← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
BREAKING NEWS: Suspect caught in Charlie Kirk killing with Gen-Z influencer Jack Cocchiarella, Tara Setmayer and Joe Walsh.
01:05:30
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- [00:00]
Tara Settmeyer
Foreign.
- [00:07]
Jim Acosta
Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. We're following the latest in the killing of far right activist Charlie Kirk. Authorities announced today that a suspect, Tyler Robinson has been arrested. The facts folks, they're still murky surrounding this suspect so probably best to use caution and drawing any sweeping conclusions. But some information is starting to come in and my first guest this hour is a progressive Gen Z influencer, Jack Cattrella. Jack has a huge audience on YouTube now. He's also on Substack recently interviewed Zoran Mamdani, which I want to talk about in a few moments. But Jack, great to see you. And you and I have been talking about this for some time. I'm glad we finally made it happen.
- [00:46]
Jack Cottrella
I know this is, this is very exciting, independent media coming together and, and I hope the, the clash of the audience. Everyone is, is very excited. We all got to be doing this more. I think it's so important and I'm glad to be joining you.
- [00:58]
Jim Acosta
Absolutely. And, and, and forgive me, you know, I hate doing this when I have Gen Z influencer on. But I, I, I feel like this is important because the suspect has been arrested. He's 22 years old. We don't know a lot about him. But a lot of the assumptions that were being made on the right about who this shooter was going to be that ended up being wrong. They thought it was going to be somebody who was trans and somebody who was going to be a far leftist and all of this stuff. He's a young man from, from Utah and grew up apparently in a family that used a lot of guns and, and seemed pretty conservative. But the other thing that I thought was interesting and some of the information that has come out, some of the stuff that the authorities put out there is that he was a gamer and had lots of different beliefs. I guess there was, according to New York Times, an engraving on an unfired cartridge said hey, fascist catch. But another said if you read this, you are lmao, obviously meaning laugh my ass off. And then there were also references to up arrow, right arrow, three down arrow symbols. This apparently is derived from a video game called hell divers 2. Another engraving, notices bulges O W O. What's this? Apparently a phrase used for trolling an online role playing community. So I mean, Jack, you know, obviously you're a little closer to this age bracket than I am and maybe the culture a little bit.
- [02:29]
Jack Cottrella
Yeah.
- [02:29]
Jim Acosta
Your thoughts? You've been wanting to say something about.
- [02:32]
Jack Cottrella
I, I am a little upset with how online I am to know everything that is being referred to and the very close connection. And I'm really glad that you have made this specific point which I feel like has been lacking in this coverage of the connection to the gaming community. There is such an overlap. I don't want to say and you know, like people who play video games, but the streaming community and the way that we have seen the rise of a kind of conservative movement and what people call the manosphere and think of Joe Rogan, but it really extends out to figures like Andrew Tate or Aiden Ross or the Nelk boys as well. And the reason why you have these communities thrive online is because in many ways they're self sustaining through the clipping environment that was largely built up by a figure like Andrew Tate. If I can take everyone back to I guess it would be like 2022. You heard about this guy online, this horrible misogynist saying terrible things and he had this program called Hustlers University. And what that was for Andrew Tate was it was largely young guys learning how to clip his videos. That would be the content that he would provide them, build up social media accounts on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or whatever it would be and those would become profitable. It was largely about teaching people how to clip content from streaming platforms like Twitch or Kik, which is the more conservative of them, and to post them everywhere. And so you have this self sustaining economy of people who clip for a living. It is their job, not because they are being instructed by, you know, by dark money or anyone, but by the nature that it is very economically successful for them to clip these people pushing conservative ideology, whether they mean to or not in the gaming community. This is something that you've really seen a rise in over the past decade. And so, so much of that is already baked in. And some of the reporting that I've read, and I'm also glad you made this point as well. Even over the past couple of days, I've felt uncomfortable showing photos that the FBI has put out or, or any initial reporting just because I don't trust it and I hate that we are in that place. But initial reporting that I've seen and what I suggested, considering that, you know, we've seen a really explosive growth of Nick Fuentes's platform, someone who's been extremely combative with Charlie Kirk is that it was one of his people, the Groipers they're called. And it seems like initial reporting suggests that this kid thought that Charlie Kirk wasn't conservative enough for him. That's kind of where I came from when I You know, realized that of course this is in Utah. This is at least from initial reports, was just a 22 year old white guy. That, that's where I thought it was going to be. And the place that that lands is really scary for a MAGA movement that I don't think wants to reevaluate any of its rhetoric. But I, I just, that is kind of my full breakdown of how all of those things come together. And it's, it's very worrisome.
- [05:26]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. I mean, and Jack, we, we don't even know, we don't know everything. I mean that's the thing. We just don't know everything at this point. There are indications that it could be something like that. I mean it very well could be something like that. But I mean to me, and this is what I was emph Wednesday and on Thursday it's like you just got to wait for all the facts to come in. And that was sort of what I had a problem with, with what was going on on the right and on Fox. And so there was just this rush to just slam the left sl, you know, go after people who aren't like the viewers at Fox and so on and create this boogeyman. And, and I, I think a lot of people are getting their worlds rocked today because they just. This is just a very nebulous thing at this point. It could be what you're saying, it could be from that world that was sort of to the right even of Charlie Kirk, which is extraordinary. But I mean this kid was trouble too. They were. I mean the authorities were saying that he only spent one semester in college despite having a scholarship. And, and, and, and it's possible he was kind of just swept up in this online gaming culture that can get very radical.
- [06:34]
Jack Cottrella
So much of, you know, not just what the big platforms want, but you know, you have to think about the much smaller economies in all of these spaces. You know, I talk about this a lot with the, with the health and wellness space. You know, these are people who preach a message of buy my supplement on the fact that they're saying, well, Big Pharma is making a profit off of you. That's why you should engage in my endeavor for profit of selling you this, this whatever supplement or whatever it is. But you see that a lot with the attention economy with just creators online, like especially with young men. You're, you're seeing so many be told that just like you shouldn't go out, like no, you know, man or woman is interested in you. You're, you're not going to be able to date anyone. You know, it's like we call it like rage bait. It's like just these things to like purposefully designed to get people upset. Not just for that one click or comment or engagement, but because long term these like very far right communities are sustained by people not going outside, people not engaging in the multicultural project that is America. Not being on college campuses where you hear different ideas and you interact with people different from you and you realize they're not just like, they're not that bad, they're just people. And so that is, that is so, so much part of this that we have like just a real crisis of. I don't even want to call it like faith necessarily, but it's kind of, it feels that way where it's just like who we are as people has kind of been rocked. And I see that so much with my generation, especially with a crisis of loneliness. But, but again, it's just perpetuated by, by everything that exists in this online space. And like you see it play out right now.
