Live Breaking News: Charlie Kirk Assassinated at 31

was willing to hear out everyone's point of view and take questions and debate topics in a civil and political way as he demonstrated better than anybody for years at this point. The president has confirmed Charlie's death. He tweeted out, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me.

And now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and family. Charlie, we love you. Obviously, President Trump has a longstanding relationship with Charlie. Charlie was a big part of how President Trump was elected in 2024 and how he was elected in 2016 for that matter. A generational voice,

the generational voice in politics. And it's on that point that as we're all processing this awful news, the first thing that comes to my mind beyond the sadness for his family, for his wife, his young kids, his millions and millions of admirers and his many, many friends, is that Charlie Kirk would have been president. Charlie Kirk would have been president. Charlie Kirk would have been president. His friends knew it, his many, many admirers knew it, and his enemies, to whom he was always

so gracious, they knew it too.

Everybody knew it.

I remember from, actually I think even before I first met Charlie, so now we're talking many, many years ago, people would joke, they'd say, well, we're all going to be working for Charlie Kirk someday. The first time I met Charlie was in a green room of a cable news outlet. I think we were in LA, it was for a morning show, so this was four o'clock or five o'clock in the morning.

I'm, I lived in LA at the time, I was slumped over half asleep. Charlie, I don't know where he was living, Charlie lived on airplanes. And he shows up bouncing off the walls, full of energy, just wanted to talk about everything. And he, he of course was able to reach the very heights of media, of politics, of activism, of, of, of American public life. And so then I think, all right, why did we all have such confidence that Charlie would be president?

Well, he looked the part, very, very tall. I used to joke with him that he was descended from the Nephilim. Very tall, good looking guy, extraordinarily articulate, that's part of it. Very very sharp, so sharp that he dropped out of college. That's how you know that someone's very intelligent these days. Self-educated largely but so unbelievably curious.

So he would do fellowship programs, he would read books, he would ask for books to read. I think a lot of people think that when you look at someone in politics, especially at the height that Charlie was at, that all they ever want to do is talk about politics. When they see, you know, we would see each other, he'd see his other friends around the country and that isn't true. He was much more interested in talking about the thing that you were interested in.

And he was interested in it because he just wanted to get as much knowledge as he could from all of these experts around him. And from all of the people who weren't expert but just had a special interest. And Charlie's interests were so varied. But at their core, they were not merely political in the quotidian sense. They were deeply philosophical and the fact that he had no formal philosophical training

is probably why he was so good at it and interested in it and then ultimately it was religious. So I think why did we all think Charlie would be president? He looked the part, he was extremely effective at political organizing, he could raise money like nobody's business for a very good cause. He could persuade people through his extraordinary ability to articulate ideas. But I think really what it comes down to is his virtue. And I think this is why everyone knew.

His friends, his admirers, and even the enemies that a life in public will engender. They all kind of knew it because he exemplified virtue. Four cardinal virtues, prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. Extremely prudent. He was just the most skilled political person of his generation, of our generation. Temperance nobody was more temperate.

I'm not sure the guy ever had a drink. I certainly never saw him have a drink. So disciplined, so temperate, where he got so much of his energy from. Justice, extremely fair to people, in fact, more than fair to people. Always willing to give people what they deserve and more than they deserve. And fortitude, which is the prerequisite of all of the other virtues, the fact that this

guy would go into very hostile territory all the time, not worry about it at all. Events that were open in the air as this event where he was fatally shot at a university in Utah. No big fences, no big crowds of people, most of them adoring fans, some curious people willing to be persuaded and unfortunately a handful of enemies and some very, very wicked

people.

Beyond the cardinal virtues, I think that if you know Charlie at all, even if you don't know him personally, if you just followed him as most Americans have over the years, you'll see the three theological virtues. That's what he cared about. That's all he and I ever talked about. Sometimes on camera, often off camera, that's all he wanted to talk about. In fact, the last text that he sent to me concerned that.

Deeply deeply religious, deeply curious, and you could get a zinger in here or there, but for an effect, because he really wanted to know God and he really loved God. And I think you just see in his demeanor, in the way he approached people, his friends, his enemies and everyone in between, you saw an abundant faith. You saw an extraordinary degree of hope, political hope for the country, for helping to improve people's lives here on earth and a hope that's grounded on a fact, which is the fact of the resurrection, a hope that derives from his confidence that his Redeemer lives.

And then of course charity. And this I think inspired Charlie's friends and admirers so much and really scared his enemies is that in everything Charlie did there was charity. He wasn't afraid, there was no servile fear whatsoever. So sometimes he could seem almost politically reckless the way he was willing to debate any idea.

But no fear whatsoever, just charity. He was always willing to talk to people about anything. That was what this tour was about, where some of his friends were scheduled to join him along the way. Faith, hope, and charity, very, very scary virtues in a materialist world, in a modern world and so we of course pray for him and for his family, it seemed impossible when the news broke.

Such a force of nature did he seem and so confident were we all for his future. Maybe more than he was in as much as Charlie had such profound faith, lively faith, but of course I'm sure he knows and knew that every day is a gift and we're not promised anything and all we can do is the good that we have with the energy that we have in the day that we have because we might not have tomorrow. With that, I would like to bring on another one of our friends, Cabot Phillips, with updates about

what exactly happened and what investigators are learning now. Cabot.

Thanks, Michael.

That was really powerful stuff there. I know everyone at home watching is feeling exactly what we're feeling right here, just devastated. But we're going to try our best to get through the news, get as much of the story out there as we can. For people just tuning in, Charlie Kirk is dead at 31 years old. We're still piecing the story together right now, the details as they come in. But

here's what we know for people just tuning in. Charlie was speaking at Utah Valley University. He was holding one of his prove me wrong events. For those who aren't familiar, these are the sort of debate style open mic events where thousands of students and others are coming out. And Charlie made a point to give the microphone

to anyone who disagreed with him. That was Charlie's thing. He would talk to anybody. He was willing to debate anybody. And one of those events was taking place. One shot rang out. Right now the

University says that shot came from an adjacent building from about 200 yards away. It was one single shot. He was struck in the neck. He was immediately rushed away but ultimately did die a short time after. Initially, there were reports that a shooter had been detained. There was video going around of a single man being carried away by police.

The university is now saying that was not the shooter and that that person was not responsible and that right now the shooter is at large. So we are still waiting to see who was responsible for this heinous crime. At the moment though, right now, there are a number of police and law enforcement vehicles conducting sweeps all around the campus.

As you can imagine, this is an extensive operation. You're going to have hundreds, if not thousands, of law enforcement right now combing through. FBI Director Cass Patel has said that his people are already on the ground, that they are investigating this, obviously, because of the political nature. So there are FBI resources pulling in. The White House has said that they are deploying any resources possible to try and get to the bottom

of who is responsible for this. But again, as of the latest reporting, the shooter is still at large. Police say, the university says, that the shooter fired from about 200 yards away, perched up on top of a building.

President Trump confirmed the news on social media writing on Truth Social quote, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathy go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and family. Charlie,

we love you." Charlie and his wife, Erica, do have two young children as well. I know Michael, you alluded to it. That was his pride and joy. That's what he wanted to talk about every time you're with him. That's what he wanted to talk about every time, every time you're with him. That's what he was bringing up. And President Trump making sure to mention that fact. But again, for those just tuning in, the shooter reportedly still on the loose.

People are, there's a lot of conflicting reports coming in. So we're trying to sift through all of this and I'm sure our audience will bear with us there. Our editor emeritus Ben Shapiro also just recently issued a statement on Twitter. This is from Ben. Like all of you, I'm utterly stunned and heartbroken and sick to my soul today. It is unimaginable to write these words. I met Charlie Kirk when he was 18 years old, a young man so eager and determined that I immediately turned to a friend and said,

that kid is going to be the head of the RNC one day. Charlie became even bigger and more important than that. It was a privilege to watch this principled man stand up for his beliefs and create the single most important conservative political organization in America.

But more importantly, Charlie was a good man, a man who believed in right and wrong, who stood by his biblical values. All of us will miss him, and I cannot imagine the pain of his beautiful young family, and we must all pray for them. And we must pick up the baton where Charlie left it,

fighting for the things he believed in so passionately. We must fight for a better America, an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. I weep for Charlie's family and I weep for my country today, but most of all I weep for Charlie." That was the words of our editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro. Again for those just tuning in, Charlie Kirk speaking at his

Prove Me Wrong series. This is where most people were really introduced to Charlie. He was a guy who was willing to go into the lion's den again and again. He was someone who'd said, hey, if you disagree with me, get to the front of the line,

get a microphone there. And that's why so many people loved him so much is because he was willing to talk to anyone. And his entire mantra was based on civil debate, civil discourse. Charlie was a guy who could debate someone who completely disagreed with him and do so with a smile.

And you could tell that there was love in his heart, love for his country, love for his God, for his family.

In Cabot, we should say he would debate his friends just as vociferously. So, you know, it wasn't even that he just liked to really turn on the rhetoric for his ideological opponents. In some ways, I think he went harder after his friends because he was really interested

in ideas and he was really interested in getting to the truth and he had such fortitude, he had such confidence and well-earned confidence. He started as Ben pointed, the preeminent conservative activist organization in America at the age of 18, skipping out of school, learning everything on his own. So he had good reason to be confident. But he loved it because he could be persuaded otherwise, you know, and you could change his mind. And he could, and so it really,

it wasn't even a performance so much for him. It's just who he was, a man who joyfully and doggedly wanted to pursue the truth.

That's absolutely true. And Michael, when you talk about how strong he was, maybe this is not of interest to people, but it's one of the things I'm going to remember about him. He was also very physically strong. We used to play basketball together.

I remember I met Charlie back in 2015, and this was right when Turning Point was getting off the ground. He found out that I like to play pickup basketball and said, hey, I'm in DC a lot. I'm always looking for some people to play basketball with. We should play. And then before we

actually got the chance to play together, Charlie said, you know what? We should do a one-on-one basketball game. Where I was with a different organization at the time, he was a Turning Point. We'll say, it's Turning Point versus your group,

and we're going to mop the floor with him. This will make me look amazing. And I showed up to play Charlie, and he beat me handily, was just draining three-pointers, was backing me down in the post. And he caught me off guard. He took me by surprise. And I think he did that not just on the basketball court.

He did that in so many ways. If you would have said 10 years ago that Turning Point USA would be truly influencing presidential elections, I think there's a case to be made that those battleground states where they had a massive turnout to vote operation, you could say that changed the course of American history, what Charlie did.

And I think of this video on the night of the election, I think of the video of Charlie finding out and breaking down in tears when Donald Trump won the election. Yes, yes. And he had every right to do so because you could say he played a bigger role than anyone.

