PREVIEW - The Friday Edition: The response to our coverage about the Charlie Kirk assassination.

Summary

Podcast Summary: Tangle – The Friday Edition: The Response to Our Coverage about the Charlie Kirk Assassination

Host: Isaac Saul
Date: September 19, 2025

---

Overview

This episode of Tangle is dedicated to the intense and diverse feedback received following their coverage of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Host Isaac Saul, despite being under the weather and recording remotely with his team, seeks to directly address criticisms, reflect on his approach to covering Kirk’s death, and share a spectrum of reader and listener reactions. The episode emphasizes Tangle's core ethos: elevating perspectives from across the political spectrum, fostering empathy, and unequivocally rejecting political violence in all its forms.

---

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Context: Why This Feedback Episode?

• Isaac Saul sets the stage (02:21): Acknowledges his illness and that the Tangle team is on retreat.
• Purpose: To react to the "wide range of opinions" about their coverage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination—including negative, positive, and mixed reader feedback.
• Format: Isaac will read and respond to feedback, with contributions from team members Will and Ari.

2. Isaac’s Central Stance on Violence and Speech

• Reinforces the principle (04:41):

  “I do not accept physical violence as a reasonable response to speech. Full stop. This isn't a small footnote in the story. To me, it is the story.”
  — Isaac Saul

• Refuses to justify violence, regardless of Kirk’s rhetoric or ideology.
• On Kirk’s characterization:
  • Argues Kirk was not as evil or simplistic as portrayed in social media; acknowledges Kirk as a "complicated person."
  • Recognizes Kirk’s harmful rhetoric and negative impacts on public discourse.
  • Stresses the need for humanization—even for figures he and others strongly oppose.

3. Personal Reflection & Emotional Toll

• Addresses viral clip of him breaking down (08:25):
  Plays the segment where he cries, describing the emotional burden of reporting on relentless tragedy.

  “And it just broke me. It's like I was sitting there holding my son in the dark and he's asleep in my arms and it's the best fucking thing in the world. And I just started crying. And it's like you hold it in all day. You consume this shit all day. It's like you're going from dead kids in Gaza to fucking Charlie Kirk's head getting blown off on a live stream. So, yeah, some days you want to quit it. It sucks.”
  — Isaac Saul (09:08)

• Clarifies: His tears are not solely for Kirk, but for all who suffer violence, including victims in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, and various recent tragedies.

4. Responding to Criticism & Misinterpretation

• Pushback received:
  • Accused of being both too empathetic and of whitewashing Kirk.
  • Receives personal threats, including being (absurdly) blamed for Kirk’s death given his moderate political stance.
• Warns against desensitization:
  • The danger in dehumanizing adversaries and in becoming numb to violence, especially when it befalls those with unpopular views.
  • Notes the troubling response of some right-wing figures calling for more violence in retaliation, rather than reflection.

5. Broader Concerns About Free Speech and Escalation

• Examples of chilling climate (11:08):
  • Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel fired for jokes about Trump and the shooting.
  • The political environment grows increasingly repressive, with lawsuits targeting media and suppression of dissenting voices.
• Call to action:

  “More than anything, I'm begging the people who read my work to step back from the brink, to answer the higher calling of their better angels, to resist the urge to dehumanize the people we loathe, and to absolutely reject political violence in all its forms. That's the hope I have and the thing I want to put out into the world.”
  — Isaac Saul (11:55)

---

Highlighted Audience Feedback

1. Kayla from Tampa, Florida (13:19)

• Overall tone: Respectful criticism.
• Positives:
  • Appreciates Tangle’s usual commitment to nuanced, cross-spectrum discourse.
  • Supports humanizing Charlie Kirk:

    “Even if he didn't believe that empathy matters, I do and I will give him and everyone I disagree with the acknowledgment that we are human and do still live in a country with the right to choose our beliefs.”

• Key issues:
  • Feels Isaac failed to present nuance in his take on Kirk.
  • Isaac misrepresented the "left’s" reaction as lacking empathy and downplayed the dangers and real harm of Kirk’s rhetoric.
  • Points to her own lived experience:

    “Isaac is lucky enough to be a white man married to a woman. His rights are not the ones that Charlie Kirk had an issue with, and Isaac's take really showed that.”