- [08:08]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Governor Cox of Utah, who, I mean, I thought he made some very positive comments. I think he was much more unifying than Trump has been and a lot of other people on the right.
- [08:16]
Jack Cottrella
And he didn't talk about the ballroom. That was Trump's first thought.
- [08:20]
Jim Acosta
I saw that. I was going to play that a little bit later. But you touch on a good point. I mean, Cox was saying during his remarks that people need to go outside and touch grass. That to me was another indication that the, the information that they're gleaning from this case and from this kid's. Prof. This young man's profile was that he was just immersed in this stuff. The other thing I want to ask you about is, was Charlie Kirk's hold on Gen Zers. And I mean, when you saw the, the video, obviously what took place on Wednesday, I don't want to play it again, but when you, I mean, he had another big crowd there. He gets these big crowds. Jack, your sense of why he had this pull inside Gen Z? Because this has been a subject that I've been fascinated with for some time and I, I would love to know what is going on and how somebody like Charlie Kirk, I mean, again had some very extreme bad, I mean, just bad faith views. I thought how he could attract such a cult like following.
- [09:18]
Jack Cottrella
Well, I think partially it's because my generation has kind of been raised on the politics for sport. Like that is people who, you know, can't remember a Time without Trump seeing those, those first Republican debates when we decided like we weren't doing decorum and we were just doing, you know, bottom of the barrel. I think that's largely the occur the appeal of Charlie Kirk. You know, I've read some really interesting polling. You even, even look at Dean Withers, who's a much more liberal sort of sort of figure like, like Charlie Kirk. He's a debater. He does tick tock. It kind of breaks down news sort of like that. His audience is incredibly conservative on social issues and because largely where they're coming from is just an interest in kind of this like gladiator style debate of people going back and forth. And ultimately when you have online spaces in which people are debating and you're introduced to. And I didn't think Charlie Kirk was that charismatic, but clearly he was, you know, a pretty successful speaker. With what he built Turning Point usa, you can't really detract from what he was able to build. But when you introduce people to charismatic figures pushing outlandish ideas, you know, I kind of term it like insanity immersion. Again, it's the Andrew Tate phenomenon. When you interact with outlandish ideas that are kind of spun to be a little funny and jokey and to push the envelope, especially on the cultural issues, eventually it starts to seep in, not only because you see it so much, but you just kind of have to interact in one way or another. That's what Nick Fuentes does really well. You know, there are some very viral Reddit posts right now about liberals saying, well, there's a lot of things that I agree with Nick Fuentes on, and I found myself listening to him because he's a charismatic figure. But these people also try to be funny and they try to engage in the topics that are a little bit more apolitical perceiving. And I think that's been a real struggle for Democrats not only to just like find those spaces where we can position ourselves on the apolitical issues. Like I think if you ask just kind of an average American their views on, on Ukraine, it seems more like a cultural issue to them. Health and wellness space seems like a lot more of a, of a cultural issue rather than one being decided by policy. And those inherently, at least through these online spaces, have been tilted towards the right. And so Democrats either need to find a way to engage with that or to make their own apolitical seeming issues. If you had talked about health and wellness a decade ago, it sounds like a liberal idea. If you had talked about your Opposition to continued endless war. It sounds like a liberal idea. Even, you know, free speech or advocating for marriage equality. These are things that weren't, you know, maybe the talking points necessarily, and some were of political campaigns, but that's what we have failed to win on. And this idea that Charlie Kirk was like the free speech guy, I find a little ridiculous. Like he was a go to college campuses for profit. If he cared about speech and thoughtful debate, he would debate or would have.
- [12:08]
Jim Acosta
Debated an expert professional wrestling quality to it.
- [12:13]
Jack Cottrella
Yeah.
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Jim Acosta
And, you know, it was all about like, you know, body slamming your opponent, rhetorically speaking and on. And he would bring a lot of bad faith arguments to the table. I mean, I don't want to go down the road and maybe I'm old fashioned. I just don't. I'm not a big fan of speaking ill of the dead, but I think some time needs to pass before we really focus in on his views. But I think that that conversation is going to happen. But what, I mean, what does the Democratic Party need to do? Because, I mean, Jack, you were out there campaigning with Kamala Harris. I remember. And you were out there with Joe Biden from time to time. And, and you were with Mom Donnie just recently. I want to play that clip. But let's, let's play the Mom Donnie clip. And let's, let's, let's use that to jump into the conversation because you interviewed Mom Donnie. So we're on Mom Donnie, the mayoral candidate, New York City. Let's talk about that. I think it'll help us open up the conversation. Both that and Indians are the Italians of Asia.
- [13:06]
Jack Cottrella
Like, it's a, it's this, it's this relationship. Is this a squad moment? Can we make it official?
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Jim Acosta
Yeah, it's a little spoon and me.
- [13:13]
Jack Cottrella
We made it happen.
- [13:15]
Jim Acosta
It's extraordinary. Now, now I could call the Mom Donnie people and they'll be like, yeah, Jim, get. Take a hike. We're never going to talk to you. But Jack comes along, Gen Z influencer and so on. They're like, yes, sign us up. We'll do it immediately. We'll have ice cream.
- [13:28]
Jack Cottrella
I, I also, I also must say this, this is the thing that I, I love most about that clip. My hair looks terrible. We were walking around on it. It was funny. We were doing a little walk and talk. We sat in Marcus Garvey Park. It was very nice with a little bit of ice cream. But the thing I love most about that clip is that you can see my fingers are just like red because they're thawing because it was so cold outside. And, and I just keep, I always have to point that out because I'm like, that is how early I was to this campaign. Not that I.