It's not even just that he helped out in an election or two elections or the rise of the president or anything like that. Charlie Kirk was the preeminent political talent of our generation. Full stop, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And what is, that is I think for a lot of people what is so shocking about this. What is even more astounding is that he was a great guy. He was a great guy and people in politics, even people that you sometimes

like to work with or you know you do an event with or you campaign with, you know they're good on the stage but they're not the most moral virtuous people. You don't really want to hang out with them after the political event. Charlie was just a great guy who really, as talented as he was at politics, is as good-hearted a guy as he was off-camera. And you just almost never see that. You almost never see it. It's, he was singular. I mean, there's really no, you have to ask for the American right. Who's the leader now?

He created an unbelievable movement through the strength of his character and personality and his talents. And there's really no number two. It really was just him. And so, you know, people will make the comparison between him and the president. I think that's an apt comparison.

It would seem to me that the president obviously saw a lot of himself in Charlie. And as you were just describing the way that the shooting took place, it was not as was initially being reported on social media up close. It was not just a member of the crowd. The shooter reportedly was hundreds of yards away. I think people are having echoes to Butler, Pennsylvania. Is there any more information that's come out?

No, there's still, all we know the university just released a statement just a few moments ago saying that the entire campus was still on lockdown because they're not sure where the shooter is. Police are reportedly going through the campus library, all sorts of different dorm buildings and other facilities on campus. So again, that's the big fear here. This shooter is still on the loose. In the last few minutes, we've gotten a number of statements, everyone chiming in. President Biden just issued a statement, there's no place in our country for this kind of violence.

It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk's family and loved ones. And we also got a statement from Turning Point USA. They're going to be closing their offices for the next week, they said. They wrote to their staff, it is with a heavy heart that we, the Turning Point USA leadership team, write to notify you that early this afternoon, Charlie went to his eternal reward with Jesus

Christ in heaven. And Michael, I'm so glad that you're bringing up the very real faith that he had. I was just talking with our hair and makeup team about how some of the comfort that I find knowing that Charlie is a friend really did have a faith in Jesus Christ. And he was not a performative Christian.

No, he really believed it.

I don't have a doubt in my mind.

He really believed it.

I do not have a doubt in my mind. And you and I both know people, we all know people who might say one thing and live a different way. Charlie's life bore fruit. Charlie was real in his faith and I saw a tweet of his from earlier this week where he just wrote, Jesus defeated death so you can live.

I saw it, I saw it when he posted it.

Yeah, and as heartbreaking as his physical death here on earth is, Charlie is now alive in Jesus Christ. And for all of us here at Daily Wire, for the people watching at home right now, there is comfort in knowing that Charlie is reaping his eternal reward right now because of that fact. And I know that's a comfort to me. I'm just processing all this right now. I know that's a comfort to me. I know it is to you as well, and I hope it is to our audience as

well that there is peace that we can have knowing that in Jesus. Well, thank you, Cabot. Please let us know as more information comes out. I appreciate your being here. I appreciate your perspective and your close knowledge of Charlie. And I know everyone else appreciates that, too. We're turning now to another friend of Charlie's and a friend of ours, Daily Wire's very own Isabel Brown. Isabel, for the audience that doesn't know, Iselle's spent a lot of time around TPUSA. That's where we all first were introduced to Isabelle.

Your thoughts.

Yeah, Michael, truthfully, and I hope I can get through this with you all, but I hope you shared my heartbreak actively as we continue to process this information as it comes out in real time. You know, in truth, Michael,

I was so incredibly privileged over the past eight years or so, not just to know Charlie as the influential figure that he was and the voice that he was for the conservative movement, the change maker that he was for our country, but to have an incredibly intimate behind the scenes relationship with Charlie and to see the impact that he made on people's individual lives in such powerful ways. I met Charlie for the first time in 2017 at the Young Women's Leadership Summit with

Turning Point USA. My first introduction to the conservative movement, to this fight that he was so passionate about and dedicated his entire life to, every fiber of his being to, every day, day in and day out, and was very closely mentored by Charlie over the years that followed. One of his first major speaking events was while I was a student activist at Colorado State University, in which he visited our campus,

and we got right in there with the riffraff and ruckus of the protests, with the rise of Antifa, the backlash that he often got from the left, but he had a smile on his face through every single second, even in the midst of what can only be described as insane, mind-altering controversy from the heart of America's college campuses. And over the years, I have been so unbelievably privileged to learn from Charlie.

As a content creator, he gave me really my first start as a creator and helped foster me in that regard. In traditional media, I had the privilege of co-hosting his radio show with him for a few months there and doing some live stream coverage of the 2020 election for weeks on end up till 3, 4 in the morning. And even just as recently as last Tuesday, getting to share the stage with Charlie, who

undoubtedly is the most rooted in moral clarity voice I can imagine for this young generation, where we addressed some of the pro-life supporters of that movement in California, Central California, urging for a return to morality as our society and the basis of our common shared humanity.

But what people don't see about Charlie

when they

see his radio show or they see him on TV or they see his speeches to the masses on college campuses is the Charlie that you and I have been so privileged to know over the past few years, the guy I spent an hour and a half with last week debating the ins and outs of theological conversations and talking about heaven and purgatory and the mother of our Lord Mary. We had such a powerful conversation just about a week ago together and to share the stage and to be encouraging this next generation to embrace our cross

to pick it up and carry it and to know that there are eternal rewards for this fight that we're fighting. Charlie really believed with every fiber of his being that this wasn't a political race, this wasn't about installing the next president of the United States that shared your personal policy prescriptions for how to save America. This was a spiritual battle. This was our obligation to pick up our cross for our society and for

our generation to reinstate what is good and true and beautiful consequences be damned and I will forever be inspired by him. I truly owe my life to Charlie. I met my husband at a turning point USA conference because we were both working at TP USA. My daughter exists because of that chance encounter with my now husband and truly my entire worldview has been

shaped more by Charlie Kirk than any other voice in the world. We are hurting desperately for the loss of our great friend, and I ask that everyone watching this today pray for his beautiful family, his wife and his children. Pray for the loss that we will experience as a movement because of this, but also pray in thanksgiving because I truly do believe, especially based on the very theological conversation

we just had the other day, that Charlie is indeed more alive than you and I are today. And I thank God for that. I thank God for the fact that he is rejoicing in heaven in unity with our God and our Savior, and to know that he will continue

inspiring so many more people and the direction of this great country for generations to come.

You know, I love that you mentioned that you were going back and forth on theology with Charlie because over the years, I mean, this is going back many, many years at this point, we would talk about all sorts of things privately and in public, politics or whatever, the conservative movement, but mostly what he wanted to talk about was religion and politics and you know often we would really kind of give it to each other on camera, you kind of you know, razz each other a little bit and some people I think get this impression that the way he was thinking about religion or would talk about religion was, I don't

know, too full of slogans or something, you know, just because he would have fun with his friends about this. But to those people I say, and I know you can attest to this, if you thought he was good talking about religion on camera, you should have heard him off camera. You should have heard how he would talk about religion off camera. It was even more impressive.

It was even, well, yes, it does inspire confidence for people, many, many, many people who are grieving today. Isabel, thank you so much. We're going to have Ben coming on, and Isabel, I'm sure as more comes out, you know, we'll be seeing you and chatting with you in the coming days. Thank you again.

We're going to have Ben coming on later on. He'll be coming on shortly. For those who are just tuning in, I know this is a live stream and a lot of information has been flying around all day. Charlie Kirk is dead. The generational political talent, the most important young voice in American politics, was shot at a campus event, one of the many campus events that he does where he was always willing to hear out the other side graciously debate ideas.

We have basically no information about the shooter. The federal government is obviously actively investigating the President of the United States. For those who missed it, it says, The great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth of the United States better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out

to his beautiful wife, Erica, and his family. Charlie, we love you. Joining us now is The Daily Wire's very own Megan Basham. Megan, your thoughts.

You know, I'm struggling, Michael, between feeling angry and feeling a lot of rage about what's happened today, but also looking at Charlie's model of what he showed us, that what changes hearts and minds is conversation, is debate, is not violence. And that's what Charlie was about. And as I look at the legacy

he left, particularly with TPUSA Faith, now that's how I really came to know him and came to be involved with the TPUSA organization. I was speaking to him just a couple of days ago. We were talking about the violent outbreak in Charlotte and the violence that we've seen here. And he just always encouraged more and more conversation.

And a friend immediately texted me today as soon as it was confirmed that we had lost him and she said, she's a pastor's wife and her pastor with her both texted me and said, Charlie died a martyr and we should be encouraged and inspired by his boldness and by the courage that he showed. And it brought to mind, you know, that famous maxim that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And the church had become so important to him

in recent years. And that's why he would debate it so much with friends. Now, Charlie and I were on the same page, Protestant evangelical. So we were obviously in the right, but I look at what he clearly came to understand

in a depth that you maybe wouldn't have guessed at when he first burst onto the scene as, you know, this 18-year-old fiery, you know, political demagogue. And then he would go on to show this spiritual depth that as he grew realized there was more to the political conversations that we were having than simply free markets. There was a spiritual battle happening and that to really recover the greatness of America we had to recover our biblical

values, we had to recover the moral grounding, the Christian biblical grounding that we started with, and that's what TPUSA Faith was so much about. And when you heard him speak, what absolutely fired me up was not just his fearlessness, but his graciousness. You never heard Charlie talk about the left the way they talk about him.

Never.

You would never hear him celebrating someone else's pain or violence inflicted upon them. And as I look at some of the commentary that's already swirling, like again, you're tempted to just want to indulge a fury that is not the answer right now.

And I'm really looking to what he did, which was continue discussion and debate fearlessly. And look, he certainly was someone who knew that every time he went out and spoke publicly, that he was at risk and he did it anyway, because that's how important the truth was to him.

And so when I look at that, that can't help but inspire me to keep speaking, to keep talking, to keep carrying that message of the biblical values that our nation needs even for those who hated him, who hate him now, they still need that message and that's why

it's important that we keep talking. You know I keep coming back to, this happens whenever anyone dies. You have this grief not only for the person but for the future that you had imagined for that person. You say, well, so and so can't have died because we were going to go skiing next week. It can't, but you weren't really. You just, you had that idea but that, you know, you're not promised tomorrow.

And with Charlie, people were just so confident in his future. The man was just going to be president. He just was. And I remember, some years ago now, I had completed the Lincoln Fellowship at the Claremont Institute, which is one of these conservative fellowships, very interesting. It offers you an education

that usually you don't get these days on college campuses. And I was talking to some friends and I said, you know, Charlie would be good for this. At the time, I don't know, he was still young, obviously started his political career at what's 18. And someone said, would Charlie be interested in that? You know, I don't know, I mean, he he's like he dropped out of school and I don't know if he's really

and I said no what are you talking about so this guy has the most impressive political skill of any one of his generation he's got the most impressive political drive of any one of his generation he didn't go to college because college is generally usually often a waste of time and money these days. But you got this unbelievably talented, skill-driven person. He's the perfect candidate, of course, because that was one of the few things that he was

missing, some book learning. And then he dives in, and of course, he goes in deeper than virtually everybody. He just would devour knowledge, devour skill. He was so unbelievably enthusiastic. I'm not that much older than Charlie was. And Charlie was 31 years old.