  • Argues Kirk was a bully, propagated racist rhetoric, and directly threatened the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
  • Warns against rewriting history or ignoring the harm Kirk caused.
  • Stresses that, like Kirk, his victims were human too.
  • Pleads for a return to Tangle’s signature nuance and balance in future coverage.

2. Isaac’s Immediate Response

• Expresses appreciation for Kayla’s feedback.
• Acknowledges the need to directly discuss “the worst of Kirk.”
• (The episode preview ends here, but Isaac prepares to explicitly address Kirk’s most harmful words and actions in the full version.)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On emotional exhaustion:

  “It's like you're going from dead kids in Gaza to fucking Charlie Kirk's head getting blown off on a live stream. So, yeah, some days you want to quit it. It sucks.”
  — Isaac Saul (09:14)

• On the principle of nonviolence, regardless of ideology:

  “He could have said some of the nastiest, cruelest, most deranged things imaginable and still not deserved a bullet in his neck.”
  — Isaac Saul (05:55)

• On threats to moderate voices:

  “Some have even accused me of being responsible for Kirk's death, given my warnings about the Trump administration. I get these threats a lot.”
  — Isaac Saul (10:23)

• On the need for empathy and rejecting escalation:

  “I just think once we allow ourselves to underreact or numb ourselves to violence against someone whose views we consider bad enough, any of us can frame anyone else's views as bad enough and then decide to kill them. And that part is really, really frightening.”
  — Isaac Saul (10:55)

• Listener Feedback - Kayla:

  “He was a bully. He did not believe that I as a woman have the same rights and independence as Isaac. He participated in racist rhetoric and I wish that this take had more accurately portrayed those aspects of his life.” (14:23)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & episode setup: 02:21
• Isaac’s stance on violence and Kirk’s complexity: 04:41 – 06:40
• Emotional toll and viral moment explanation: 08:25 – 10:00
• Reflection on threats, polarization, and free speech: 10:23 – 11:55
• First major audience feedback (Kayla): 13:19 – 15:54
• Isaac’s response to Kayla: 15:54 – preview ends

---

Tone & Takeaway

The episode is emotionally raw and earnest, with Isaac oscillating between conviction and vulnerability. His main thrust is the moral necessity of rejecting violence as a response to expression—no matter how offensive—and the societal peril of dehumanizing even our harshest adversaries. The feedback segment ably surfaces the challenge of balancing empathy for controversial figures with rigorous candor about the harm they may have caused. Saul ultimately strives for a higher standard—one of both truth-telling and shared humanity—as “the hope I have and the thing I want to put out into the world.”

---

This summary covers all principal discussion points and major quotes up to the end of the publicly available preview. For further listener feedback and Isaac’s deeper reckoning with Kirk’s legacy, the full episode is available to paid Tangle subscribers.

Transcript

[Advertisement Voice]

Imagine a world of extraordinary comfort where Boland Branch Bedding wraps you in the softest. Embrace the coziest experience made from the world's finest 100% organic cotton, all so you can sleep better. Start building your fall sanctuary with Bolin Branch's iconic Signature Sheets made with a buttery, breathable weave that gets softer with every wash. Enjoy 15% off your first set of sheets with free shipping and returns at B O L L& Branch.com with code BUTTERY. See site for exclusions when your workforce, tech stack and business needs are evolving all at once, you need HCM software that moves just as fast. That's why Paylocity builds what's Next, providing innovative and simplified solutions for clients to tackle the real challenges they face every day. From AI driven insights to automated workflows across hr, finance and it, paylocity's platform doesn't just keep up, it leads. It's time to simplify complexity, drive results, and move forward together. Start [e-mail] simplified with prices going up.

On just about everything lately, dealing with money can be stressful. Trying to manage subscriptions, track spending and cut costs can feel overwhelming. Luckily, Rocket Money can relieve some of that stress and help you feel confident in the financial decisions you make. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Their dashboard lays out your total financial picture, including bill due dates and paydays, in a way that's easy to digest. You can even automatically create custom budgets based on your past spending. Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved a total of $500 million in cancel subscriptions, with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com Cancelsubs today. That's RocketMoney.com Cancelsubs RocketMoney.com Cancelsubs Foreign.

