{"id":153016,"date":"2025-09-13T03:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T03:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/153016\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T03:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T03:45:06","slug":"federal-agencies-threaten-discipline-employees-for-criticizing-or-mocking-charlie-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/153016\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal agencies threaten, discipline employees for criticizing or mocking Charlie Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Federal employees are facing warnings from agency leaders to refrain from criticizing or mocking Charlie Kirk, the conservative influencer who was assassinated this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, employees have already been disciplined. The Homeland Security Department has already taken action against at least three staffers: a Federal Emergency Management Agency employee was placed on administrative leave, Fox News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/fema-employee-placed-leave-saying-flags-shouldnt-half-staff-racist-homophobe-charlie-kirk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported<\/a>, after he posted on Instagram that President Trump had ordered flags at half staff \u201cfor the literal racist homophobe misogynist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis employee\u2019s words are revolting and unconscionable,\u201d a FEMA spokesperson said. \u201cHe was immediately placed on administrative leave. Celebrating the death of a fellow American is appalling, unacceptable and sickening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday one of its employees posted on their personal social media a note regarding Kirk that was \u201ccontrary to our core values\u201d and vowed to \u201ctake appropriate action and hold the individual accountable.\u201d The Secret Service also placed an employee on leave for saying anyone mourning Kirk should \u201cdelete\u201d them because Kirk \u201cspewed hate and racism,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/11\/us-news\/secret-service-employee-who-called-charlie-kirk-racist-blamed-karma-for-assassination-put-on-leave\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to<\/a> The New York Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Veterans Affairs Department Secretary Doug Collins warned employees against \u201cjustifying, celebrating or mocking\u201d Kirk\u2019s death. He said such comments would lead to more violence and anyone making them \u201cwill be dealt with accordingly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That followed the Defense Department issuing similar warnings: the Pentagon\u2019s chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said, referring to the department by the administration\u2019s preferred name, that it was \u201cunacceptable for military personnel and Department of War civilians to celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American.\u201d The department will have \u201czero tolerance\u201d for such behavior. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added the Pentagon was \u201ctracking all these very closely\u201d and would address any issues immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kirk, a right-wing organizer and commentator, was shot and killed when speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. State and federal authorities announced on Friday that Tyler Robinson had been arrested for the assassination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Nerney, Managing Partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, a law firm that represents federal employees, said Supreme Court precedent has established that public employees face certain \u201cprotected speech\u201d restrictions when speaking in their official capacities, engaged in conduct unbecoming federal workers or when they could incite violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally speaking, federal employees can be disciplined for personal comments if they are disruptive to the workplace, violate ethics rules, violate agency policies\u00a0or are deemed \u2018conduct unbecoming\u2019 a federal employee, among other things,\u201d Nerney said. \u201cEach case is looked at on a case by case basis, so determining if an agency has overstepped its authority in impeding on a person\u2019s First Amendment rights depends on the specific language used by the employee and other circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FEMA spokesperson suggested the disciplined employee had acted unprofessionally.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch behavior does not reflect the values of public service, and it will not be tolerated among individuals entrusted to work at FEMA,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe expect all public servants to uphold the highest standard of professionalism, respect and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal employees are facing warnings from agency leaders to refrain from criticizing or mocking Charlie Kirk, the conservative&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,93972,49204,46670,37153,4800,15303,3,1572,36214,21,19,22,20,25,24,14880],"class_list":{"0":"post-153016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-assassination-attempt","10":"tag-charlie-kirk","11":"tag-dhs","12":"tag-doug-collins","13":"tag-fema","14":"tag-first-amendment","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pete-hegseth","17":"tag-secret-service","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-veterans-affairs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}