And he started running Republican politics about age three, I think. But he really launched at age 18, launched TPUSA. And it just grew and grew and grew. I remember the last time I saw it, I was supposed to see him in 12 days. And the last time that I saw him, it wasn't that long ago, TPUSA event. And I said, every time I go to one of these, it started out there were 500 people, then there were 1000

people, then there were 2000 people, then there were a thousand people, then there were 2,000 people, then there were 7,000 people. It just seemed like the sky was the limit. And one of the feelings of injustice that one feels, I think, is that we don't even know what would Charlie have looked like a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. His rise, and I don't just mean his popularity, I mean his personal development, his personal maturity, his growth in virtue, his growth in knowledge was so rapid. You just think, man, you just robbed us of what that guy could have been five years from

now, already so impressive, what he could have been five years, ten years from now. But of course, you know...

With $10,000, Michael, I mean he started with $10,000 at 18 years old, and we now have what? 3,500 chapters of TPUSA all over the country on college campuses, on high school campuses, that was a little over 10 years he accomplished that much. So absolutely. What would he have done with 20, 30 more years, 40 more years, 50 more years. Um, so I think that is probably a lot where the anger

comes from that you go, there was so much that Charlie could have done and yet we know that the Lord in his providence allowed him to do how much he did in that short time that he enabled him and gifted him with these incredible talents that he had to be able to persuade people, to be able to inspire people and to do that much inspiring in such a short period of time.

Yes, there is a sense, you know, you only see the story in reverse. You only see the story in the rearview mirror. The things sometimes don't feel as though they make sense at the moment. It's only when you look back at the narrative of a life that you see them all start to make sense. And one of Charlie's many, many accolades, of course, he had many, many, but one of them

that I know is very dear to him was that he was parodied on South Park. And I remember the minute I saw it, and not just, it was the main, the great character on South Park was Charlie, you know, had Charlie's haircut and everything. I remember the second I saw it, I said, man, that kid has transcended. He has made it now. He is truly the generational political figure and no one, of course, could have predicted. No one did predict that anything like this could have happened.

And I suppose providence of it all is a great consolation and I feel that. I trust God in everything and I am reminded to ask myself where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth. But there is something that I recoil against and I know we're going to hear a lot of it in coming days which is, you know, well, we should actually be happy because, you know, Charlie had religion and living faith and he's with his Redeemer now so we should really be happy.

We shouldn't be sad. No, we should be sad. We should be sad. This is a very sad thing. Death is a very bad thing and Jesus wept when his friend died before he raised his friend from the dead.

This is bad. This is bad and evil, just terrible. And that's not the end of the story. Obviously, that's not the end of the story. But on the Catholic side of things, which I'm sure were Charlie here, we'd have a great deal of fun talking about.

There was a canonization of the first millennial saint. Amazing timing. A few days ago, Carlo Acutis, St. Carlo Acutis. Because he was so young, his parents were there. So it's kind of strange, your parents could be there at the canonization. And they looked kind of sad. And people said, why are they sad? Are their kids being named a saint? And he said, I don't know if they're sad or not, but I'll tell you one thing. It would be perfectly fine for them to be sad because death is bad.

Death is bad and the religion that we all have, the religion that Charlie felt very, very deeply and believed very, very deeply is a religion that doesn't contradict the world, doesn't contradict reason, doesn't contradict nature, that it actually acknowledges reality and that prays for grace and looks toward the God who perfects nature, you know, the grace that lifts us above nature. And so, it's okay, it's okay to mourn and to grieve and to be sad even as one can have

and even as one feels a theological confidence that all will be well

and all will work out in the long run. Yeah and what I'm really sad for is not just the loss of Charlie but what it means for the nation that he fought so hard for. Yes. Because as I look at the landscape and I look at the rhetoric and what it contributed to this,

you know, two days ago, CNN had a panel in which they were extremely dishonestly framing him

as a racist for correctly delineating what happened here in Charlotte. And so, you know, there's a moment here, even as a Christian, where you sit here and go, this is violence compounded upon violence, Lord. And it's jarring to see what's happening to political opponents who at one point, we would at least go, look, we see the world the same. We at least have the same general value system, even if we don't agree with how that should work itself out.

And I think it's really hard for me right now. I actually had to log off because some of the responses already being thrown around on MSNBC, coming in the wake of what was said on CNN about Charlie, was just so dispiriting. Doesn't even begin to capture the feeling.

But it makes me hurt for my nation that this is their response and that they couldn't appreciate that half of the country at least was not appreciating the patriotism, the love of country, the spiritual grounding of someone like a Charlie Kirk. It's appalling that you have people who are at the pinnacle of our media platforms not recognizing what he contributed to this nation. And so that's the part that's maybe most hurtful to me

is that I look at this and go, this is a very bad place for our nation. And what I really do hope is that it does represent a turning point. That maybe I should have more faith in the left right now than I do,

that they stop and take a look at the kind of rhetoric they're using and how they're describing people who have different views than they do and how they react to the violence done to people who have different views than they do because we saw this with President Trump and we see it now with Charlie Kirk and I really hope that it will cause some reflection deep in the soul of some of the people who have said

untrue and really deeply irresponsible things about him in the last few days

and even today. I wouldn't hold your breath Megan I hate to I hate to be that guy but I wouldn't hold your breath given the reaction that we've seen as you said. I don't even want to give it attention, but the reaction after Charlie was shot by mainstream left-wing outlets is so unconscionable. I'm not even going to say what they said.

I share your sense of dispiritedness by that fact because it reminds me of the John Donne poem, you know, no man is an island entire unto himself, you know, each man's death diminishes me because I'm a man. And one would hope that our countrymen, people who are in our political community would feel that about basically anyone, certainly any innocent person who was killed and especially about a figure as important, as significant, as such a wonderful force in the culture as Charlie Kirk.

And the fact that some people on the left don't feel that way and have already articulated that they don't feel that way. I guess there's a kind of a dual sadness that sets in, on the one hand because of the injustice to Charlie and to his family and to his friends and on the other hand because of what it says about our political community or lack thereof, it leaves open a question, do we still have a political community? I hope we do.

And he was building that and I think that's what we need to remember about Charlie is that he changed a lot of minds and that's why he was, let's say, feared by some on the left because he was somebody who had the talent and the persuasiveness and the intellect and most importantly, the wisdom, the spiritual wisdom to communicate the truth in such a way that it changed hearts and minds.

And that is what earned him some of those political enemies that he had was because he was a force to be reckoned with. And so, that's something that I also take comfort in that I'm going to look at his legacy and go, how do I emulate what Charlie Kirk was accomplishing there?

And I think he accomplished it better than anyone else in his generation, certainly.

What happens now to that movement? I mean, as you mentioned, he was building this movement that was, it was certainly a conservative movement, it was a right-wing movement, but to some degree it transcended a traditional left-right in as much as he was building a new coalition, a broader coalition. He was extraordinarily influential in President Trump's re-election, and President Trump won the popular vote as a Republican for the first time in 20 years.

So I think there is no overstatement at all to say that Charlie was really building something broader than the old kind of desiccated right wing. And he was the guy. He was the guy for that. And so I guess my question is, where does it go from here? Well, you know, you can't replace a talent

like Charlie Kirk. I think there's a reason that we don't often see figures arise on the scene the way that he did because we don't typically see people with that level of skill and ability. But what he did do was impart those skills and abilities

and that talent to some degree to so many people who loved him and followed him. And so I think that what we're going to see is a continuation of that because look, the people who came into TPUSA faith, who came into TPUSA, that energy, that love of country is still there and they're going to want to carry out that mission. And in fact, what I think is that you're going to see a redoubling of that mission. And I hope and pray, actually, that this incident, and I know that Charlie would hope and pray this,

opens some eyes to what the reality of our political and spiritual battle is. And I think that it will. I think there will be a lot of people who will suddenly, hopefully, be arrested and realize this is what the rhetoric of the left does. This is what this man was

fighting against. He wanted a unified country, a peaceful country where people like him, other people with families and young children could thrive, where they could pursue their dreams and I think that you're going to see a young generation now that looks to him as the model of that. So, in that bizarre way, I'm also hopeful that I think, maybe I'm more hopeful than you are, Michael, but I do hope and pray that this opens up some eyes

and I think it will. And I think those who were already in the TPUSA family, who already went to the conferences, I think they're gonna continue to redouble their efforts. And I really do believe that this is going to convince some people that, gosh, I don't want to be a part of a movement or a political party or an ideology that

doesn't recognize the goodness of someone who was a patriot, who loved the Lord and was working hard to ensure that we all had access to the kind of success that he achieved.

Yes, and I want to be clear, what we're discussing is the reaction in some quarters from people who didn't like Charlie and that as being particularly dispiriting. But what remains an open question is how this happened because I know there was a lot of misinformation flying around social media. Last I checked authorities have still not apprehended the shooter. The shooter is still at large. The shooter was not in the immediate vicinity of the event but was reportedly some 200 yards

away. Are you hearing any new information about him, any potential arrests or any explanation?

No, not yet. And in the time that we've been here on the air, I haven't had a chance to check. But the last I heard was the gentleman that we saw arrested, who was down on the ground, an older gentleman looked maybe about 60, balding with white hair, that he is not currently the suspect.

And so we don't know who did this. So all I can look to is, as I said, some of the rhetoric that I've heard in the last few days. And I'm actually praying for people like Van Jones and people at MSNBC who have been saying these things that that was not a factor, because I wouldn't want that on my conscience if it was. But I think at the very least, we can say that kind of irresponsible

rhetoric needs to be dealt with. They need to look in the mirror and realize that what Charlie Kirk stood for was vigorous debate and discussion and certainly not dishonestly tagging his political opponents with labels that they did not deserve and certainly had never earned. So you know that's all I can hope for at this point is that it causes some self-reflection.

Meg thanks so much for coming on. Wonderful to hear your thoughts on this. We are going to turn back now to Cabot, who has some updates on the situation. Cabot? Do we have Cabot yet? We don't have Cabot yet.