Executive Producer Isaac Saul this is Tangle.

[Isaac Saul]

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, your very host currently, Isaac Saul. It is Friday, September 19th. I am going to sound like crap today. I apologize. Unfortunately, also, we are also at a team off site. Well, that's good news. We're at a team off site. The Tangle team is all together. I'm not going to say Where. But we're in a cool spot together. We're doing a team retreat this week. So I'm recording from a non studio room and I'm very sick, which is a huge bummer to be sick for the team retreat, but making the best of it. And we're gonna talk about some of the Charlie Kirk feedback today. So here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna read an intro, I'm gonna just kind of set the table for some of this stuff and respond broadly to some of the feedback that we've gotten in the last week. And then I'm gonna get into some specific criticisms from readers and listeners which we're gonna read on the air here. Will and Ari are going to jump in. They're going to help me out as well, reading some of the feedback that we got. I'm going to respond to some of it, I'm not going to respond to some of it. And then we're also going to include some responses and feedback that we got that were positive or were sort of mixed, like maybe not outright criticism, but also not outright positive feedback either. There were some people who had really mixed feelings, which makes sense. So we're going to just share a bunch of that feedback today. That's going to be the podcast. I'm excited to do this. We love doing these kinds of shows because, as we always say, this is not just about us. It's not just about me, it's not just my views. The tangle ethos is that we're elevating viewpoints from across the political spectrum, which means we share views from all across America, and people feel really differently about these issues. And this is a great way to do that with these sort of reader, listener, mailbag, feedback editions. So I'm really excited about doing stuff like this. I hope my voice holds up for the whole show. Pray for me. All right, we're going to jump in. So I've watched with a lot of interest and trepidation as readers and listeners responded to my initial thoughts on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Over the last week, while I've been processing this event and its aftermath with the whole country, I've been poring over that feedback. Some of it was frustrating to read, some of it was compelling, some of it I thought merited a response, while other pieces of feedback seemed to stand fairly on their own. Today, I'm going to share a wide range of opinions from our audience about Kirk's assassination and my response to it, the criticism, the support and the unique perspectives. But before I do. I want to address a few things in broad strokes. For starters, I think it's important to clarify the most fundamental stance that I'm trying to take, which I don't want to get lost in the debate about Kirk's views. I do not accept physical violence as a reasonable response to speech. Full stop. This isn't a small footnote in the story. To me, it is the story. As for Kirk himself, I think he has been caricatured into a far more evil person than he was. He had many detestable views and has said many detestable things, at least to me, which drew many criticisms, including from me when he was alive. He is, in simple terms, exactly the kind of partisan firebrand I created tangle to counteract. At the same time, Kirk could have said some of the nastiest, cruelest, most deranged things imaginable and still not deserved a bullet in his neck the day after his death. I believe that by far the most important thing to do was to hold the line on this principle. If we give an inch, if we say he didn't deserve to die, but we are already losing our way, I am doing my best to resist that urge. In resisting it, I'll take the criticism that I think I overcompensated and lionized him or tried to whitewash who Kirk could be at his worst. He has certainly degraded the discourse by constantly trying to own opponents. Yet I have to insist, I think many liberals would also be surprised to see some of the clips of Kirk where he looks so different from the demonic, rabid, hateful right winger they see him as, and the only clips social media algorithms presented to so many people. I do not think he was a simple person. I think he was a complicated person. Like all of us. I plan to make that case more in depth in response to some of our reader feedback today. Indeed, when news of the shooting broke, my instinct, which I followed, was to humanize him. I wanted to remind