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Jim Acosta
That's cool. I guess I shouldn't have said recently. This was a while back.
- [13:58]
Jack Cottrella
Yeah, recent in, in terms of everything, feels like it was 10 years ago, but also yesterday in this, in this environment. But, you know, like, that's the thing. I don't want to be like, I was, I was there in the rock band before you were or whatever it is.
- [14:10]
Jim Acosta
But no, no, you. I, I remember covering the Obama campaign in 2008 and there was sort of a game that went on. It was like I was there, I was covering this before you did and I discovered Obama before you did and so on. And. But let's talk about, you know, Gen Z, the progressive base is, you know, do you see, you know, Gen Z, I mean, your generation having a chance to really take a look at folks like Mamdani and other progressive leaders and maybe be able to compete on the terrain that, that Charlie Kirk was very successful at. I mean, let's just, let's just face it. I mean, your thoughts on all that.
- [14:48]
Jack Cottrella
He certainly was. And you know, I think, I think the, the key in all of this is like, of course, your ability to speak, your ability to communicate in digital spaces. And not to say that, just like. And the, the boiled down response after Zaran won was like, oh, he was good at memes, which was a complete misreading. He had a platform that was aspirational and exciting. He animated tens of thousands of volunteers to knock millions of doors. It's like, it wasn't just like, oh, he was good online and he's a handsome guy, even though, you know, that's, that's certainly part of it. But I think you have to understand that, you know, largely political messaging has become, has become virality. It's the same thing in. The key to virality is like, you know, you got to say something that gets people interested. You got to say something that gets them upset a little bit. You have to frame a villain and you have to pick something niche and explain it. And I think that certainly works very, very well on the city government level, especially as so much of the conversation around Iran was so combative. It was, oh, you think you're going to freeze the rent? Well, how are you planning on doing that? And he loved having that conversation. And when you can say, well, as mayor, I control the rent guidelines board, I appoint these officials to Vote in favor and in reflection of what the state of affordability is in New York. That is a very clear and animating idea to give someone that makes them say, wait a second, this is a real guy, I can trust him. He's explained something to me. And you come away feeling smarter. You know, we opened by talking about, you know, whatever you're seeing out of the FBI, whatever you're seeing about initial reports, like maybe it's not right to, to jump on that and have full trust in that. And I don't think it's a bad thing to say. But that's certainly the project of Donald Trump's administration, right? It is distrust in government. It is.
- [16:26]
Jim Acosta
That's true. And you're absolutely right.
- [16:29]
Jack Cottrella
If you are a progressive, the opposite should be the case. It's not just like abundance make government work. Government working is great. But Joe Biden made a lot of government work. People didn't realize or understand it though. And so that's true to the point.
- [16:43]
Jim Acosta
Where Donald Trump is now putting his name on infrastructure projects that were Biden's.
- [16:48]
Jack Cottrella
Administration clearly wild wasn't enough. And to me, I think the great undertaking right now, if you want to return us to a place where we actually see ourselves in democracy, is the project of explaining. And Zaran does that very, very well. Graham Platner does that very, very well. Bernie and aoc, whenever you watch that's true clips of them, no matter how you feel about their politics, you always come away feeling like you've learned something. And that's very animating.
- [17:14]
Jim Acosta
And it's also the affordability issue is such an important issue right now. And it resonated so well for Imam Donnie in New York because it is so goddamn expensive in New York is just totally out of control and ridiculous. And the way he communicated about it to your point was. But this, this affordability issue, I think Democrats and progressives would be, I mean they would be, you know, wise to, to continue to talk about this because it, it's so acute for Gen Z. It's, it, it's a really important issue.
- [17:47]
Jack Cottrella
You can, you can see in the polling of at least young men who voted for Trump, the, the 18 to 22 was disproportionately larger than that 23 and 25. And it's because you can't as a 24 year old, some people do and some people, and it's fine for them usually go back and kind of raid mom and dad's pantry. Right? And so you're not going to be confronted with the, with the reality of affordability and I mean in terms of polling for Trump, positively still people aren't realizing a lot of the younger guys who are still at school and maybe recognize the crisis of affordability but haven't actually, you know, interacted with it in the real world because, you know, still are in college mode. You know, I just, I'm jealous even though, you know, I was, I was kind of ready to wrap up those classes at the end doing, doing all these videos and all this work a day. But you know, you see that very clear distinction is that the people who don't realize how badly Trump has kind of screwed my generation who haven't graduated yet into unemployment numbers that we've never seen for young people, like the lack of access to the job market. It's very distinct.
- [18:52]
Jim Acosta
What about the national debt? I mean. Oh yeah, they're going to explode the debt. I mean that is going to get, your generation is going to get saddled with that debt. Who knows what that means for programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and so on. I mean obviously Medicaid and the so called big beautiful bill is going to get decimated. And you know, I think that I just don't know if enough folks in Gen Z, especially on the, on the conservative side, on the MAGA side have even focused in on this. They're, they're so swept up in these cultural issues in these Charlie Kirk like cultural issues.
- [19:24]
Jack Cottrella
And honestly, if I was, if I was a democr messaging strategists, I would not turn my nose at the idea of talking more about the national debt. Now I wouldn't necessarily frame it as, as we are the party of fiscal responsibility and talk very, you know, strictly about budgets. But this is, is kind of in going back to the point of like explaining it's an, it's an immersive. I don't even know what word I'm trying to say there.
- [19:47]
Jim Acosta
Amorphous maybe.
- [19:49]
Jack Cottrella
Yeah. Thank you very much. I got tongue tied there. Amorphous idea. You, you're the pro here. I've been doing not as long of a time.
- [19:56]
Jim Acosta
It's Friday. I'm feeling the brain fade something fierce. It's been one hell of a week.
- [20:00]
Jack Cottrella
I, I slept for, I slept for three hours last night just because I've had a problem going to bed recently. And then I to. I'm gonna, I'm gonna share a little bit of, of a preview for my channel. But I did an interview with Governor Westmore.
- [20:11]
Jim Acosta
Oh fantastic.
- [20:12]
Jack Cottrella
Where him and I just went outside. We're just throwing the football around a little bit, running a couple of routes. I hit him on a, on a beautiful post. My smile is still tight. I had to loosen up the shoulder a little bit. He was in dress shoes and he was still moving, so.