For those of you who are just tuning in, you've probably heard the news already. Our friend Charlie Kirk has died. He was shot at a campus event at a university in Utah. His shooter is still on the run, last we checked. The president has confirmed his death. He wrote, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth of the United States better

than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erica and family. Charlie, we love you. We turn now to Cabot. Cabot, any updates? I don't have you, Cabot. I see your mouth moving, but I don't have you Cabot, I see your mouth moving but I don't hear you. I still don't hear you. They'll work on the technical side and hopefully be able to bring Cabot in with an evolving

situation. The reports first came out some hours ago that Charlie had been shot at a campus event. You know, he regularly holds these events on campuses, ironically, to have an open discussion and to hear out people's ideas and there is where someone wanted to silence Charlie and has silenced Charlie for now. But the part of this that I think is really jarring to a lot of us and is causing an unyielding anger is that there are a lot of hucksters in politics, there are a lot of people who take cheap shots, there are a lot of people who treat politics merely as a game of points

to be scored, and there's always points scoring in politics, but Charlie consistently, from the beginning on down, was so gracious to his opponents, was so generous to his opponents, didn't try to get the cheap shot, didn't try to misrepresent what the other person said. Charlie would win debates on campuses and beyond all around the United States by clarifying what the other person would say, by trying to drill down to the heart of what his opponents really believed and to win a debate with the truth. Another, another aspect of Charlie's public life is that he wasn't just a talking head, and he wasn't just a politician, and he wasn't just a scholar or an academic or something.

He had a little bit of all of that. He was intellectually very curious, he was a voracious reader, he was quite articulate and had a massive mainstream media appeal and access. But he was a fighter, he was a real fighter, he wanted to get things done. He understood that prudence is the chief political virtue and you gotta do stuff, that politics is a practical science and a practical art. And when it comes to practical sciences and arts, you can measure it, you can test it.

In the last election cycle, Charlie was given a lot of responsibility to get out the vote. And there were plenty of people who doubted that he can do it just as he's faced doubters for his entire career going back to the time that he was a teenager. And what happened? The same thing that happened at every other point when people doubted him in his career. He delivered.

He over-delivered. He practically speaking proved his vision correct and his abilities in politics. He was just so, more than any other political figure I can think of, certainly from this generation and even in the country, other than I suppose the president himself, he was so lively, he was so politically lively, in person, in the flesh, moving, doing, shaping, building. We're joined now, I believe, with technical proficiency by Cabot Phillips. Cabot, any updates?

Yeah, we're still combing through all the latest reports from the university. Like you mentioned earlier, initially it appeared that the shooter was apprehended. We now know the shooter is at large. Police say they have not recovered the weapon that was used. They still do not know who the shooter is. But right now we are getting footage posted online that appears to show the shooter on the roof of an adjacent building.

The university had said this is the building where it happened. We have not confirmed the veracity of this video, but you can see for yourself right there on the screen. There does appear to be a figure up on that roof. Again, we have not confirmed the authenticity of this video, but it is being widely circulated right now online. There is a separate video that has been posted. I don't know if we

have access to that one right now. It's only about three or four seconds long, but it's filmed looking from Charlie's vantage point out into the crowd. Right as you see a bullet ring out, you see the crowd begin to scatter. And off in the distance on that same building, you can see a figure running along the roof. That's this video right here.

Right at the top there, I don't know if we can slow it down in any way, but in that video, you can see what appears to be a shooter or an individual running on the roof. Again, we are still working to confirm those videos and their authenticity, but that is what we're seeing right now. Again, you can't help but think of Butler, Pennsylvania,

where you see an individual on a roof overlooking an event like this. You can see the similarities there. Right now, police are still issuing warnings to students, reminding them that the shooter is not in fact in custody. I think a lot of people there were relieved initially to think that they had the suspect. They do not. The suspect is very much at large.

The university issued a statement warning students to stay where they are, but if they had not yet evacuated campus and they were trying to get out of campus, quote, police will come and escort you out of the building. So they are clearly very concerned, wanting to make sure that students are not walking around campus. There could still be a threat very present right there.

We're getting reports now that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of law enforcement combing through buildings on campus, combing through streets and nearby areas there. But this is, as you can imagine, going to be a nationwide manhunt. President Trump recently also just issued a statement ordering all American flags flown at half-mast in honor of Charlie. So President Trump continuing to weigh in there as well.

But again, the big news right now, searching for this shooter. It looks like we have video of them, have not verified it, but it looks like we have video of where they were. Where are they now though?

To look at that video, first of all, one asks, assuming the video is legitimate, one has to ask, okay, was it, was the video taken before or after the shooting? If it was taken before, one has to wonder why some security measure wasn't taken. If someone sees a guy lying prone on a roof, why wouldn't someone report this? Was it reported? What occurred?

If it was taken afterward, what was that person doing there? When did he run off? I know, Cabot, you're saying this is potentially still a dangerous situation for the students, for the attendees and obviously it must be treated as such But I don't think anyone believes that that shooter on the roof poses a threat to anyone It seems clear enough to me that the person was aiming for Charlie

This wasn't a mass shooting event. This wasn't this this was extraordinarily targeted. It's even more chilling than the assassination of Charlie Kirk would be in any case. It raises so, so many questions about what was behind this, how this could happen. You mentioned Cabot that the president has just issued a proclamation honoring the memory of Charlie Kirk. I have it here. As a mark of respect, this is obviously from the

White House, as a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution of the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds at all military posts and naval stations and on all naval vessels of the federal government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its territories

until sunset September 14th, 2025. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations. In witness hereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 10th day of September in the period in the year of our Lord 2025 and of the independence of the United States of America, the 250th. This is, of course, in the immeasurable grief that Charlie's family and friends and admirers are feeling. This is an amazing honor that every federal United States flag on planet

Earth will be flown at half-staff in his memory and in his honor, and it's a due honor indeed.

It absolutely is. We also saw a statement from President Biden come in. President Obama also

issuing a statement offering his condolences saying that you know we're still not sure yet what the motivation was for this crime but we you know offer our support. I just lost the full statement but President Obama chiming in as well. As you can imagine, we have also seen a number of Democratic lawmakers and Democratic folks in the media beginning to weigh in on the gun control side of this. I'll let other people look at that. We're not even going to dignify that right now, but people are getting that angle in as well. But Michael, I think it's, I've loved listening to what you're saying

as someone who was also a friend of Charlie, the fact that you talk about his optimism, his just insatiable drive to build what he did. I think a lot of people, especially young people right now, college students, and you spoke to many turning point chapters,

I've spoken to many turning point chapters, the way that the students looked up to him. A lot of them said, yeah, I've been following Charlie since I was in high school, and he's just always been there. But we know Charlie, it wasn't always that way.

10 years ago, he was grinding to build this organization. He was fighting tooth and nail to provide young conservatives with a voice to embolden them. I can't tell you how many college students I met who told me, yeah, the reason I'm involved in all of this, the reason I even feel secure in speaking out about being conservative is because of Charlie Kirk, making it feel socially acceptable. And the number of young people

who got to campus and thought, is there anyone else who agrees with me? Can I even be bold enough to speak out? And the number of those young people who looked around, they saw a turning point chapter on their campus, or Charlie came to their campus and spoke.

And then those students said, I can do this. There's other young people like me. I'm going to have the courage to do it. I think that is a legacy that Charlie is going to leave. And I think of some of the early years. I went to virtually every single turning point of their big annual conference every year since 2015.

The 2015 event was in a little tiny ballroom at a Sheraton. There were maybe 100 students there. And I went up to Charlie and I said, this is so cool. You filled up a whole room with students.

What an amazing accomplishment. And you said, we're just getting started. Yes, the last time I saw it, I said, wow, how many people is this this time? And you just think, the sky, in everyone's mind, the sky was the limit. Cabot, thank you very much. We have our friend Ben Shapiro, another friend of Charlie's, on now. So Cabot, we'll catch back up with you as there are updates that come in. Ben, your

thoughts on a terrible day?

Yeah, I can't. I mean, there's legit nothing to say. I mean, it's rare that, you know, there's nothing to say, but there's truly nothing to say. I mean, unthinkable, absolutely unthinkable. I mean, I've known Charlie Kirk since Charlie was 18 years old. I met Charlie when I was a significantly younger man, that was 13 years ago. So I was in my late 20s and I was working at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. I met Charlie Kirk when he was a fresh-faced, bushy-tailed youngster who started in Turning Point USA,

legitimately right out of high school. And he'd already found a couple of seed founders, but he was kind of walking around the David Horowitz Freedom Center event looking for donors. And I started introducing him around to donors.

And I remember turning to Jeremy Boring, a co-founder here at Daily Wire, and turning to him at the time, because we both worked there, and saying, that kid is going to be the head of the RNC. And I was wrong. He wasn't the head of the RNC.

He created his own organization that was significantly more important than the RNC, the most important conservative organization in the country. And Charlie was unendingly energetic, optimistic, a coalition builder. Somebody got better at everything that he did, truly. I mean, I watched him from his youngest days. He got better at speaking. He got better at debating. He got

better at fundraising. He was he's great at all of these things, but the thing that that there's so many kind of layers of of horror here. so many layers were obviously just as a human being. Child is a 31 year old man who believed in God as a Christian. He believed in Christ. He's with God now.

He had a wife and two children, two very, very young children who will now grow up without a father. And he was a young single guy, right? I mean, now he's a full-grown adult man with family, preaching in favor of marriage and family and religion and all the things that actually matter to all of us. And what does it mean for our country?

Truly, what does it mean for our country? When for the crime of speaking freely, having normal debates in public, Charlie lost his life. Charlie was an unending well of energy, just endless energy, bundle of energy, like exhausting levels of energy, just endless energy, bundle of energy, exhausting levels of energy, actually. And yet, what stopped Charlie Kirk is a murderer's bullet, is an assassin's bullet.

We don't know who the assassin is yet. We don't know what the cause of the assassin was yet. I'm sure it will be political because it would be unthinkable for it not to be. But something has happened in our country that is so massively and unbelievably horrifying and dangerous. And the murder of a young, beautiful person for the crime of speaking freely and passionately about the topics that matter is just, it's beyond me.

It's beyond, I think, all of us. And it's a symptom of a broader ill in American society, an ill that says that politics are blood sport, that if you challenge ideas, that you're challenging somebody's existence, and therefore you are fair game to be murdered in cold blood, in public, in front of everyone. And we've seen so many instances of violence being excused and

looked away, particularly by the political left these days. And it is – I fear that it's not going to end. I fear that it only gets worse from here. That's my fear. It's a moment for, I think, where we could, as a country, say no more of this. We've had periods in American history like this before, the 1960s and 70s being one. At a certain point, Americans said, no, we're not doing this anymore, but I wonder if the American body politic has the immune response necessary to stop this massive evil from ever happening again in our country.

Then after I have all those sort of political thoughts and all that and meander my way around, what I come back to is, poor Charlie. That's really what I come back to. I understand he's with God now and I understand that for Christians, that's a cause for celebration, but I just have to say that in my own view of Charlie Kirk, he's a person who deserved 90 more years of life.

He deserved to make a difference on this planet in favor of the country that he loved for decades more. He deserved to sit and raise his family. You deserve to make a difference on this planet in favor of the country that you love for decades more. You deserve to sit and raise his family. You deserve to be able to bounce the children on his knee and hug them and kiss them good night. And whoever is responsible for this.

There are no words for the evil that this person has just inflicted on not only Charlie's family, but on the country, and he made the world a significantly worse place today.

