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A Secret Service employee was placed on immediate leave after celebrating Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination in a social media post, Fox News Digital confirmed.
“The U.S. Secret Service will not tolerate behavior that violates our code of conduct. This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun,” a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday afternoon when asked about the employment status of Anthony Pough.
Pough had celebrated Kirk’s shocking assassination in a Facebook post, which included accusing the slain conservative firebrand of spewing “racism.”
“If you are Mourning [sic] this guy .. delete me. He spewed hate and racism on his show,” he wrote, according to Real Clear Politics, which first reported on Pough’s post on Thursday.
CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION: TIMELINE OF UTAH CAMPUS SHOOTING DETAILS ATTACK, MANHUNT FOR SUSPECT
“Especially when we should be mourning the innocent children killed in Colorado,” he continued, referring to the Evergreen High School shooting that left two students injured on Wednesday.
Real Clear Politics reported Pough was in “Phase 2” of his career with the agency, but had not yet been assigned a detail regularly protecting President Donald Trump. The Secret Service has three phases for special agents, with Phase 2 focused on protective assignments and Phase 3 focused on “post-protective field, protection, or headquarters assignment,” according to the Secret Service’s website.
Pough blamed “karma” for Kirk’s assassination in the inflammatory Facebook post.
“At the end of the day, you answer to GOD and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesnt [sic] leave,” he wrote.
Kirk was attending a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon when a single shot rang out and struck Kirk in the neck. He was transported to a local hospital, and was pronounced dead just hours later.
Kirk leaves behind his wife, Erika Kirk, as well as their two children, ages 1 and 3. The Kirks married in 2021.
Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance accompanied Kirk’s casket back to Arizona, where he resided with his family, on Thursday via Air Force Two.
Trump announced on Friday morning during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” that police had apprehended a suspect in the case. Tyler Robinson, 22, was later identified as the suspect in the assassination.
“We got him on the evening of Sept. 11,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced Friday morning.
“A family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.”
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