It’s not that hard to remember a one-syllable name that’s dominated the American news cycle for the past week — but it is for Jerry Nadler.
Nadler, the rotund, retiring Democratic congressman from Manhattan’s Upper West Side, managed to mangle the surname of slain conservative organizer Charlie Kirk twice in the space of seconds on Tuesday during a clash with FBI Director Kash Patel.
And President Donald Trump’s social media squad hit back with a hammer.
It’s Charlie KIRK, @RepJerryNadler, not “Charlie King.”
We didn’t think you could be a bigger disgrace, but here we are. pic.twitter.com/5abftW2Po4
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 17, 2025
“We didn’t think you could be a bigger disgrace, but here we are,” Trump’s official White House account on the social media platform X responded.
According to The Daily Caller, the moment occurred when Nadler was questioning Patel and cited a New York Times report claiming President Donald Trump’s administration is using Kirk’s assassination last week as a pretext to crack down on free-speech rights.
“Politicizing the murder of Charlie King to go after free speech is not a legacy I believe Charlie King would have wanted,” Nadler said.
Charlie King?
Charlie Kirk — it’s Kirk, Congressman Nadler — has been a recognizable name in political circles since he founded the organizing group Turning Point USA in 2012.
Should Jerry Nadler apologize to the Kirk family?
Among Democrats, he’s been a bogeyman since well before he helped Trump win the 2024 presidential election with his on-campus activism. Fox News political reporter Paul Steinhauser wrote Thursday that Kirk had turned Turning Point into a “voter turnout machine” for Trump’s successful race.
And over the past week, even Americans who never heard Kirk’s name before he was shot to death at 31 at a campus event at Utah Valley University have gotten to know it from wall-to-wall coverage.
But Jerry Nadler — a man who’s spent more time in Congress than Kirk spent on this earth — can’t get it right?
Social media reaction was excoriating.
Words cannot convey the contempt I have for this man.
— JackySinAZ (@JackySinAZ) September 17, 2025
He said it twice. And since he is reading it, either the person who wrote the script is an idiot, or he is.
— Douglas Starnes Challenging the status quo (@poweredbyaltnet) September 17, 2025
Just when you thought the left can’t be any more detestable…@RepJerryNadler is a disgrace.
— Acta Non Verba (@1Acta_non_verba) September 17, 2025
As Americans who follow politics know, Nadler has spent a career in Congress proving he’s got no business being in Congress.
First elected to the House in 1992 (the year Bill and Hillary Clinton won the presidency), Nadler has been a Democratic mainstay for decades, including chairing the House Judiciary Committee.
An ardent opponent of President Donald Trump, he served on as one of seven impeachment “managers” during Trump’s first impeachment.
He announced his impending retirement at the beginning of this month.
At 78, he’s in the same generation as the 79-year-old president he despises, but while Trump consistently appears to be brimming with the energy of a chief executive half his age, Nadler is heading out to pasture.
If his failure to remember one of the most prominent names in American politics over the past week is any indication of his mental capacity, it’s long past time he’s gone.
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