You know, Charlie, as you point out, was very good at many things and kept getting better and better and better at all of those things. At organizing, at getting out the vote, at fundraising, at messaging, at persuading, at reading, at everything, at understanding faith, at reading, at every, just at everything, at understanding faith, at everything, everything. And the thing, one of the things that he had absolutely been dominating on, had become synonymous with, was open debate with your ideological opponents. Gracious, charitable, open debate anywhere with your ideological opponents.

He, a lot of people have done that over the years, but he was the man for that in this moment in our time. And one has this sinking feeling, if he did that and he did it so well, and they killed that guy, what comes next?

Yeah, I mean, I've had this thought myself a lot. Obviously, you know, some of us have been doing that on campuses for a very long time, right? And, and I've been in a lot of situations that felt, you know, not particularly safe. I mean, when I spoke at Berkeley years ago, they required something like 500 police officers to quote unquote, ensure my safety. And I always thought it was overkill.

I really did. I mean, I had been wearing bulletproof vests at these events for years, specifically because security told me that it wasn't overkill, but I always thought it was overkill.

I always thought, you know, this is a great country. This is not a country where people get murdered for just speaking freely about political issues of the day. in America that I grew up in that didn't do this sort of thing, that would never tolerate this, certainly would never celebrate this sort of thing, certainly would never go on TV and talk about the justification, the emotional justification for this sort of thing, or go on TV as we're actually seeing hosts today do and try to make excuses or suggest that because Charlie had the wrong views that somehow he had contributed to this or this sort of

monstrous response. That's not the country that I grew up in. And so you know what Michael you've done it too every time you go to a college campus you'll have friends and family who will say things like well don't you feel unsafe and my answer was always no I never felt unsafe. Yeah even if I had security I said I'm the safest guy in the building I've got

security I've got or something like that. And even then, I guess there's this sense of, well, look, it could never really go south. It couldn't, come on, you know, we're just debating ideas. Come on, we're just giving a college lecture or something. I mean, it's why even at this moment, I'm having trouble accepting this.

Processing this. It's impossible to process. It's impossible to process. It's impossible to process. That's right. Yes. And now, and now I will say that just on a public policy basis, we just, this is the end of all outdoor public events. Like they're done. I mean, in terms of political events, it's over. And we saw the president of the United States almost shot in the head during an outdoor public event. We saw Charlie Kirk murdered in front of all of us at an outdoor public event.

That's over, and we're going to lose something with that. And we're going to lose something in losing debate. We're going to like something, something is broken in this country, deeply, deeply broken in this country for somebody like Charlie Kirk to just be assassinated again for the great crime of speaking. What used to just be known as sort of traditional conservative values.

That is that is normal. It's a political assassination. It's not just a murder. It's a political assassination. It's the worst political assassination in half a century in this country. It really is. I mean, there have been assassination attempts on presidents. Obviously, Ronald Reagan was shot. There's an attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Both of them lived the actual full scale murder of a 31-year-old superstar like Charlie for the great crime of saying things on college campuses that people didn't want to hear, something needs

to change. Something needs to change. And the people who lead that change cannot be people who agreed with Charlie. It needs to be the people who disagree with Charlie. Because I promise you that when the political motivation of the person who did this comes out, it's not going to be somebody who agreed with Charlie. It's not going to be somebody who was warm to Charlie's message.

It's going to be somebody who is of the belief that because Charlie spoke words, words are a form of violence and an erasure of identity and therefore Charlie has to be silenced. It's horrifying. Nobody should believe that in a free republic. The foundations of the republic, I don't really believe I'm exaggerating when I say this shakes the foundations of the country. Because if we cannot trust each other to have normal conversations in public about basic issues of governance and policy and values. How the hell are we supposed to have a country together? How? It's not possible.

That's right. I agree. Ben, I'm going to leave the stream to you. And I know a lot of people are going to tune in and be processing this all together. And I'm sure all of us will be praying. Good to see you, pal.

Yeah, well, we all need to be praying. Good to see you, pal. Yeah, well, we all need to be praying. We need to keep praying for Charlie, for his family, and for the country, most of all. I appreciate it, Michael. All right, folks, so if you're just joining us right now, the reason that we are broadcasting right now is because one of the most tragic things in modern American history has now befallen the country. One of the greatest acts of evil in modern American history has now befallen the country, the assassination of my friend and a truly great human being, Charlie Kirk. Charlie was shot to death a little bit earlier today. He was shot to death in Utah. He was speaking at a college campus. He was doing one of his usual sort of tete-a-tete

with a variety of students where he would have sort of an open setting and people would come up and they would ask him questions and they would go at him and he'd go back at them. Then there'd be a viral clip, all in good fun, all an element of sort of the political debate

that happens in the country just as a matter of course, and has been the legacy of this country different than virtually all other countries in the history of the world. Well, Charlie was doing that when suddenly a shot rang out. Apparently the shot was fired from approximately 200 yards away from on top of a building and the bullet struck Charlie in the neck. And by the footage, which I certainly do not recommend watching, I hope that people stop trafficking the footage because it is horrifying in every way. And Charlie should not be remembered like that.

He should be remembered for what he was, which was a political superstar. And I'll get to my feelings for Charlie in a second and my experiences with Charlie and who Charlie was. The shot rang out from about 200 yards away, and it looks like, effectively, Charlie, he survived until he got to the hospital, but it looks like he was almost instantaneously killed.

It's one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen in my entire life. I've known Charlie Kirk since he was 18 years old, which means that I would have been about 28, about 10 years older than Charlie. I was working at the time at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where I was the editor-in-chief of a website called Truth Revolved. Charlie showed up at The Breakers, which is kind of a ritzy hotel in Palm Beach. He was fundraising.

He had just started an organization that he was introducing around as Turning Point USA. Nobody ever heard of it.

Nobody ever heard of him.

I met Charlie. Charlie was an unending ball of energy at 18 years old. One of the things that I've said around the company before is you cannot teach grit. It's a thing that cannot be taught. You either have it or you don't. There is no person with more grit, more get-go, more gumption, more enthusiasm and energy than Charlie Girth. Didn't exist. It was almost exhausting. When Charlie was at the Breakers and we met Charlie and he was going around, introducing, just moving around the room, introducing himself to everybody saying he wanted to start a conservative activist organization that was going to transform how young people thought about politics.

I remember turning to Jeremy Boring, who was also at David Horace Freedom Center at the time, and saying to Jeremy, that kid is going to be the head of the RNC one day. We agreed on that at the time, and I've been saying it for years. It turns out that Charlie was significantly more than that. It turns out that Charlie ended up founding the single most important political conservative organization of our era, Interning Point USA,

driving hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions of people to the polls, registering voters, putting up these enormous events that drew together tens of thousands of conservatives at one time, helping to lead the debates on the critical issues,

going to college campuses. Again, all of this was because Charlie just never stopped moving, just never, ever stopped

moving.

And I watched Charlie grow from the outside. Obviously, Charlie and I are friends, but Charlie had closer friends than I was with Charlie. He had family, obviously, but watching Charlie over the course of his career from a fairly decent vantage point, Charlie was dedicated to making the country better and to making himself better at things. I remember when Charlie first started, he wasn't an amazing speaker.

By the time he finished, he was a terrific speaker. Charlie didn't start off as somebody who was fluent in debate. By the time he finished, he was terrific at debate. Charlie started off as a pretty good fundraiser. He ended as an amazing fundraiser. Charlie Kirk was a coalition builder. He was somebody who's focused on the idea that in order to win power, you actually, to effectuate change, you actually

do have to build coalitions. And that means talking to wide varieties of people, many of whom disagree with one another. And that's a difficult business. It's a dirty business. It means that you're talking with a bunch of people you don't agree with nearly all the time. And Charlie mastered that art. On a personal level, Charlie, I watched him grow from a very young man, I mean, 18 years old, to become a father of two, become a husband. I watched Charlie grow in his religious belief. I mean, if you watch tapes of Charlie over the course of the last year, he almost invariably talks about God, talks about

the Bible, talks about his belief in Christ. And Charlie was murdered for the great crime of speaking publicly about controversial issues with people in a normal conversation, in a normal debate and discussion setting. That is why he was murdered. We don't know yet the identity of the person who murdered Charlie Kirk, who assassinated Charlie Kirk. We don't know who that person was. The president of the United States has ordered all flags across the country lowered to half-staff in honor of Charlie Kirk. Again, I can't even believe

these are words that are coming out of my mouth. I cannot even believe it because Charlie was 31 years old. He was 31 years old. Absolutely just horrifying. And I know that on a religious level, obviously he's with God now. And for many people that are religious, that's a cause for rejoicing, not for despair. For me on behalf of the country,

I don't despair on Charlie's behalf. I also believe that Charlie's with God, but I despair on behalf of my country. I, you know, feel horrific for his, his family. I just think to myself, Charlie's sitting there and he's debating politics. And the next moment, the bullet is passing through his neck. And I just think poor Charlie, my friend person, I knew, person I knew pretty well from the time he was, again,

very, very young. It's just devastating in every way as possible for it to be devastating, just every way it's possible for it to be devastating. The President of the United States put out a statement on Truth Social lamenting and mourning the death of Charlie

Kirk.

He said, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me. And now he's no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and family.

Charlie, we love you.

I don't know what this means for the country. I do not know what this means for America, truly. When political figures who just are out to discuss and debate in public are gunned down

in cold blood, I do not know what we can expect next. On a personal level, obviously, I spent an awful lot of time on college campuses doing the same sort of stuff, debating, being out there talking to people. I've had significant security concerns before. Obviously, when I was at Berkeley, for example, they required someone with 500 police officers. I always thought it was overkill. I really did. I thought, yeah, security team is saying you should put on a bulletproof vest. Okay, fine. I'll do it, but I think it's overkill. Do I need this many police officers? Nah, I mean, it's overkill. People would ask me about that. I'm sure Charlie had exactly the same feeling. In fact, I know Charlie had the same feeling because we'd had that conversation. That you feel like, okay, well, is it really that big? Okay, so somebody might take a swing

or somebody might yell at you. Is it really that big a deal? This is America. In America, you don't hurt people for having different political opinions. You don't kill people for having different political opinions. This is not what America is. It is the opposite of what America is. And then gradually, it seems that in this country, we have come to the conclusion that if somebody disagrees with you strenuously enough politically, that violence is now a necessity.

That if the systems don't align with what you wish they were, then murder is on the table. That if a person is murdered and you're a member of the media, that your first reaction should be to if they had the wrong political views, imply or say openly that perhaps it was their political views that brought this on them. It is a terrible, terrible moment.

And I don't know, to be honest with you, how we pull out of it, other than to just say utter intolerance for political violence of any way, shape or form. Utter intolerance of it. It is just awful.