- [20:25]
Jim Acosta
And people need to know this about you. You're like, how you're like six, nine or something.
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Jack Cottrella
I'm six six. I, I usually tell people when they ask me in public, I tell them 5, 10, just to upset the guys around me.
- [20:34]
Jim Acosta
I remember we met one time. You were like, jim, I would like to have coffee. We met for coffee. And I was like, oh, my God. It's like, you know, is this somebody from the NBA coming here?
- [20:42]
Jack Cottrella
It's. It's really funny. I know I've distracted us from, from the topic. We'll get back to it though. But it's always very funny. You know, I've been at a couple of the, the really great move on events that they've hosted with, you know, just, just in Omaha. What a wonderful airport in Omaha, by the way. None of it, no offense to everyone in Omaha, but maybe, maybe we build that thing out a little bit. But with Elizabeth Warren and Maxwell Frost. And then I was, after speaking with governor Newsom, I was in Phoenix with Rep. Ansari. It was Chris Murphy, Jasmine Crockett. And whenever I have people come up to me at those events, it's always so funny. And, you know, I'm sure you, you get this and have way more in your life than I ever will, but when people just kind of like, look at you and they're like, is that is. And again, you kind of have to be like, yeah, it is me. Like, you come over, but the first thing is like, oh, you're always so tall. I. But then lots of people have followed it up with, I thought you would be shorter. I was like, well, we could have left that off.
- [21:30]
Jim Acosta
Even in this interview, I find myself sitting up a little bit. I'm just trying to, you know, part.
- [21:34]
Jack Cottrella
Of it, I'm just taking up too much space here.
- [21:37]
Jim Acosta
It is. Well, I mean, Jack, I'm really proud of what you've been able to build on YouTube. It's been extraordinary. And we need more people like you in Generation Z in the progressive movement, you know, trying to pull, you know, I, I talked about, I wrote this in my substack. You got to leave a little space to pull people over from the other side or from people who are just. Even if they're just bad faith folks, they may, they may have this moment of epiphany at one point where, like, you know what? Maybe I should, maybe I need to cut this stuff out and think about life in a little bit of bigger way. And I think the way you approach this is just so smart because it's not like trying to own the libs or own Maga or anything like that. It's, it's, it's a thoughtful approach. And I think it's, you know, I would just say keep at it. I think you need.
- [22:28]
Jack Cottrella
Well, again, you're the pro. You saved me a little bit today, so I'll take all the advice that I can get. And, you know, you've, you've just been such a, such an inspiration to me. And I, you know, I remember some of, like, my first big videos blown up on YouTube where some, like you shutting down Corey Lewandowski and, and, you know, like to have someone who do displays even in the face of. And of course, like, it's like, great to be independent media now, but like, in the face of corporate media that just wants to direct what you're doing to not, you know, to part of my friends, like, not take any, essentially. And to make it very clear that, you know, we have to rise above in this moment, I've always.
- [23:01]
Jim Acosta
You can't take any. You can't take any. And, you know, and sometimes that doesn't always play well in corporate media. I'll just leave it at that. But, Jack, let's do this again.
- [23:10]
Jack Cottrella
Now we get to hang.
- [23:11]
Jim Acosta
So. Absolutely, let's do it again. And I'll, I'll wear my, my hokas that have the giant heels on them so I can just mike it to six two.
- [23:20]
Jack Cottrella
Maybe I'll, I'll, you know, slump a little bit.
- [23:23]
Jim Acosta
Something a little bit.
- [23:24]
Jack Cottrella
I always do that.
- [23:25]
Jim Acosta
Jack, great to see you, man. Thanks so much for doing it. Really appreciate it.
- [23:28]
Jack Cottrella
I appreciate it, brother.
- [23:29]
Jim Acosta
All right. Talk to you soon. All right. That's Jack Cottrella. He, I mean, I, I, he and I've been talking about this for some time. Getting him on the, I just thought with the way this, this case is shaping up, we, you know, folks, we just don't know about what we think we know about. Let me bring in Tara Set Meyer, because Tara and I have great conversations about everything that goes on in the news. I'm, I know Tara's got thoughts on what's been taking place since. Just a little bit, since Wednesday. And I was just, you know, these young Gen Z kids, I worry so much about them, Tara, because their world is, I Mean, let's just face it is a giant show. And, you know, I love it. Says right here, do not bay in advance next to Tara's name. Perfect. But I mean, Charlie Kirk, you know, he practiced a kind of politics. I mean, people were kind of lionizing him and saying, oh, he's all about free speeches. He demonized a lot of people. Just. Absolutely. I mean, it was bad faith, demonization kind of stuff. Not that. And we've said we're not.
- [24:34]
Tara Settmeyer
Apparently we're not allowed to say that. Well, according to the mainstream media. Well, we already know how the right feels, but like, mainstream media and everyone else, they're lionizing him like he's Martin Luther King. And it's. So that's just not the case.
- [24:48]
Jim Acosta
I think a Republican member of Congress who put out a tweet that compared him to Jesus or something.
- [24:53]
Tara Settmeyer
And I'm like, you know, what are we doing here?
- [24:56]
Jim Acosta
I know, I know.
- [24:57]
Tara Settmeyer
It's so infuriating.
- [24:58]
Jim Acosta
And, and listen, as we've all said a million times, like, nothing justifies political violence. But again, I mean, this is something that we need to talk about. Tara is like, the facts are starting to come in about this young suspect, and I think we have to be careful. We just don't. It's like the old Rumsfeld thing. There are known knowns and known unknowns and unknown unknowns, and they're starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And it. It's not a clear cut deal what he. What he is, what's going on in his head. No, and I think it's. It's a. It's a good reason to just be cautious and say, let's just get all the facts in. But it's certainly not what the right expected.
- [25:39]
Tara Settmeyer
No. And this whole. Well, there's a. There's a bunch of things. First of all, it's good to see you, Jim.
- [25:44]
Jim Acosta
Good to see you. Oh, and happy birthday. Happy birthday.
