A University of California, Irvine lecturer is facing scrutiny after appearing to endorse violence against conservative activist Nick Shirley ahead of Mr. Shirley’s scheduled appearance before the Harvard Republican Club and just before the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Matthew Goldman, a composition lecturer at UC Irvine who has also taught at Chapman University, commented on the Harvard Republican Club’s Instagram post announcing Mr. Shirley’s visit, writing, “Someone can do the funniest thing just before the Kirkiversary,” according to Yard Report, a conservative outlet that covers Harvard news and first surfaced the screenshots.
Mr. Shirley, known for viral videos investigating alleged fraud in Medicaid and subsidized daycare programs, is set to speak Wednesday evening to the Harvard Republican Club. Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University during his “American Comeback Tour” — an anniversary that falls Thursday.
In another comment on the same Instagram post, Mr. Goldman allegedly wrote, “Lmao abolish ICE. only good ICE agent is a dead one.”
Mr. Goldman’s UC Irvine faculty page, still live as of Wednesday on the School of Humanities website, lists him as a composition lecturer who joined UCI in winter 2022 and teaches courses on conspiracy theories and mass incarceration, in addition to a creative-writing course at the Santa Ana Jail. His LinkedIn profile reportedly described his specialty as “social justice rhetoric and community-centered composition.”
This is not the first time Mr. Goldman has appeared to make light of political violence. A December 2024 Instagram post attributed to him showed the video game character Luigi pointing a gun, in an apparent reference to Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson that month in New York City. Mr. Mangione pleaded guilty last month to federal stalking charges. Mr. Goldman’s caption on the post read, “Let’s not pretend as if America isn’t the greatest country on earth.”
Mr. Goldman has since set his social media accounts to private.
A Chapman University spokesman, Bob Hitchcock, said in a statement to The College Fix that the university is “aware of the concerning reports regarding Matt Goldman and takes this issue very seriously,” adding that Mr. Goldman “is not currently on campus or teaching at Chapman.”
The Harvard Republican Club, in a statement to Fox News Digital, called the comment “the latest example of the left’s ongoing and shameless normalization of political violence.”
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