I mean, I keep saying the same things over and over, but what do you say when somebody that you knew pretty well and somebody in the same line of work as you and somebody who was doing many of the things that you admired is just shot and killed? I'm hesitant to show the footage of the shooting,

so I'm not going to, because I don't think there really is a purpose to showing the actual footage. It's horrifying. And again, I don't think that there is a reason for that. Apparently, there is going to be a press conference starting fairly soon here from the White House

about all of this. We'll obviously go to that when that happens. There is footage of Charlie interacting with the crowd at the Utah event. This is just moments before he was shot. That's clip two.

Charlie, he's wearing shirts to the crowd. Unbelievable.

MAGA hats and all the rest. He sits down and a few minutes later he was shot to death. You can see in the distance some of the buildings, presumably one of those was used as the overlook from which he was murdered. Charlie obviously is a family man. The footage, I can't even watch the footage with his kids. It's just terrible.

It's just the worst thing. Here's, but, but we should watch that footage together, because this is what happens when you let the evils of the human heart overcome you. You take people like Charlie Kirk with young kids out of the world for no reason other than you don't like his politics. Here's Charlie Kirk with his daughter on the Fox set.

It's clip five. Apparently, Charlie was rushed to the hospital by security. We know that he was still barely alive, apparently, in the car. I believe he died at the actual hospital. There was some news that had broken that he was in critical condition. There was a brief hope that he might be able to survive. But obviously, if you've watched the original tape of the shooting, I think that pretty

much everybody knew, even from the original tape, that that would have taken an extraordinary miracle. The miracle is that somebody like Charlie, who was a high school graduate, who never went to college, who built this thing out of nothing, was able to do that in this country. That is a miracle, and that's the miracle of the country. And I wonder whether that miracle is duplicable in a country where people are snuffed out at the age of 31 because people disagree with Charlie Kirk. The mainstream media, legacy media, some of them have been predictably awful.

MSNBC's Matt Dowd had one of the worst comments of the day. And I think we should point this out because people should understand that if this is the tack you choose to take, you are facilitating violence, truly. If you take the tack that if you say awful things in America, then the violence simply descends upon you or deserves to descend upon you because you are so threatening. That implication creates a permission structure for violence. You're not responsible for the shooter, but you are responsible for raising the temperature. I said this 1 million times over

the course of the last couple of years. Here's Matt Dowd, couldn't help himself, couldn't help himself. As Charlie's body was not yet cold, here's what Matt Dowd had to say over on MSNBC.

But following up with what was just said, he's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that's the environment we're in that people just, you can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then

saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that's the unfortunate environment

we're in. What an utter, complete piece of shit. I mean, truly, like to say that on the day that somebody is is murdered, that's your takeaway. The New York Times obituary, issuing similar critiques in the obituary quote, he was so vocal in his willingness to spread unsupported claims and outright lies. He said the drug hydroxychloroquine was 100% effective in treating the virus, which it is not. And Twitter temporarily barred him in early March, 2020,

but that move only added to his notoriety and seemed to support his claim that he was being muzzled by a liberal elite. Yes, that's the takeaway. Now that obviously, when, I lack the words. MSNBC's Katie Terr doing something similar. She suggested that the big worry here is that the Trump administration will

use this all as a justification for some further action that they don't like.

Because as we were just talking about a moment ago with with Alan, after one of the DOJ employees was allegedly attacked in Washington, D.C., that's what Donald Trump used as justification to send in federal troops into Washington, D.C., to get things under control, the car jacking situation. He used that. And I know it's hard to predict the future, Mark, but you can imagine the administration using this as

a justification for something.

I must admit, I'm at a loss to guess as to what happens next.

Unbelievable.

Well, Kash Patel or the FBI apparently is announcing they have caught the shooter. We'll bring you details as soon as we know. There is also supposed to be, I was mistaken earlier, the press conference is not from the White House. That press conference is apparently going to come from local authorities. So we will have more information then. Joining

me on the line is my friend Andrew Klavan. Drew, I don't even know what to ask you or what to say. I'm not sure there is anything to say and, you know, I was listening to you and so many of the things you said were things

that have been going through my mind. I met Charlie also when, you know, he must have been 18, 19 years old. I felt, I did not have your farsightedness. I looked at him and thought, nice guy, he's obviously very intelligent, but a little bit callow as he was then. And I remarked to you, I think not many months ago, that I was

really, really impressed with what he had turned himself into, that he reminded me in fact of you, because you were kind of callow when I met you too, and yet you have turned yourself into something far, far more important than you would have been if you had just not wanted to get better. That's what makes these people rise up, is that urge to take the gifts that God gave them and make them something else. And I have to say, and there's a little bit of, well, there's a lot of acid in my heart right now, and I want to avoid, you know, making the kind of big angry statements that you make at moments like this,

but when I was listening to Matthew Dowd, what I couldn't help but think was that, unlike what he was saying, that Charlie was doing the opposite of murder. What Charlie was doing was the opposite of murder. The opposite of murder is not joining hands and singing Kumbaya,

it's discussing things with people that you deeply, deeply disagree with on an intellectual idea-based level, and with respect, which Charlie did all the time. I do not think, I cannot remember a hateful word ever coming out of his mouth. I remember his stalwart disagreement,

his strong disagreement, his strong Christian faith and the Christian ethos that went with it. But I never remember him saying some of the things that we're all tempted to snap into in moments of confrontation I always remember him engaging on the level of ideas

And I just think that That's the amazing Difference I think that we're dealing with and I have to tell you that right this moment and I hope this will pass I trust it will pass right this moment. I also with, have a very dark feeling about this country. You know, when we started The Daily Wire, I remember sitting around with you guys and you're saying, somebody's saying that this is the most divided time ever, and my saying,

it's really not because when I grew up, people were being assassinated right and left. But the differences, the differences that then the people in authority, the people in the media, did not join in in the kind of rhetoric that makes it impossible for us to talk with one another. If everyone who disagrees with you is Hitler, I mean we live in a place where in the New York Times once the paper of record will call someone like Barry Weiss a middle of the road liberal Hitler, they'll compare her to Hitler.

How on earth, where on earth are the people supposed to go to let their anger cool off, to get more information, and to remember who we are and who we're supposed to be? Charlie did that every time he stepped out on stage. Every time he stepped out on stage, he not only argued for his side, but he reminded us of who all of us are supposed to be as as a people

and to say that that is what brings violence down on you is to say essentially what the left has been saying for so long that the america's worthy of violence is worthy of suffering uh... violence and hatred this moment

true i understand and i'm not sure where we go from here i mean the thing that keeps flashing through my mind is that we've seen over the course of the last several years an increasing justification that is being laid out by relatively mainstream people on the left for violence. When Luigi Mangione shot a UnitedHealthcare CEO because the healthcare system was bad and suddenly there was an upsurge of sentiment in favor of Luigi Mangione, or when there

is a person who was mentally ill who went and shot somebody who was working for a hedge fund in New York, there's an upsurge of sympathy for that person. When somebody tried to assassinate the president, not once but twice,

there was a significant percentage of people who sort of suggest, well, Trump either brought it on himself or were making jokes about it. All of that felt amateur hour even compared to what we have just seen here.

Not that their deaths mean any less, but Charlie's literal job was just to do First Amendment things. That's what he did for a living. What he did was raise his kids and take care of his wife and do free speech.

That is what he did. He did First Amendment things, like what the base of the first amendment is to be. And as you say, it would be unjustifiable no matter what his political views, but his views happen to be

particularly mainstream conservative, like right down the line, mainstream conservative. And for that, Charlie was shot to death. And I don't know if our country, if the left cannot stop claiming that its opponents are enemies, like true enemies

that need to be destroyed, I just don't know where we go from here that can maintain anything like a functional republic.

Well, I think that we have to, I mean, if we're going to have faith in anything besides God, first we have to have faith in God because he has always been providential toward this country and always led us forward. But we also have to have faith in our fellow Americans now that people like us have broken

the stranglehold that the left had on communications and on the media and on history. Now that we have broken that, it is really time for us to make sure that as we go forward, we're saying the things that I think the majority of Americans want to hear about freedom, about decency, about morality. These are things that I don't think are fringe issues. I think that we have seen in these last months since Trump was elected, we have seen just how far to the fringe our opponents are. These are people who support, you know,

child molesters and criminals and gang members don't want us to treat them too harshly, don't even want some of them to go to jail, are leaving them out on the streets, that they will manufacture an outrage over the death of a black man in an anomalous situation, but in the death of a white man in a normal, typical situation, or the death of a white woman, the death of black people at the hands of other black people, this they don't want to talk about at all. And I think ultimately we have to have faith that if we speak the words, if we get the

news out, if we get the facts out as Charlie was doing every time he stood on stage. If we put it out there with the kind of respect that he showed to people, if we put it out there with the kind of reliance on reason and on not and not just on reason but on warmth and kindness and respect for other people, ultimately we will win the day in a country that lives and dies by the voice of the people. Right this minute, I'm with you, Ben, right this minute, it is really hard for me to imagine getting back to that place, but I do believe that there is still a great, great strain of decency in this country and a great, great power of God watching over people who want to be free. People who want to be free everywhere, not just here, but

maybe especially here because we've led the way. but I think that God is a very big fan of freedom. And I think he stands up for it when people have the courage to put it forward. This is an awful day, Ben. It's just an awful, awful day. And I think that we have to remember

that there will be better days and that in those days we'll see things clearly and hopefully see a way forward.

Because right now, like I said, I'm with you. It's hard not to despair. I appreciate it, Drew, and hang in there. I mean, obviously, we're both praying for Charlie and his family and for the country. His family. And meanwhile, we're joined on the line by editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, Brent Schur. He's going to give us some updates in just a moment. Apparently, there's sort of a clash between what we are hearing from local authorities who are saying he's at large and Kash Patel saying the shooter has been caught. Brent will come on to explain what precisely is going on. Again, I'm with Drew. I think that there will come a point here

where I'm optimistic again about the country. I just don't feel that in this moment. I think it'd be very difficult to feel that in this moment about where we are. But Charlie was an optimist about the country, and I don't think that he was unjustified in that optimism. I do think that the vast majority, vast, vast, vast majority of Americans look at this day for the horrifyingly horrific tragedy that it truly is, and that it is of small fringe. But I think that we should recognize that small fringes can make very large differences if they are not stopped and stopped cold. And that means that the people who justify violence, the people who wink and nod at the argument that political opposition is tantamount to murder or speech is violence and therefore

should be met with violence, if that is not stopped, it's going to metastasize because bad ideas are like cancer and they can be seeded anywhere and they have deadly effect. It's again, extremely difficult to talk about all of this, obviously, and I'm sure it's very difficult for you to listen to it as well. The sort of bizarre controversy that broke out in Congress today is kind of amazing. So Speaker Johnson held a moment of silence for Charlie.

And at a certain point, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado called for a verbal prayer. She said, I believe silent prayer gets silent results. And this somehow prompted a bunch of Democrats to actually protest, saying that school shootings go unacknowledged. And here is how it broke down an ugly scene in the middle of a truly, just unspeakably bad day.