- [25:47]
Tara Settmeyer
Thank you. Thank you. If anyone follows me on social media, they know that I just turned 50 on Tuesday. And so it was a big milestone. I'm a little weirded out by it, actually, because I'm like, I'm 50 years old. I'm like, I'm the same age my grandmother was when I was born, which is really weird.
- [26:03]
Jim Acosta
And I just like, I know what. And in your mind you're like, I still feel like I'm 20 or something.
- [26:08]
Tara Settmeyer
Right. My knees don't feel like I'm 20, but another in my eye. But, you know, everything else, I'm like 50. It was really weird. But my, it's a different 50 now. Yeah, I guess. I mean the golden girls were like 52 or something. I'm like, Jesus. My husband and I went to IHOP this morning and he's like, do we get the senior discount now? I'm like, listen, I know I'm not ready for it.
- [26:30]
Jim Acosta
You get your AARP card.
- [26:32]
Tara Settmeyer
Apparently they know because they sent my husband. I said that? Exactly. I said, get that out of here. AARP. What are we doing here?
- [26:41]
Jim Acosta
I'll do that like 25 years.
- [26:42]
Tara Settmeyer
I know. I'm like, I can't. I'm weirded out. But I've spent the last two weeks in Europe. I just got back last night. My husband and I, because my wedding anniversary, my birthday are four days apart.
- [26:52]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [26:52]
Tara Settmeyer
So we, we were in Sicily and that, because I said, listen, that's where we got married and I have lots of friends there. My grandmother is Sicilian, so I, I feel very connected to Sicily and had the, the blessed opportunity to get married there. And this thousand year old Norman Castle in 2013 called Castello de Cacamo, it's just, it's, it's crazy. It's beautiful. Yeah. But anyway, so I said, I'm not gonna spend turning 50 in the States. I need a respite, I need a recharge. I need to go to somewhere that makes me happy other than the down, down the shore in Jersey. It was down the shore in Jersey or Sicily. Sicily won.
- [27:30]
Jim Acosta
So good choice.
- [27:32]
Tara Settmeyer
Yes. So for the last two weeks I've been monitoring what's going on from over there and then trying to figure out how to get my citizenship just in case. I'm just kidding. But I, I gotta tell you that when I saw what happened with Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, I just said, oh my God, you know, for all the reasons. I mean, it's tragic. It's, it's. No one ever wants to see political violence. It's just, it's not the answer, no matter what. I, I happen to think that what Charlie Kirk espoused and believed was vile. I mean the things that he says and the, and the movement that he has created is a very dangerous one because he, on, he, he was able to go and cultivate a huge, huge movement with the Gen Z, with the Gen Z and like, you know, millennial Gen Zers now. I guess, I guess Gen Alpha is the one after that because he's, he started to infiltrate high schools.
- [28:31]
Jim Acosta
Totally.
- [28:32]
Tara Settmeyer
And that ideology is, it is dangerous. It isn't, you know, it's not something that I would think in 2025 would have such popularity. But clearly he tapped into something that was, he's filling a void. And it was smart. You have to give him credit for.
- [28:53]
Jim Acosta
I agree. I wrote about this.
- [28:55]
Tara Settmeyer
Built. Right, absolutely smart. He took Rush Limbaugh's template and said, that's what I'm gonna do, but for young folks, because you have to build, you have to build the team. And, and that's where you start. And he started that at like 18 years old. So he was very ambitious from the time he was, he was quite young. But as someone who spent 27 years in the Republican Party, I was one of those young Republicans.
- [29:20]
Jim Acosta
I remember you telling me this one.
- [29:21]
Tara Settmeyer
Yes. I'd been to the Republican, you know, youth conventions and I was the vice president of the GW College Republicans when I was at school at GW in the early 90s. I mean, I was, I, I, I, I lived in San Diego for the summer of 96. It was my first Republican convention. And I helped run the youth convention because the Republicans would have like a, like a simultaneous youth convention for 18 to 24 year olds. So its own programming, own, you know, speakers and, and everything was like its own little mini convention within the convention. And I worked on that when I was 20 years old. I mean, I was fully entrenched in that. I, the first speaker that I brought to GW when I was part of the College Republicans came through the Young Americas. Young Americas for Freedom. Yeah, right, right. Young Americans for Freedom. That was like, that was like the, the group that a lot of congressmen nowadays back then, like the, like, you know, in their 50s, 60s, 70. Oh, it gets older now. 60s and 70s were part of YAF. Yap was like, what turning point USA is today? Or back in the day, like Barry Goldwater and like all of those folks and a lot of the Reaganites came out of yaf. Now, it wasn't as radical as I would. Well, I mean, maybe some things, but not quite like this.
- [30:42]
Jim Acosta
This is much more radical.
- [30:43]
Tara Settmeyer
This is much more radical. I mean, it's taking us back to a time like pre civil rights and pre women's rights where, you know, Charlie Kirk was espousing things about women about them not being as attractive if they, if they're on birth control. And once they hit their 30s, they're not in their PR years.
- [30:59]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [30:59]
Tara Settmeyer
You know, talking about minorities, if you, if you're flying on an airplane, you better check and see if you're, I saw that black, like people a lot of People forget the, the awful things that he said. He started, he might have started off as like a Reagan Republican back in the day, but that's not what he turned into.
- [31:16]
Jim Acosta
He learned that outrage sells and it's sort of the old shock jock rule. It sells, it can, it can create a movement and you can make a lot of money doing it.
- [31:27]
Tara Settmeyer
And he did. And he did. He built a, a juggernaut. And there's no equivalent on the other side.
- [31:35]
Jim Acosta
There is not.
- [31:36]
Tara Settmeyer
There is no equivalent. The Democrats, the left have not kept up and the pipeline. Now this is something we have to be concerned about because there's clearly a void, a political void that the right has tapped into. And Charlie Kirk, I mean, Charlie Kirk was one of the first people to kind of take the CPAC model and marry it with the, the shock jock, you know, entertainment part of, like what, what Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck were doing.
- [32:04]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [32:04]
Tara Settmeyer
And appealing to college aged kids and now high schools. And I, and I said, I'm like, what is, what is the left doing? Because clearly there's, there's this something going on here that's attracting all of these young people.
- [32:19]
Jim Acosta
Correct.
