Abbie Chatfield has taken to social media to call out the commentary she has endured in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, saying she suffered a “severe mental health episode” after receiving death threats from trolls.
Kirk — a far-right conservative commentator and supporter of President Donald Trump — was shot dead while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University on Thursday.
Chatfield, who has long been vocal on social media about her political views, said she will not comment further on the shooting for fear her words will be “twisted and I will receive more death threats”.
“I am not strong enough right now to make any comment,” Chatfield wrote in an Instagram Post shared earlier today, “I am in fear”.
“This event has cause[d] me immense distress and has jeopardised my safety, even in my silence,” she added.
Chatfield went on to say she has received “numerous” death threats with her home address in them, including the comments section of both hers and other people’s social media posts.
She said scores of trolls have “blamed” her for Kirk’s death, despite only speaking of the commentator “perhaps in passing, but never at length”.
Chatfield said the reaction she endured after Kirk’s death is symptomatic of a broader media landscape that is “waiting for me to make content so they can use my name as click bait to anger the far-right even more”.
The influencer listed off examples of being at the receiving end of such media coverage, including “manosphere creators” who react to her comments, as well as experiences of being doxxed in social media forums and the creation of “entire accounts to lie about me”.
As a result of this media “cycle” — which Chatfield said has made her an “easy target” as the “face of the left in mainstream media” — the reality star said she is “in constant fear and danger and have been for years”.
Horrifyingly, she recalled taking safety precautions like alerting her neighbours to potential intruders, making calls to police that are “laughed at”, and sleeping with “crate[s] across my bedroom door”.
Chatfield says she now finds herself in an alarming position as any political commentary puts her at risk, even though events like Kirk’s death don’t “require a statement from me”.
“So please, stop demanding that I, and others in this space, speak on every news story,” Chatfield wrote. “You can’t comprehend the cost for us.”
Elsewhere in the post, Chatfield did share her thoughts on Kirk, describing him as a “dangerous far-right extremist” and labelling some of his previous comments as “racist, homophobic, xenophobic [and] misogynist”.
You can read Chatfield’s full statement HERE.
It’s not the first time Chatfield, who has been active in the political space for years, has responded to trolls.
In January, she said the online hate she receives is “really exhausting” and before that, she opened about the “fucking scary” phone call she received after her phone number was leaked.
Authorities in the US are still searching for the gunman who killed Kirk after two people were apprehended and later released in relation to the shooting.
Earlier today, the FBI shared images of a suspect in the investigation and offered a cash reward for information from members of the public.
Lead images: Abbie Chatfield/TikTok
The post Abbie Chatfield Has Received Death Threats As Trolls Blame Her For Charlie Kirk’s Death appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
