An Illinois TV anchor resigned from her local ABC-affiliated station after she says she was suspended over an emotional “non-partisan tribute” to her first boss, Charlie Kirk.
Beni Rae Harmony announced she was leaving WICS-ABC20 Springfield, claiming to have been “targeted” for her teary-eyed on-air tribute to Kirk, 31, after he was shot and killed at Utah Valley University Wednesday. She made the announcement as suspect Tyler Robinson is due to appear in Utah court on Tuesday for murder charged in connection to the assassination.
“Many in the mainstream media have been fired or punished for mocking his assassination. I believe I am the first to be targeted for honoring him on air,” Harmony wrote Monday on X.
Harmony said that her decision was “guided by values that are essential to who I am, which I refuse to set aside in order to keep a job.”
“I choose my faith and love of country, and always will,” she wrote.
She concluded her post by thanking her community and offering prayers to Kirk’s family.
“Thank you, Springfield. My home. My community. My people. God Bless Charlie Kirk and his beautiful family, and God Bless these United States of America,” she wrote. The Independent has reached out to WICS-ABC20 for comment. It’s unclear why the station aired the tribute and then suspended her.
In her emotionally-charged 1-minute 17-second tribute to Kirk, a conservative activist and ally of President Donald Trump, Harmony began by comforting viewers who “feel sadness” or are “grieving.”
Fighting back tears, Harmony said that Kirk was her mentor, first boss, and “the first person who made me believe in myself,” in the segment, which aired on Friday.
“One of my favorite sayings that Charlie would always tell us at the office, he would yell it from the mountaintops, so please listen,” she began, recalling something Kirk would tell her earlier in her career.
“When conversations stop happening. When individuals become wordless, that’s when violence begins. So, if you do one thing today, make it be with passion, with conviction, stand up for your friends, stand up for your beliefs, and speak loudly, even if your voice shakes. Your words have meaning, your values have purpose. Never forget that,” a teary Harmony recalled Kirk saying.
“Thank you, CK, you changed my life,” she concluded.
Harmony, a 2023 college graduate, began working at the local news station in Springfield in August 2024, according to her LinkedIn.
She had worked as a producer and administrator at Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization founded by Kirk, from August 2021 to February 2022, according to her profile.
As Harmony noted in her social media post, some people who have praised Kirk’s killing or expressed criticism over his views have been fired from their jobs or are facing serious repercussions. Several other journalists have also lost their jobs over their response – though that was mostly for questioning Kirk’s views and the tributes that followed after his death – to the fatal shooting, which was captured in horrifying videos shared on social media.
MSNBC fired political analyst Matthew Dowd for describing Kirk as a “divisive” figure who pushed “hate speech”, shortly after he was shot. The Washington Post also fired one of its longtime columnists, Karen Attiah, over social media posts she made following Kirk’s death.
The killing of Kirk has been deeply polarizing. In the days following his death, Republicans have been demanding action against anyone who has reacted to the killing by “praising, rationalising, or making light” of it or by “belittling” his memory.
Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins wrote on X that he planned “to use Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate an immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“If they ran their mouth with their smart*** hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man who dedicated his whole life to delivering respectful conservative truth into the hearts of liberal enclave universities, armed only with a Bible and a microphone and a Constitution… those profiles must come down.”
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau also warned U.S. visitors that “glorifying violence” in the wake of Kirk’s death could result in expulsion.
“In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Landau wrote on X.
“Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the State Department can protect the American people.”