- [32:19]
Tara Settmeyer
To what Charlie Kirk and, and what MAGA was, was spewing and that turn everybody.
- [32:25]
Jim Acosta
And this is why, I mean, this is why Trump loved Charlie Kirk so much. But, I mean, or at least said he did. I do want to play this. I don't know if you saw this clip of Trump. He was asked earlier today about how he's doing now, how he's coping with the loss of Charlie Kirk. And I just want, I want to play this and get your response because it's an extraordinary moment. How are you holding up for the.
- [32:48]
Joe Walsh
Last day and a half? I think very good. And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks, they just started construction at the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years.
- [33:01]
Jim Acosta
And it's going to be a beauty.
- [33:03]
Joe Walsh
It'll be an absolutely magnificent construction. And I just see all the trucks we just started. So it'll get done very nicely and it'll be one of the best anywhere in the world, actually.
- [33:15]
Tara Settmeyer
Thank you so much.
- [33:17]
Jim Acosta
And then he walks away. I mean, Tara, I, I have to tell you. Oh, yeah, we're back.
- [33:26]
Tara Settmeyer
I was like, what happened?
- [33:29]
Jim Acosta
No, no, I was gonna say that. I, I was. When I saw this, it said a couple of things. First of all, what the. I mean, that's just so.
- [33:37]
Tara Settmeyer
Well, that's so strange that's every day, though, Jim. The guy is mentally unhinged. He's a narcissist wacko, and that's how people behave.
- [33:46]
Jim Acosta
But it also says to me the other thing, all of that. But it also says to me that maybe the right MAGA fox, the White House, they did not get what they wanted right out of the capture of this suspect.
- [34:00]
Tara Settmeyer
Yes.
- [34:01]
Jim Acosta
They did not get this. This tool that they wanted to use to further divide this country, to keep whipping up hysteria and hatred on the far right. And they. And so he's already ready to move on and talk about his goddamn ballroom.
- [34:14]
Tara Settmeyer
I know. Oh, I know. It's. Well, remember he's the same guy that on 911 was talking about. Now his building down there in Wall street is going to be the tallest building in Wall Street. You know what I mean? On 9 11. Like either on the day or the next day.
- [34:28]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I remember that.
- [34:29]
Tara Settmeyer
Remember? And I was like, what the is wrong with you?
- [34:33]
Jim Acosta
You're.
- [34:33]
Tara Settmeyer
First of all, he's a native New Yorker. Second of all, that's where your brain goes when you just witnessed the worst terrorist attack on American soil ever.
- [34:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [34:44]
Tara Settmeyer
And the towers come down and you're over here talking about, well, I guess now I'm gonna have the tallest building. And then he lied about sending his guys down there to help. And I mean, the guy is a sicko. And then he took, and then he took like a, like a tax break or something that was supposed to be used for businesses that were impacted by 9 11. Like, I, I just can't. But yet, but yet. Yeah, but Joe, But Joe Biden was old.
- [35:05]
Jim Acosta
Right. Why? And also, I mean, you know, he just switches to talking about the ballroom. I mean.
- [35:11]
Tara Settmeyer
Yeah, because. Because he's not wired like a well adjusted, emotionally well adjusted adult.
- [35:19]
Jim Acosta
Yes.
- [35:20]
Tara Settmeyer
Not. And that's something that I cannot. It still to this day blows my mind that so many Americans overlooked that he's mentally ill. And this is not like I don't understand how we can elect. This country can elect taking the policies out of it. Ronald Reagan, George w. Bush, George H.W. bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and this guy. But they reject Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.
- [35:53]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [35:54]
Tara Settmeyer
And. But this guy.
- [35:56]
Jim Acosta
But he's okay.
- [35:57]
Tara Settmeyer
But he's okay. A guy that doesn't have an ounce of empathy or an ounce of compassion or an ounce of anything that isn't his own self centered. But this is who the American people want to lead us through tragedy.
- [36:12]
Jim Acosta
And the other thing is 24 hours ago, he's talking about we need to beat the hell out of radical leftists. I mean, he was, he was using very incendiary language and going after the left. Of course, it just, it seems to me the word has gotten to them that this is not clear cut, you know, ammunition to go after people on the left.
- [36:32]
Tara Settmeyer
And, you know, there, I have been around, like I've said, a lot longer in politics than people realize.
- [36:41]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [36:41]
Tara Settmeyer
And I've seen all kinds of things and, you know, that I come from a law enforcement family, so I pay attention to how things are investigated and presented and as a political communications person, how that information is communicated, I pay very close attention because words matter and framing and context matter when you're trying to control the narrative. Yeah, it was I, from what I saw, like I said, I was overseas, I was in Sicily at the time, but I thankfully had WI fi on my flight back, so I was able to watch CNN International, which is the only thing I could get. But I was watching those press conferences and I saw Trump's, the taped statement that he, that he released in the immediate aftermath. And I thought to myself, okay, what they're doing, it doesn't matter whether this guy is, you know, maga, radical left. It doesn't matter. Whatever, we don't know. He had no idea. They are going to set this narrative that it's the Democrats, it's the Democrats. They sent out the message.
- [37:42]
Jim Acosta
They did it right away. They did it right away, immediately.
- [37:45]
Tara Settmeyer
It wasn't even confirmed whether Charlie Kirk had survived or not. And immediately you had the Nancy Maces of the world, another unhinged, emotionally wacko person, go talking about, you know, Democrats. This is on them. They're murderers. And Elon Musk out there tweeting. It's literally, it's like the bat signal went up, the MAGA signal went up with the talking points. Everybody got the same text and they started it immediately.
- [38:07]
Jim Acosta
Immediately.
- [38:08]
Tara Settmeyer
That night, Trump, irresponsibly, from the Oval Office says what he says about, you know, going up to radical leftists and then of course, taking all the words of those of us who are on the right side of history, who are rightfully calling out what we're seeing happening in this country to our democracy, the dangers, the, the fascism, the lack of due process, the, you know, on the Constitution, all of those things, and turns that around and to, to lay the foundation that we're the problem so that when. More. It's, it's like, it's like the, the January 6th template. It's going to be wild. It's you know, it's, It's. It's. It's whitewashing what's actually going on.
- [38:47]
Jim Acosta
It's a. Jesse Waters was saying, we're at war.
