Left-wing megadonor and Maine horror author Stephen King sparked national outrage on Thursday after he falsely claimed on X that peaceful conservative debater Charlie Kirk advocated for stoning gay people to death.
[RELATED: Maine Cities Set to Host Vigils for Charlie Kirk on Friday as Trump Urges Peaceful Response…]
“He advocated stoning gays to death. Just saying,” said King in the controversial now-deleted post.
King’s comment came in response to a post claiming that Kirk was not controversial and expressing hope that he would rest in peace. Before he deleted the post, King’s false statement garnered nearly 250,000 likes on X.
In response to King’s statement, numerous prominent figures and politicians expressed outrage and criticized the Maine author for lying about Kirk’s beliefs.
“You are a horrible, evil, twisted liar. No, he did not. Your party—which you shamelessly shilled for—sent $100 billion to the Ayatollah… who does routinely murder homosexuals. Why are you so dishonest & filled with hate?” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who hails from the state where Kirk was killed, also weighed in, calling for a defamation lawsuit against the king.
Elon Musk simply replied to King’s post with “Liar.”
Other prominent conservative voices also responded.
Contrary to King’s now-deleted claim, Kirk argued that gay people should be welcomed into the conservative movement.
“I believe marriage is one man one woman. Also gay people should be welcome in the conservative movement. As Christians we are called to love everyone I will always stand against people who wish to establish their own personal values as a reason to kick others out of our movement,” said Kirk in a 2019 post.
Over 12 hours after posting the allegedly defamatory statement, King issued a follow-up, apologizing while continuing to criticize Kirk.
“I apologize for saying Charlie Kirk advocated stoning gays. What he actually demonstrated was how some people cherry-pick Biblical passages,” said King.
King then responded to a variety of accounts, including Sen. Cruz, before eventually deleting the original post.
“The horrible, evil, twisted liar apologizes. This is what I get for reading something on Twitter w/o fact-checking. Won’t happen again,” said King in response to Cruz.
After Kirk was first shot, allegedly by the 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, King issued a statement, apparently using the assassination as an attempt to push for gun control.
The controversy likely comes at an inopportune moment for King and risks overshadowing the Friday release of a new film based on his book The Long Walk.
King, author of famous works such as IT and The Stand, has long advocated for radical left-wing policies and candidates, and his history of political donations on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website reflects that.
Note on methodology: The Maine Wire arrived at King’s likely political spending by looking for his name on the FEC website, filtering only for Maine-based donations, and looking for donors whose occupation matches King’s.
In 2024, King made $2,000 donations to both the Harris Victory Fund and Harris for President, and donated $6,600 to Sen. Angus King’s (I-Maine) campaign. His history of political donations spans decades and has included thousands of dollars to Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and multiple $35,000 payments to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). He also donated to multiple out-of-state recipients, such as the Iowa Democratic Party.
His highest single political contribution came in 2016 when he contributed to Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful Democratic presidential bid.
In total, King appear to have spent $778,050 in support of Democrats.
King’s Federal Political Spending by Year:
- 2024: $10,600
- 2022: $22,000
- 2020: $52,150
- 2019: $35,500
- 2018: $23,900
- 2017: $30,400
- 2016: $92,965
- 2014: $5,200
- 2013: $42,400
- 2012: $98,635
- 2011: $45,400
- 2010: $36,200
- 2009: $10,000
- 2008: $73,900
- 2007: $33,100
- 2006: $22,100
- 2005: $26,700
- 2004: $53,500
- 2003: $12,000
- 2002: $4,000
- 2001: $2,000
- 2000: $1,000
- 1999: $2,000
- 1998: $1,000
- 1997: $2,000
- 1996: $22,000
- 1994: $3,000
- 1993: $1,500
- 1992: $3,500
- 1990: $250
- 1988: $1,500
- 1987: $3,000
- 1986: $1,000
- 1984: $2,750
- 1982: $1,500
- Total: $778,050
