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Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appeared on CNN on Tuesday, where she said that the Trump administration is using the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk as an "excuse for the advance of authoritarian rule."
"This is about American autocracy versus American democracy. And if we allow ourselves to be pulled into this false-flag conversation, what we risk is losing access to the democracy that gave us free speech. That will also invoke the rule of law to hold accountable anyone who undertakes the act of political violence," Abrams said. "But we cannot allow this heinous murder to be exploited as an excuse for the advance of authoritarian rule, which is what we are watching happen."
Abrams claimed that the Trump administration is currently at "step nine in the playbook of autocrats," which, according to her 10-step framework of autocracy, is "taking advantage of political violence."
Stacey Abrams appeared on CNN on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Screenshot/CNN)
Kirk, 31, a father of two, was shot and killed Wednesday during a campus event at Utah Valley University.
The TPUSA founder was struck in the neck as he spoke to a large crowd from under a white pop-up tent. He was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead that afternoon.
When reached for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital, "In the wake of the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, two-time gubernatorial campaign loser Stacey Abrams has decided to double down on radical, left-wing rhetoric that drives Democrat supporters to violence. We won’t further dignify these deranged ramblings, but all you need to know is that every word that comes from her mouth is a lie and she should seek help for her late-stage TDS."
Earlier this year, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate laid out her 10-step framework on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," similarly claiming that at the time, the United States was on step nine of the autocratic playbook.
"Step nine, you start to encourage and incentivize private violence. You send the U.S. Marines into spaces they should not be. You send the National Guard in. You kidnap people off of the streets and pretend that’s normal, because that’s how you quiet dissent, because you make everyone afraid that if they don’t do what you want, they might be next. And once you’ve done those nine steps, step 10 is easy. That’s when you decide there won’t be new elections because everyone is either afraid, poor, broken, or complicit," she told guest host Anthony Anderson.
DONALD TRUMP JR. WARNS POLITICAL VIOLENCE IS 'NOT GOING BOTH WAYS' AS HE MOURNS CHARLIE KIRK'S DEATH
Abrams made a similar argument in her Tuesday appearance on CNN, asserting that President Donald Trump and his administration have placed Washington, D.C., under "military occupation," and that people are being "kidnapped off of the streets" by the government.
President Donald Trump speaks with members of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers, Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
When asked by CNN's Audie Cornish about recent comments made by Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., expressing that Trump is not an autocrat or comparable to Adolf Hitler — Abrams expressed her disagreement with the senator's take.
"This is a president who has faced multiple lawsuits that he’s lost because he has overreached. It‘s the installation of loyalists and you all, in your earlier segment, talked about the fact that the FBI is being run by a podcaster, that the Department of Defense is being run by another podcaster that we have watched people who know how to do their jobs be summarily dismissed and replaced by loyalists who have vowed only to hold the authority of the president and not the people as their central responsibility," she argued.
CHARLIE KIRK'S ASSASSINATION LATEST CASE OF CONSERVATIVES BEING TARGETED FOR MURDER
Later in the segment, Abrams took her argument a step further, arguing that due to American "naivete," the public believes America is "immune to what autocracy looks like."
Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah, prior to the assassination. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
"We are not as far in, as deep as other nations are, but we are already there. Scholars have pointed out there are ten steps. We have hit all ten steps," she contended. "We just watched this administration, but also this political party, decide that it was okay to redistrict in the middle of the decade in order to explicitly seize more power."
She added that when "the president of the United States, suborned by his political party, announced that he intends to eliminate access to voting rights in this country, that he intends to go after his enemies in this country — that’s authoritarianism under anyone’s guise."