- [38:50]
Tara Settmeyer
Right. Analogies. It wasn't just him. It was Steve Bannon. It was him. It was a bunch of them. Again, part of the playbook to get people primed to make. To. To make the violence worse. Like, he doesn't. He gets off on it in a weird way, because he's such a wuss. You know what I mean? He's such a wuss, and he's so. He's such a coward, but he gets off on being around other people and other people's, you know, toughness in the warriors. Department of war, you know, he's overcompensating for all kinds of things that he's done he doesn't feel confident about. But the fact that they also waited almost 48. It felt like 48 hours. It was like 30 hours before they actually released the video of the suspect. Any other time, as soon as they got that video and there was a manhunt, it would have been released.
- [39:42]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, this has been. This has been so sloppy. I mean. I mean, Chris Rufo, this guy, this neoconservative. I don't know what to call him. Manhattan something or other, and Steve Bannon. They're all going after Cash Patel right now. Cash Patel's in a lot of hot. Well, there was a New York Times story talking about Cash Patel that Glenn Thrush wrote.
- [40:02]
Tara Settmeyer
Why is anybody surprised, though?
- [40:04]
Jim Acosta
I don't know why anybody is surprised. You put a podcaster in charge of the FBI, what the hell do you think is going to happen?
- [40:09]
Tara Settmeyer
No offense to podcast podcasters, right? No. Right. Two of them. Okay, Because I think you and I.
- [40:15]
Jim Acosta
Would run the FBI honestly. Better.
- [40:18]
Tara Settmeyer
Of course we would, because we actually care about their responsibility and the mission of what the FBI is supposed to do. And we're not, you know, we're not the ones that are out here trying to just. Just do what Donald Trump says. We're not minions of Donald Trump. Caspel wrote a freaking children's book where Donald Trump was the king. Okay? This is a guy. This is the wannabe loser guy that never was set for sat with the cool kids that finally is like, yay, I have the FBI, and I have a plane, and I. And then when the hit the fan and it actually requires leadership and someone competent. You see his face? He looked. He looked. He didn't know what. You're in the headlights and Meanwhile, there's like real stuff going on and they're firing the, the veteran agents. The, the institutional knowledge that's been lost from the FBI is really making our country unsa, you know, less safe. And they were out there. You could tell that the, like the career agents, when they first did one of those press confere, some of the stuff they were saying didn't make sense. And the first thing I said was, wait a minute, you guys admit that you have video so you can identify his face very clearly, but you're not going to show it to us because you're confident that your video surveillance is going to catch him or whatever dumb that they said. And I said, this makes no sense. The only thing that makes sense is that they were told from on high, you are absolutely not to release this until you. We, you know, can wait, like wait, let's wait a little while. Because they didn't want independent people to go and find this kid and find the profile.
- [41:43]
Jim Acosta
Well, and that's.
- [41:44]
Tara Settmeyer
Find out that he's not a left wing nutcase.
- [41:48]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Apparently the family, I mean, and you know, and to the family's credit, they, they helped turn him in and everything and, and he was brought into custody and so on. But to me, again, this whole episode is a cautionary tale of not jumping to conclusions. And of course, I mean these, what I'm saying is just completely lost on anybody on the right who just. And people on Fox and Jesse Waters, they just want to weaponize this stuff immediately and see how much hatred they can drive up. But Tara, I know it's your 50th birthday. I don't want to. We gotta save some energy because you're celebrating and stuff like that.
- [42:23]
Tara Settmeyer
Well, listen, I appreciate it. You're. This is the first, my first on air since I've been back. I've only been back for like 12 hours. Hours. And it was, I'm glad that it was with you and that we had a chance to talk about this a little bit because I just think that we need to put it in perspective. We need to be honest about what's happening. It's terrible what happened to Charlie Kirk.
- [42:43]
Jim Acosta
You know that's right.
- [42:44]
Tara Settmeyer
No one deserves to lose their life over their political 100. Like I said, as vile as I think his beliefs are, this is not the way to, to handle that. You ballot box and you defeat them. But, but we also shouldn't be lionizing him and mainstreaming what he was doing and making it seem as though he was just like, like I said, like A regular Reaganite kid back in the day, like we were.
- [43:07]
Jim Acosta
I agree.
- [43:08]
Tara Settmeyer
You know, just talking about small government and, and strong national defense and the shining city on a hill. Like that's not what Charlie Kirk was preaching and indoctrinating these young kids with. And now he's built this movement. It's becoming something dangerous and we really just need to be honest about it because we're, we're in for some dark days ahead because we don't have leadership at the top. And it's going to take us, all of us, to have to try to lower the temperature here, but also stay true to what, what's actually going on here and not let them whitewash history.
- [43:37]
Jim Acosta
Absolutely. And that's why we are so glad we have you on the case. At the tender young age of 50, Tara said. Meyer, great to see you. Happy birthday once again.
- [43:47]
Tara Settmeyer
Thank you, my friend. See you soon.
- [43:49]
Jim Acosta
See you soon. See you soon. Thanks so much, Tara bringing lots of wisdom despite the fact she told me she was jet lagged and everything else. Let's bring in Joe Walsh. Joe is standing by. Joe, it's been too long. Great to see you, my man. How are you? I hope you're well. And I, I know you and I, you've had a tough week because you knew Charlie Kirk and, and knew him well.
- [44:11]
Joe Walsh
I'll tell you, Jim, let me start out by saying I don't remember 50. Tara just turned 50. I don't remember 50. You're a kid, though. You're young. You remember.
- [44:19]
Jim Acosta
No, no, I'm not. It's a lot of moisturizer. It's what it is.
- [44:24]
Joe Walsh
This has been a weird week because, and I've said that Charlie Kirk was like a son to me and he was, I met him when he was 16. He helped me go to Congress. I helped him start Turning Point USA back when it was something very different. I was his political mentor. He and I were political soulmates. And then, Jim, you know the story. Trump comes along. Charlie decided to be a big Trumper. I decided to be a never Trumper. So we've, we've become estranged the last five to six, seven years, like a lot of families have.
- [45:00]
Jim Acosta
That's right.