people that this was a person with a family and friends who loved him, who is now dead. Some critics might say, Charlie wouldn't have done that for you, me, us. And you might be right. But I don't think that's a good reason for me not to do that. It felt important to humanize him. I felt good about humanizing him. I think it was right. I think it is right. But I can understand how this seemed insensitive to people who were the target of Kirk's ire. Also, a lot of people have reacted to a clip posted on our Instagram page of me breaking down in tears while describing Kirk's death. That came from our podcast. So if you're a listener of the show, you've probably heard it already, but I'll play it now. And it just broke me. It's like I was sitting there holding my son in the dark and he's asleep in my arms and it's the best fucking thing in the world. And I just started crying. And it's like you hold it in all day. You consume this shit all day. It's like you're going from dead kids in Gaza to fucking Charlie Kirk's head getting blown off on a live stream. So, yeah, some days you want to quit it. It sucks. While I think shedding tears for Kirk alone would be perfectly appropriate, I also want to be clear that they were not just for him. In that clip, I was responding to a question from my co host, Ari Weitzman, about something I had written, which was that all this news made me want to quit my job. In my reaction, I was describing what it's like to do this work and to mainline the horrors of the world into your system every morning. Those tears were for Kirk, his family, his friends, and the future of the country. Yes, but they are also for the kids and parents in Gaza, whom I mention in the actual clip, whose deaths I have been bearing witness to for more than two years. They are for the Israelis murdered on October 7, whose deaths were streamed across the globe. They are for the Ukrainians, for victims of school shootings, for Irina Zarutska and all the people who have faced political violence in the last few years. They are the product, the toll of having to cover this stuff over and over again and again. This moment is also disorienting because people who don't know anything about me have accused me of being a Jew hater, or an Israel apologist, or a genocide supporter, or a fascism enabler, and have threatened my well being simply for having moderate politics that quote, unquote, enable bad people. Some have even accused me of being responsible for Kirk's death, given my warnings about the Trump administration. I get these threats a lot. I speak in public at live events like Kirk. I'm in my 30s, like Kirk. I have a young son like Kirk. So, yes, it hits home. It is genuinely scary. I just think once we allow ourselves to underreact or numb ourselves to violence against someone whose views we consider bad enough, any of us can frame anyone else's views as bad enough and then decide to kill them. And that part is really really frightening. I think a little reinforcement of our humanity is a good thing. I did see a few reactions that seem more like mine, even from some of Kirk's biggest critics and rivals. What I fear most in the end is that we are all consuming this stuff together. It is warping our minds in ways we don't fully understand, and we are becoming so desensitized to the violence around us that shedding tears for a person who's been murdered can provoke rage and anger. Worse yet, rather than seeing Kirk's death as a flashpoint warning to step back from the brink and many right wing influencers and political actors are instead pushing for civil war, for violence and destruction toward the left, for more consolidation of power, for the President to seek vengeance. On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel lost his job over a rather milkatoast joke about Trump not expressing empathy and for claiming that Charlie Kirk's suspected shooter was maga. People across the country are already being targeted for their reactions, all while the President is filing lawsuits against media companies for coverage he doesn't like. We are in a very, very dark place for free speech. There are going to be some rough roads ahead. More than anything, I'm begging the people who read my work to step back from the brink, to answer the higher calling of their better angels, to resist the urge to dehumanize the people we loathe, and to absolutely reject political violence in all its forms. That's the hope I have and the thing I want to put out into the world. Now I'm going to move on to the criticism. I'm going to share some thoughts from some readers, and then I'll respond to those thoughts. We'll be right back after this quick break.

