to say is very ‘anti-woke’,” Ramírez facetiously said. “He was given a spoonful of his own chocolate. They gave a spoonful to someone who promoted the use of weapons. They gave a spoonful to someone who was financed by the National Rifle Association – a political association that is of the extreme right, pro-Trump, of the most radical wing of the Republicans.”

The Mexican lawmaker added that Turning Point USA was “an anti-rights, anti-LGBT – practically anti-women – movement”. Landau eventually responded to the video with an image reading “El Quitavisas”, roughly meaning “the visa remover”. Minutes later, Landau went after Milenio itself, which is one of the most-watched and read news outlets in Mexico.

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“Really, Milenio? This is the level of ‘discourse’ that you promote on your channel? I am embarrassed for having interacted with you during my tenure as United States ambassador to Mexico,” Landau wrote in a separate post. The Mexican television network eventually released a public statement on Friday, apologising for Ramirez’s comments, saying the outlet does not “promote nor accept expressions of hate, violence or disqualification towards any person or group”.

“We regret that the remarks made during one of our programs may have upset or offended a part of the audience, and we offer a sincere apology to those who felt offended,” the statement read. The Mexican lawmaker released a separate video on Friday afternoon apologising for his “very unfortunate” comments, saying they were his own thoughts and not representative of the Morena party nor of Milenio. Later that evening, Ramirez officially announced his resignation from the parliamentary group for the Morena party within the Mexican House of Representatives.