Here is the Speaker of the House and how it went down in Congress. This is clip 13.

The Chair would ask that all members present in the chamber and those in the gallery please rise for a moment of prayer for Charlie Kirk and his family. We will take a few more They did have a moment of silence, but then controversy broke out when Representative Boebert asked for a verbal prayer as well. the gentlelady from Colorado rise. Let's, let's, let's, wait a minute. Wait a minute. The house will be in order. The house will be in order.

The house will be in order.

What absolutely senseless nonsense shouting no or protesting in a verbal prayer for a man who was just shot in the neck and was at that moment dying. I mean, just, I don't know, the best you can say about that is politically idiotic. The worst thing to say about it is deeply immoral. Meanwhile, the FBI director Kash Patel has put out an ex-thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with the FBI. He says that there is a suspect in custody. We don't know more than that at this point. Obviously, we will bring you all of the news

as it emerges. It's just awful. Again, it's not hard to find people on the internet who are willing to say the world's worst things. And so I would urge you, particularly in times of tragedy, to get off the internet and go be with human beings. Don't go to Blue Sky, whatever you do, and find the psychotic leftists who today are celebrating Charlie's murder. Don't wallow in that sort of stuff because it is bad for the soul and it is bad for the country. And people really need to get out of the bubble that is the online space where you can say whatever you want anonymously without any fear of repercussion and say awful, awful

things. I'm going to try not to do that today because it's not hard to find people who are anonymous to say terrible things. It's one thing to call out public figures who are on legacy news networks saying awful things, but I don't think that it deserves the attention of the public, nor should we glorify people who say awful things for the attention by giving them the attention in the first place. Brent Schur, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Wire, is joining us now. Brent, do we have any updates on what is going on with

the suspect at this point? You know, it's actually a really fluid situation and a bit confusing. FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted out that they have a suspected, their suspected assassin in custody. But then right now as we speak, there's a law enforcement press conference where they said that the suspected assassin is still at large. Now I don't really know what's going on here.

It's impossible to tell. It's possible that as they walked out to that press conference, they didn't get the update that the guy's in custody. And as we're talking, maybe they've updated it. But right now we are getting a different story

from the FBI than local law enforcement in Utah is telling.

So Brent, obviously we've seen a fair bit of consternation across the nation. On the House floor there is a bit of a tête-à-tête that we just played on the show. Overall, most of the politicians have come out and sort of suggested the obvious, which is that violence is bad. What have you been seeing?

Yeah, I mean, I'll say first one I saw was Gavin Newsom, who I think it was a big moment for Charlie Kirk this year. Gavin Newsom, a front runner for 2028, went on with Charlie Kirk on his podcast. It was the first episode of Gavin Newsom's podcast, and he chose to do it with Charlie Kirk. And they had a pretty open conversation about all the issues and Charlie kind of ripped him and Gavin Newsom ripped him and they went back and forth and it was a great moment for Gavin Newsom. And that's kind of what Charlie Kirk was known for.

He gave Democrats a platform. He was willing to talk to them and amazingly always had the right answers. It was just so amazing to see from Charlie Kirk when he'd be at this college events or talking to any politician. I never saw Charlie get flat-footed

or caught off guard by some question. People would call him out on some obscure Bible verse and Charlie Kirk knew exactly what they were getting at and would always know how to kind of shoot it right back at them. So I mean, he did that with Gavin Newsom.

You've seen some other people have spoken out in support and sending their prayers. Barack Obama has. Kamala Harris has. It's a tragic moment, and I think any Democrat who doesn't recognize that is making a big

political mistake.

Well, Brent, we appreciate the time and obviously as we get some more of the of the information, I'm sure that we will learn more. Apparently, Utah's Governor Spencer Cox is calling Charlie Crook's murder a political assassination, which clearly it is. When somebody's in the middle of giving a political event, debating things like mass shootings and trans politics, and they're murdered, that's obviously a

political assassination. Just to put this in historic context, as I've said before, I think this is probably the most important political assassination of the last 50 years. You'd probably have to go back all the way to the late 1960s when there's a spate of assassinations ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. to Malcolm

X to RFK to come up with anything remotely similar. There was an attempted assassination, obviously, of the President of the United States last year. It was an attempted. It did not succeed. But we are seeing, I think it would be very difficult to argue that we're not seeing a radical increase in the amount of political violence, particularly from the left side of the aisle these days. And it would be inaccurate to say there's no violence from the right side of the aisle.

There is. It would also be inaccurate to say that the amount of political violence we're seeing from the right side of the aisle is matched in degree by the amount of political assassination attempted violence that we are seeing from the left side of the aisle.

It's just, it would be false to say that.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's absolutely correct. And I mean, you even see it in the rhetoric in the response to this and you see it in the rhetoric from the left on the response to, I would count as a leftist assassination, the assassination of a CEO in New York City. I believe it was earlier this year, that was by political far-leftist extremists who are anti-capitalist. And that was widely cheered on the left. You had well-known

authors like Taylor Lorenz talking about how this is a good thing and you understand why it happened. And I imagine, sadly, we're going to see a lot of that of people like, well, Charlie Kirk talked about these issues that, you know, we really shouldn't be talking about, but that's what Charlie Kirk did and nothing excuses this. And I, I mean, I pray that we don't hear that, but we will.

Yes, Brent, I appreciate it. And I certainly agree with you. I do want to take a moment to say what is very frequently said at Jewish funerals, but obviously belongs to the Christian tradition as well as Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before

me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Charlie will dwell in the house of the Lord. Charlie belongs to history now. The president of the United States has announced that all flags will be flown at half staff throughout the country. There is not much to say.

There's not much to say. Cassie Akiva is joining us momentarily to give us her latest news updates and a recap on what's been happening across the country. Cassie, thanks so much for taking the time. What are you hearing out there?

So I think one of the most disturbing things I'm seeing right now on Twitter, and I don't know if this is confirmed yet, is that his wife and children were in attendance. I really hope that's not true. That's really traumatic. His children are age 1 and 3. And even if they weren't, there's videos all over the internet. And I'm on maternity leave right now, and I'm holding my newborn baby, and I just get a video of my friend Charlie being killed.

And so I think people need to remember that Charlie had taken a lot of heat for being so out there and challenging people who were on his side, people who are not on his side. And one of my last conversations with Charlie, which was just a few weeks ago, he was telling me that the noise on the internet was really getting to him. And, you know, people like me and you and Charlie in the position, we get a lot of hate. And the way we get through that is we have our friends in real life and, you know, we realize Twitter's not real life. Well, this is a case where Twitter did become

real life. And you had hateful people come in and hurt him. And what Charlie said to me was he was just trying to tune out the noise. And it's just really upsetting that this happened. And it's, you know, I first met Charlie when I was a college student. He was one of the first people who I interacted with when I was getting into conservative politics. And there's so many people in my position I can say that exact same thing.

So it's just, you know, it's one of our own of the conservative movement, this happening too.

And it's really quite frightening.

Yeah, and Cassie, you mentioned the fact that, you know, Charlie went into these spaces and obviously a lot of us have spent time in these spaces. I think that that day may be coming to a close. It's going to be very difficult for these sorts of debates to ever happen in public again. They can certainly happen, you know, in screened areas where everybody knows who everybody

is, but these sort of open debates, it's going to be very difficult to have those things happen again. with these sort of open debates, it's going to be very difficult to have those things happen. Again, you also mentioned the fact that Charlie spent an inordinate amount of time having those discussions, having those debates. It is for that reason that he is dead today. That is his great crime.

One of the points that you make there that I think is really important, I mentioned it a little bit earlier before you came on, is the bleed over from the online world to the real world is quite real. It is a thing that happens. We'll say, go out and touch grass, ignore what's happening online. Charlie was attempting to do that.

I think for our own mental health, we should all attempt to do that. The reality is that fringes become real. Violent rhetoric online can turn into violence in real life. People who are threatening online, that becomes a real thing. When people find common cause, when people find supporters, when people find a home for their hatred online, and then they proceed to take that out into the real world, it has deadly consequences.

And obviously the murder of our friend Charlie is just a great example of that. I wish I could say something more uplifting on this day, but there's nothing uplifting. Honestly, I can find nothing uplifting to say on this day literally nothing other than to just remember my friend and a person who made a huge difference to the country, but I just it's Maybe maybe there'll be something uplifting to say tomorrow, but not in the moment

what one of the things that has really upset me in the last few months is Charlie has been one of the biggest offenders of Jewish people who's and he's not a Jewish person right he has these debates and they're quite aggressive and on a lot of these videos and as a Jewish person I was very distressed that people were giving him a lot of crap online like Jewish people were for hosting various debates and all that and I just you know I texted Charlie and I was like Charlie thank you for you know holding these debates and like just know that I

Appreciate you and so many people appreciate you and he he was like yeah I know I get a lot of hate for this And I just want to feel like you know I have the Jewish people's back I want them to have my back and this is such a hard thing to do because you know he was challenging he could have done the easy thing and Tackled on to Israel and went through all these conspiracy theories.

But he didn't. He pushed back on people on the right who are getting a lot of platforming by saying that Israel is evil and all of this. Right. So that was one of the things he went out and he stayed with his morals. And I really think, Charlie, that was something that was really important to him. I mean, things that Charlie was saying in 2016, 2017 are not much different from what he's been saying recently. So I think for him being so morally consistent, especially as, you know, his star has just risen. When I knew him, he had this tiny organization with a couple hundred college students, and now he definitely became one of the most important political voices. So

it's just, it's really upsetting. Like, I'm freaked out out. Like I got my career started going to these tense places, going into these protests. I don't want to go to protests anymore. Like this is really scary that people would come out and use violence in this manner. It's just, it's shocking.

Well, Cassie, I really appreciate the time. Obviously, you know, we're all praying together for Charlie's family and hang in there.

Thanks, you too, Ben.

Well, joining us online in just a moment is our friend Reagan, who's going to stop by and tell us what he meant to young conservatives. She'll be by in just a little bit, because obviously, you know, what's sort of amazing having watched Charlie for so long is that Charlie's in this business for a very long time. I have a lot of kinship with Charlie career-wise. I started when I was 17. He started when he was about the same age. He was one of the most accomplished people in the country politically at the age of 31. That means the entire generation of people grew up with him. We'll be joined in just a moment by Reagan to tell us what it was like with Reagan-Conrad,

what it was like as a young person looking up to Charlie. But what I will come back to is this. There are so many layers here. There's the layer of free speech under threat. There is the layer of a left that truly believes that opposing arguments, a far left, not everybody on the left.