[Advertisement Voice]

When your workforce, tech, stack and business needs are evolving all at once, you need HCM software that moves just as fast. That's why paylocity builds what's Next? Providing innovative and simplified solutions for clients to tackle the real challenges they face every day. From AI driven insights to automated workflows across hr, finance and it, Paylocity's platform doesn't just keep up, it leads. It's time to simplify complexity, drive results, and move forward together. Start [e-mail] simplified if you're a custodial.

Supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering so you never run out.

Of what you need.

Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[Isaac Saul]

All right, first up is a reader named Kayla from Tampa, Florida. Kayla said, I want to start by saying that I appreciate what you are doing at Tangle. Discourse across political lines is even more important now than it has ever been before. I subscribe to challenge my beliefs and biases, and I've been impressed by the Tangle writer's ability to understand and present nuanced situations. I fear that this take from Isaac did not succeed in presenting that nuance. I fully support efforts to humanize Charlie Kirk because at the end of the day, that's who he was, a human. Even if he didn't believe that empathy matters, I do and I will give him and everyone I disagree with the acknowledgment that we are human and do still live in a country with the right to choose our beliefs. Although I worry every day about the trends toward a system that does not allow that. But as of today, we have that right. Unfortunately, that's where I stopped wanting to give Isaac the benefit of the doubt. I have no issue with takes that I disagree with. For mental health these days, you have to learn when to let things go. But I do have an issue with takes that try to rewrite history. Isaac is lucky enough to be a white man married to a woman. His rights are not the ones that Charlie Kirk had an issue with, and Isaac's take really showed that. Not only did Isaac misrepresent the majority of the left's reaction and lack of empathy, there has actually been a lot of empathy. The whole point is that we don't want anyone to die from gun violence. He has also misrepresented what Charlie Kirk stood for and was trying to do. He was a bully. He did not believe that I as a woman have the same rights and independence as Isaac. He participated in racist rhetoric and I wish that this take had more accurately portrayed those aspects of his life. Yes, he was a father. Yes, he made millions off of bullying college students as a fully grown adult. Yes, he was a husband. Yes, he believed women should submit to men. Yes, he has family and friends and community to mourn him. Yes, he said hateful things about people of color and the LGBTQ community. Yes, he was human. All of these things can be true. The last thought I want to leave with is that each of the people he owned, each of the people whose deaths he brushed aside, each of the people who he said should not have had the right to live the life they choose. All of them are human too. Please reflect on your mission and what you have allowed to be published. I hope to see the same nuance Tangle takes going forward that I and many of your subscribers have come to love. Thank you for the work that you do. Kayla. Okay, I appreciate this particular piece of feedback. I think it is probably worth just talking about the worst of Kirk here and now so we can get it on the record.

[John Law]

Hey everybody, this is John, Executive Producer for Tangle. We hope you enjoyed this preview of our latest episode. If you are not currently a newsletter subscriber or a premium podcast subscriber and you are enjoying this content and would like to finish it, you can go to readtangle.com and sign up for a newsletter subscription. Or you can sign up for a podcast subscription or a bundled subscription which gets you both the podcast and the newsletter and unlocks the rest of this episode as well as ad free daily podcasts, more Friday editions, Sunday editions, bonus content, interviews and so much more. Most importantly, we just want to say thank you so much for your support. We're working hard to bring you much more content and more offerings, so stay tuned. I will join you again for the daily podcast. For the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day y'.

[Isaac Saul]

All.

[John Law]

Peace.

[Isaac Saul]

Our Executive Editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul, and our Executive Producer is John Law. Today's episode was edited and engineered by John Law. Our editorial staff is led by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman with Senior Editor Will K. Back and Associate Editors Audrey Moorhead Bailey, Saul, Lindsey Knuth and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75 and John Law, and to learn more about Time Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our [e-mail].

[Advertisement Voice]

Imagine a world of extraordinary comfort where Bowen Branch Bedding wraps you in the softest. Embrace the coziest experience made from the world's finest 100% organic cotton, all so you can sleep better. Start building your fall sanctuary with Bolen Branch's iconic signature sheets made with a buttery, breathable weave that gets softer with every wash. Enjoy 15% off your first set of sheets with free shipping and returns at B O L L& Branch.com with code BUTTERY. See site for details and exclusive.

If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out.

Of what you need.

Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.

[Isaac Saul]

Carol, you're in remission. I think what gets me most about.

[Advertisement Voice]

This whole journey that I've been through.

[Isaac Saul]

Is just how many jigsaw pieces come.

[Advertisement Voice]

Together to help someone like me.

[Isaac Saul]

I've met people who have just packaged.

[Advertisement Voice]

The drugs, just this white box saying World Courier on it.

[Isaac Saul]

But I want to better say thank you to every single person that works on these things because they've saved my life.

[Advertisement Voice]

Every single one of them.

[John Law]

Every minute, World Courier makes another life changing delivery. Learn more Search World Courier.