UPDATE: President Trump posts that Kirk is dead.
UPDATE: Initial suspect not the shooter. Suspected shooter fired from 200 yards away. Still at large.
TRANSCRIPT:
Charlie Kirk, shot, condition unknown.
Hello and welcome to the Politics, Politics, Politics Extra for what would be September 11th, 2025. Justin Robert Young joining you here. This one is going to be an abbreviated edition that we’re going to get early and we’re going to put out publicly because among all the news that is happening in the world of politics, there is one that is breaking right now, and that is Turning Point USA’s founder, Charlie Kirk, shot at a public event at Utah Valley University in what appears in video online to be an extraordinarily serious, if not likely fatal, assassination attempt. Assassination being specifically defined as a premeditated murder with political motives.
And first and foremost, let me just say that all thoughts and prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. He had a wife and two kids. Obviously, the details on his health will be forthcoming. I will keep an eye on social media as I record this to get you the latest information before I put this out. The reason why I wanted to do this right now is because oftentimes, when this happens, and you have a murderer who commits an act of unspeakable violence, it’s usually hard to map their motivations onto mainstream politics. And I make sure that those points are made because what I don’t want is for aberrant violence to cloud what is otherwise a public dialogue about advocacy, rights, faith, belief, and ultimately the American dream—the desire to live a life that is better than those that came before you and to create a pathway for somebody after you to lead an even better one.
And while we don’t know what the motives are of this shooter (who looks to be at least the man who was detained in an extraordinarily public setting was an older white man) what we don’t know is his exact motives. It is hard, at least at this stage, and this is again breaking news, it would seem likely that Charlie Kirk was attempted to be executed, if not successfully executed, as a public sign that he is somebody who was too dangerous to live for political purposes. This was not an act of violence that was taken out in secret. This was done to cow, to show as a demonstration that this is what happens when you stick your head up.
You should live and be afraid.
Now, we don’t know that for sure. Maybe this guy was just deranged and, you know, he did have whatever bizarre motivations that are beyond the world of mainstream politics. Maybe. Maybe. And if that is indeed the case, the next time that I do a show, I will bring that to you. I will bring that context to you.
But in this moment, right now, it sure doesn’t look like it.
We’ll take a moment right now to understand Charlie Kirk’s significance on the political landscape. He is somebody that has a very important role in the conservative ecosystem. Not only has Turning Point USA been a tremendous organizer for conferences, for student activism, but also in this cycle wound up taking on a more traditional vendor role for voter registration and door knocking, something that many people didn’t really believe they had the experience to do. And yet it did seem to be at least successful, as much as you can credit a vendor for the success of something like the Trump campaign.
He is an unabashed political conservative. He is somebody that comes from the Rush Limbaugh mold. He has been important in the world of Arizona politics, where he lived. And while I have certainly had my commentary on the Arizona Republican Party, there’s no doubt that he plays a large role in that.
It’s hard to imagine where this goes beyond Charlie Kirk being a martyr, alive or dead, that will be held up as somebody who was slain by left-wing violence. That will be a large talking point in the media.
Okay.
There is no doubt that we are living in a world of heightened tension. And so all I will say to you, anyone who listens to my voice or watches this video, is my goal has always been to make you understand and comprehend how politics—the mechanism by which we enact democracy—can work for you. My goal is to highlight campaigns and strategies that are working and ones that are not working.
Now, obviously, there’s a swashbuckling element for me that likes being right and likes being able to comprehend the system. But the utility for you that I’ve always wanted to offer when I call myself the scoreboard and not the pep rally is to give you an understanding so you can interact with this system the way that you want and get what you want out of it.
I do not believe that political violence has any place in our world. To be totally honest, I would go even further than that. I don’t believe that you should be cutting people off out of your life that you politically disagree with.
I believe that there needs to be healing. There needs to be dialogue with people that care about you. Not every random stranger on the internet needs a friend, but I’m talking about friends, family, people that enrich our lives.
Because when we are cut off from them, we only wither. We become less than.
And as somebody who spends an inordinate amount of time following politics and politicians, trust me when I tell you from the inside, it is not worth it to trade them for the people that you know and love. Not to be all Marianne Williamson here, but the only way that we climb our way out of a world that has weaponized hate to the point where something like this can happen is through caring for our fellow man.
Nobody should get that mad at a podcast.
Charlie Kirk did not elect Donald Trump.
The people of America elected Donald Trump.
Everybody had a small piece of it, but it is the people that willed in the person, and then everybody else takes credit for it afterward. Charlie Kirk might have been successful in speaking to an audience about issues that they cared about, but he did not invent the issues. Dare I say, nor did he necessarily shape them. He talked about them in a way that his audience wanted to hear it. Sometimes when you’re as influential as he is, you can introduce new ideas, but there’s no guarantee that they’re going to take. You’re offering them to a populace, and they decide whether or not they care. Anybody who’s been in this game for any amount of time knows that to be the truth.
Silencing Charlie Kirk through murderous violence does not stop the ideas.
In fact, it likely emboldens those that are looking to change the country in the way that Charlie Kirk is looking to change the country to do so.
I wish I had a regular episode for you. Obviously, any plans that I had for Friday’s episode are kind of out of the window. We’ll figure out what we’re going to do for that. But until next time, just know this: for anybody who is listening or watching me, I very much treasure and appreciate your time.
And I would just say, love each other.
Thank you very much .