I know I have a lot of friends on the left, but people who truly believe that opposing speeches to be met with violence. There's the layer of what do we do about a country in which public debate can be met with violence? How do we even hold those debates anymore? How can we go out in public if we're speaking publicly about these issues? Then there's just what I keep coming back to, which is Charlie Kirk as a human being,

as a father, as a husband, murdered in the prime of his life at the age of 31. Charlie, he had, as I said at the beginning, decades to contribute, decades more to contribute, ripped out of this world by a malicious piece of human debris. It's just, it's unthinkable. It's absolutely unthinkable. And now the unthinkable is reality. And so if we as a country don't figure out a way to crack down

on this infectious insanity that has run roughshod over a huge percentage of our politics, then I don't know that I truly don't know that the best of our public is a rejection of this. The best of our public is a rejection of what just happened today. Is a forcible rejection of it. It's just, it's beyond, it's unspeakable. It is beyond, it is beyond words.

Now, they're going to be, I promise you, I, you know, I can have a hard time going to the optimistic place on this day. There are too many people who are going to pick up Charlie's baton where it lies in his blood. There'd be so many people who pick it up and run with it. So many people who see what Charlie was fighting for things like traditional family and faith and Liberty and free markets and the constitution.

And they say, I will run with that because Charlie can't run with that anymore. And Charlie spent his entire life building up, certainly his adult life, building up an organization of people who can pick up that baton and run with it. And it's up to everyone to do that now.

That doesn't stop the breaking of the American heart right now. It doesn't stop any of the pain. We can look forward to tomorrow when his body is cold. In the moment, all we can do is mourn and say that whoever is responsible for this needs to pay the greatest price that is possible for that person to pay.

And those who defend that action, those who make excuses or permission structures for that action need to be run out of public life on a rail. Truly. Not through violence. Through the way that we do things in this country, through discourse and through debate. If you commit a crime through criminal law. The fact that we've even come to this in America in 2025 is devastating beyond belief. And again, I'll just go back to, I don't like talking about my own personal feelings.

I'm not a feelings person, but I don't have a tough time expressing myself on a lot of things. When it comes to my personal feelings, I sometimes do. And today, all I can say is that for a person, for all of us whose job it is to produce words in the moment, there are no words to describe the horror,

the pain, the soul sickness that I think so many of us are feeling today. Cabot Phillips is joining us online to give us an update on the communications in the FBI, local law enforcement. Cabot, what's the latest here?

Yeah, there's been sort of a fog of war back and forth so far today. Initially, there was an individual who was seen arrested at the university shortly after those shots were fired. The university said initially that

they believe this was the shooter. That man's name was George Zinn. He was apparently known to local police beforehand and had in the past had some run-ins with the law. I believe it was allegedly making terroristic threats. So they thought they had their guy.

But it turns out George Zinn was not the person that they believe committed this act. So they revoked that statement saying the shooter is still at large. But then within the past hour, FBI Director Kash Patel posted online that the subject was in custody. So that led everyone to believe that the shooter had been apprehended. But then just minutes after that, there was a press conference that took place where local officials said that they did not necessarily have the alleged shooter in custody. So there was this interesting moment

where some local reporters pressed one of the spokespeople there saying, who's right? Is it the FBI or is it you? And the local officials there said that they had a person of interest in custody that was not George Zan. So this is a separate individual.

They did not give any other information beyond that. They did not even use the word suspect. They said person of interest. So right now, the general public still not really sure. We've been working all of our sources on the ground there, but we're still just not sure exactly who is in custody and what the ongoing threat is from the shooter.

So confusion continues to reign, obviously. Keep it here and we'll bring you all the updates as we continue our coverage. Appreciate it, Kevin. Well, you know, folks, honestly, it's going to take a while for us to process all of this. Reagan Conrad will join us momentarily to talk about what Charlie meant to young people. The fact that we're doing obituaries for a 31-year-old person is totally destructive. I mean, just decaying of the soul. The president of the United States, of course, has spoken out about this, lamenting Charlie Kirk.

So, of all the members of the cabinet, that is not a shock. Charlie was a deeply important political figure, not just because of the debates, but because he built this enormous infrastructure that was designed to getting Republicans elected like President Trump, for example. Again, the latest that we are hearing from the Wall Street Journal is that a suspect is in custody, but we don't know the actual details on that unclear at this point, if that is true. If that is not true, we're still waiting. Apparently one of the people was the first to ask Charlie Kirk a question at Wednesday's

event, saw the shooting. He sparked a five-minute conversation with Charlie about religion, and then he heard the gunshot as Kirk was answering a question from another man about transgender people being involved in mass shootings. And it was clear from the first shot, it was clear from the shot that Charlie was unlikely to survive given the amount of bleeding from the shot.

And we will continue to bring you all the updates of this. And with regard to this, it's a moment when Americans could come together and truly condemn all of this and tell their own side to stand down, particularly on the left, which again has been growing increasingly violent in its approach to politics. It could be that moment. I'm hopeful for that moment. And it's time for everybody to understand that if we cannot debate like Charlie debated, if we cannot engage in conversation like Charlie engaged in conversation, then the conversation

really will end. And if the conversation ends, then the country and what the country actually means in its essence is going to end as well. In these moments, I think of Charlie's wife, I think of his kids, I think of his family, I think of all the people who work at TPUSA and who deal with and hang out with and build with Charlie every single day. It's devastating for everyone and just know that all of our hearts are with yours, all

of our prayers are with you and with Charlie. It's yeah again, you hesitate to go silent on when it's legitimately your job not to. But with that said, it is difficult not to in the face of the extreme horror that we're witnessing here today. Again, we'll continue to bring you the updates throughout the day on all of this. Erica Kirk, Charlie's wife,

did post a Bible verse just hours before he was shot at a Utah event, according to Fox News. That'd be Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. Yeah, I know a lot of people today are saying things like war, and I've seen people tweeting out

pictures and gifs of my friend Andrew Breitbart saying war. One of the things that Andrew Breitbart and Charlie had in common, aside from their early and tragic deaths, is their overwhelming joy at the fight and at life and at what America

was.

And when we declare war, we should just make sure that we are declaring war on the right people, the people who truly are willing to utilize violence in the name of their political priors, the people who are willing to excuse that violence.

Now, those are the people that we need to aim the war at, not people who just disagree with us. Those are the people that Charlie has discussions with on campus. Those are the people that Charlie thought he could convince and was successful in convincing. It's the fact that there are people who are out there who are willing to do that, who are willing to engage in the violence, create the permission structures for the violence,

that is what is, that's what's truly unforgivable, truly unforgivable. Awful in every possible way. And taking a look around the internet at some of the legacy media, again, I'm trying to avoid the blue sky left

because we know what they're going to say. And there is legitimately no purpose to browsing the droogs and fools of the internet. But the New York Times has an obituary of Charlie. Charlie Kirk, a conservative wunderkind, who through his radio books, radio show books, political organizing and speaking tours did much to shape the hard right movement that has coalesced around President Trump

becoming a close ally of his died on Wednesday in Orem, Utah after he'd been shot while speaking at a college campus event. He was 31 years old. Mr. Kirk was perhaps the leading voice among a cohort of young conservative activists

who emerged during the Trump era. He had little connection to or respect for the Republican establishment or for the ideas that traditionally undergirded the conservative movement. Again, it's just incredible how the New York Times gets this so wrong. That is not true at all. Charlie was very much in line with many of the ideas of traditional conservatism, which

is why he was doing this when he was 18 years old. Instead, according to the New York Times, he showed a genius for using social media and campus organizing to build a following, which he then presented to donors and Trump adjacent politicians to gain more resources and access. So according to New York Times obituary, they're basically accusing Charlie of being a grifter. Welcome to the New York Times, again, trash people doing trash things. By the end of 2024, he was considered something of a kingmaker. Mr. Kirk never sought a position within the administration. Instead, it became clear over the last year his ambition was for something much larger,

reshaping the Republican Party and beyond that, American politics itself. Well, that part, at least, is true. So devastating, devastating. Reagan Conrad, joining me, devastating, devastating. Reagan Conrad joining me on the line here. Reagan is one of the young conservatives who was shaped by Charlie Kirk.

Reagan, thanks for taking the time.

Of course, Ben. Yeah, I mean, this is a devastating day. I mean, he was the leader of our generation in this movement completely.

Well, why don't you talk to Reagan about what that meant to you?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's what's hard to do. Why don't you talk to Reagan about what that meant to you?

Yeah, I mean, he gave us, he showed us how to use our voice for good and how to be bold and actually engage in conversation because he was the one doing it. He's out on college campuses being that voice, showing us that debate is good, that that's healthy for society and what we need. And I think that's what's most devastating too, is that that was his thing, you know? Yeah, he taught moral truth too, in all respects of life.

And I think seeing a man who was so biblically based and so unabashed to hold those truths and to show that my generation, that it's cool and good and right was I mean I yeah obviously I know that we're all kind of kind of struggling with that and understanding you know why that a voice like this is is taken from us but he he encouraged so many

students to be that on their college campuses. We've seen the ripple effect from his platform, and I think that's the most profound thing, is just the impact that he's had for other students to actually voice their opinions. And like I said, with the moral truth and just being so biblically strong, and I think he's helped, I know he's helped thousands and thousands of people. And what I want to, I want to read something because we got

a message from Rob McCoy, and it's Charlie's personal pastor, and we were cleared to share this message, so I just wanted to take a moment and read this. He said, my friend Charlie Kirk was murdered today by a coward. His life will be remembered for many wonderful things. He built it all with power of the spoken word. He never used violence, but was threatened every day with violence by those who couldn't contend

with logic and truth. And now they have done to my friend what evil always does. It takes away life. Charlie did not die, however, but instead he has begun to truly live. His life was secured eternally by his Savior Jesus Christ. This truth allowed Charlie to face every threat with courage because he didn't fear death. All evil knows is death, and they derive their power from it.

Charlie lived for life and will be remembered for this. My heart is broken for his family, his wife, Erica, his two precious children. Evil has not prevailed and it will not win." And that was from Rob McCoy. And I think that that is just such a testament to Charlie,

to his character, to what he knew to be true, and that he didn't care what that meant, what threats that meant. He was going to speak the truth unabashedly. Now we have seen that in its truest form. And it's really profound, because we

do know that death doesn't get the last laugh here, and that Charlie is now with Jesus Christ, and it gives us some level of comfort today, but I just wanted to share that message from us faster.

Well, Reagan, I really appreciate it. Obviously, I think we're all feeling basically the same thing at this point, and, you know, we should all take some time and grieve. It's a good thing to grieve. It's also a good thing to understand what Charlie was fighting for and to redouble our efforts in pursuit of that thing. Reagan, I appreciate the time.

Absolutely. Thanks, Beb.

Well, folks, I need to take a few minutes just to be frank with you. And so I'm going to go do that. We'll have much more coverage coming up, I am sure. I'll also be here, obviously tomorrow, to discuss this in full. So make sure that you're there for that. We'll bring you updates. We'll keep you posted on developments

as the police presumably find whoever committed this horrendous act of evil. And let's all say a prayer for Charlie's family tonight and remember Charlie for what he was, a truly great man and more importantly, a truly good person.

We'll see you tomorrow and stay tuned for more. . . . . . .