Substack Star Heather Cox Richardson Told Her 2.7 Million Subscribers Charlie Kirk Was Killed By a Right-Winger. She Still Hasn’t Told Them the Truth.

Heather Cox Richardson, the liberal historian whose wildly popular Substack newsletter earns her millions of dollars a year, told her 2.7 million subscribers that accused Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson was “not someone on the left” and had instead “embraced the far right.” It’s a false claim—contradicted daily by mounting evidence—but one that Richardson, a tenured history professor at Boston College, has yet to correct.

Writing on Sept. 14, four days after Kirk’s murder, Richardson accused “the radical right” of “working to distort the country’s understanding of what happened” to Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University at an event for his conservative activist group Turning Point USA. Richardson took umbrage with Republicans blaming Democrats and leftists for the murder, and pushed the conspiracy theory that Robinson was driven by dark forces even further to the right on the political spectrum than Kirk.

“But in fact, the alleged shooter was not someone on the left,” Richardson wrote in her newsletter, which consistently ranks among the top five most read politics newsletters on Substack. “The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a young white man from a Republican, gun enthusiast family, who appears to have embraced the far right, disliking Kirk for being insufficiently radical.”

Richardson’s theory was already on shaky ground given that someone engraved, “Hey fascist, catch,” Italian anti-fascist song lyrics, and a playful, transgender-related phrase on bullets found in the Mauser .30 rifle that Robinson used in the shooting.

Her narrative collapsed altogether this week, when prosecutors in Utah released text message evidence and statements from family members that show Robinson embraced leftist ideology. Robinson wrote to his boyfriend, who is in the process of transitioning to female, that he had “enough of [Kirk’s] hatred” and that “some hate can’t be negotiated out.” Robinson’s mother told investigators her son had “become more political and had started to lean more to the left,” becoming “more pro-gay and more trans-rights oriented.”

Richardson, who the New York Times heralded as a “breakout star” of Substack who “calmly situates the news of the day,” was unbowed by that evidence. Following the indictment, Richardson told her readers that “the motive of the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, remains unclear.”

In an interview with the anti-Trump Bulwark podcast, Richardson said “we just don’t know” about Robinson’s motive. Richardson objected to podcast host Jonathan V. Last’s statement that the evidence so far suggests Robinson was upset over Kirk’s statements on transgender issues.

“But you even can’t say that,” said Richardson. “Anyone who studies history will tell you that sometimes the things that seem like they fit pretty clear patterns simply don’t.”

“It certainly looks one way, but it could be somebody he cut off in traffic for all you know,” she added.

And she complained that conservatives who criticized her article were acting “in bad faith” and engaging in a “perverted attack on participation of the public sphere.”

“Yesterday was a complete nightmare in my life,” she said.

Richardson is, by some measures, the most successful writer on Substack. She is hugely popular among her largely progressive readers for putting current events in the context of history. But Richardson’s Substacks do not appear to be edited with the same rigor one would expect from a tenured history professor.

Richardson has also repeatedly been criticized for letting her progressive political views distort her historical analysis. When she appeared on CNN in July 2024 to urge President Biden not to drop out, the historian Sam Haselby wrote that Richardson “is just making stuff up now.” Another eminent historian, Andrew Karhl, said that “Heather Cox Richardson is an embarrassment to the historical profession.”

Richardson is not the only prominent liberal to spread disinformation about Robinson’s politics.

On Monday night, ABC’s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, tied Robinson to “the MAGA gang” during his show. On Wednesday evening, Disney, the parent of ABC, suspended Kimmel’s show after two major station groups said they were going to preempt it. When, or even if, the show will return to the air remains unclear.

Joan Donovan, a “disinformation” researcher widely touted by liberals, told the Los Angeles Times in a viral interview that Kirk’s shooting appeared to be a “white supremacist gang hit.” Donovan, who teaches at Boston University, incorrectly claimed that messages found on Robinson’s bullets appeared to be “anti-gay.”

The widespread misinformation appears to have influenced public views of Robinson’s motives for murdering Kirk. According to a YouGov poll conducted on Sept. 14, 24 percent of respondents believed Kirk’s shooter was a Republican, while 21 percent believed he was a Democrat.

It’s unlikely to tarnish Richardson’s popularity with liberals, who have helped skyrocket Richardson’s newsletter to the top of Substack’s readership charts. According to one assessment from 2023, Richardson made $5 million a year from subscriptions to the newsletter. She charges between $50,000 and $100,000 for speaking engagements, according to her booking agent.

Reached for comment, Richardson said the charging documents against Robinson suggest motivation “but does not allege any motive.”  “I believe I said that right/left distinctions are not necessarily important in this case, and we still simply don’t know what drove Mr. Robinson to commit murder,” she told the Washington Free Beacon.

She then suggested that a Free Beacon story highlighting her remarks will stoke an outpouring of hate mail.

“I understand your readers will want to read the story you are contemplating, but I’d like you to be aware of what my email looks like thanks to such stories,” wrote Richardson, who quoted from emails she allegedly received that call her “evil” and “delusional.”

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