- [45:02]
Joe Walsh
And he, but then hearing about his killing this week, it just hearkened all of that history back. And it made me sad how Trump has torn apart so many Republicans, so much of this coalition that Charlie Kirk and I are on opposite sides. Who'd have thunk it?
- [45:20]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I mean, and that's why I, I've been cautioning since Wednesday. And I throwing even more caution out there today to be careful about forming any hard and fast conclusions about this. This young man who apparently did this, you know, we don't even know he could have been to the right of Charlie Kirk and there's a lot of speculation about that right now. We just don't know. Yes. Was he critical of Charlie Kirk? It sounds like he was. Did he write something about fascist catch on one of the casings? It sounds like, yes, he did. But there were some other things that were written, some game, online gaming references and so on that just make this such a jumbled mess. Nobody knows what the hell to think. But I, I, and we were just talking about this with Tara just a few moments ago. But it sounds as though Joe Trump doesn't know what to do with it because when he was asked about it earlier today, he started talking about his ballroom. So it seems as though the right is at a loss as to how to play this. And, and they wanted to play with it.
- [46:15]
Jack Cottrella
Yeah.
- [46:16]
Joe Walsh
I think the information they've gotten privately has told them this is a lot more complicated. This is not some crazy left wing transgender that they were all ready to pounce on. But, but, but Jim, you know this and I know this because your world is media. It almost doesn't matter because three months from now, 30 to 40% of the country, the Fox News watching part of the country will never know the truth of what this guy was.
- [46:45]
Jim Acosta
That's true.
- [46:46]
Joe Walsh
It's already baked. I'm hearing from them today. It's already baked in.
- [46:52]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [46:52]
Joe Walsh
Which is so Sad. Like the 2020 election was stolen. This guy will be a crazy lefty or a transgender, whatever. That's already baked in. That's what's so sad.
- [47:02]
Jim Acosta
That is what's sad. And it speaks to some really huge problems that we have with this country. I mean, I was talking about this earlier and I, I wrote a sub stack and in part about this is when Jesse Waters goes out there and says we're at war. What are you talking about? These are your fellow Americans you're talking about. It's sick. And he's on national television. I mean, he's on, he's on fox. Matthew Dowd gets fired over at msnbc maybe didn't make the best comment. I, Whatever. Jesse Waters can just say this crazy shit. He just gets, and he just gets away with it. It's just unreal. And that stuff's, you're absolutely right. It's just getting pumped out there every day and non stop.
- [47:43]
Joe Walsh
I'VE always wanted to ask you this question in the political world. Now I'm a Democrat and I'm encouraging Democrats to fight fire with fire in the media world. Jim, should msnb, clearly MSNBC and CNN have a certain standard and a bar that Fox News doesn't have? Should, should MSNBC and CNN say screw it, we're going to go down to Fox News level. You can say what Jesse Waters says, you can say whatever you want. I don't think they should, but I.
- [48:13]
Jim Acosta
Don'T know, I think part of it, Joe, is I think that's why people are gravitating to where we are, to media. They're just saying, I've had enough of this crap. And you've been around media circles for a long time. You've done so many of these kinds of, of interviews over the years. You know, you kind of know how, I mean, you do know how it works. And to me, I think the public is just fed up and there's news that, you know, Skydance, Paramount, whatever you want to call, they now want to buy Warner Brothers and yeah, you know, and, and that media conglomerate is going to get bigger and bigger and it might be under the leadership of some pretty conservative people. And I mean, what is happening to the media in this country? I, I, I, it's a subject to explore at a later date. But Joe, you're absolutely right. You've got 40% of the country getting spoon fed information from the far right that I'm a little worried maybe the truth doesn't sink in no matter what the facts are.
- [49:08]
Joe Walsh
So I've said a bunch. Trump's greatest legacy is the destruction of truth. And what saddens me is Donald Trump has taught my former party, members of my former party that you can lie and get away with it. You can lie and it'll benefit you. So over the years now we're seeing other Republicans just openly lie like they never would have before. But they've seen their leader get away with it. He's never been held accountable. You're right. Your former network cable news Trump lies a thousand times a day and they don't even call him out on it anymore. So it's completely, completely normalized now.
- [49:47]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I, and I do wonder, I mean, given your experience with Charlie Kirk, what is happening on the far right with young people? I was talking to a Gen Z influencer earlier on and you know, it's kind of a mystery wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in an enigma. I mean, I don't know how to, how to solve this issue. But you have, I mean, you look at the crowds that were there for Charlie Kirk the other day when this happened, he, this is, that's like, that's another day that ends in Y for him. He does that all the time. What did you observe from Charlie that made him such a powerful influence and force on the right?
- [50:24]
Joe Walsh
Well, he was always beyond his years. He was always brilliant politically and incredibly glib. And so then Trump came along and Charlie had a decision to make, like all of us did. Do we get on that train or do we hold to what we believe? And Trump and Charlie said, I'm gonna get on that train. And here he is, a young guy, and we forget, Jim, he was 22 years old when Don Jr. During the 2016 campaign, grabbed him and said, run our campaign. Social media.
- [50:56]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [50:57]
Joe Walsh
So Charlie and Junior became best friends. Charlie was wined and dined by all of these wealthy Republicans. And he literally told me, I can't pull away from that.
- [51:06]
Jim Acosta
And he got swept up in it.
- [51:07]
Joe Walsh
Yeah, he got swept up in it. And then smartly, the Trump people used how glib he was. But, but. And it was all about confrontation and being provocative. That was no conversation he had the other day at that university. It's, he's with a few thousand people. It's all about just, you know, catching viral moments and that's not what the country needs. I appreciate that Charlie got in front of other people, but not in that way.
- [51:37]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, you're right. And there's been a lot of magical thinking about what he was doing. And it was sort of like, well, he was such a free speech activist and he believed in being in the public square and so on. He also believed, and you're dead on about this, Joe, that he was also about trying to capture viral moments with kids that maybe he outwitted or outsmarted in some parents particular moment, turn it into a bite sized clip, put it on social media, hope it goes viral and then monetize it, make money off of it, you know, and this is the outrage machine that we're all living in. Right. It's something that, that Spencer Cox was talking about earlier today.
- [52:14]
Joe Walsh
And Charl and Charlie excelled at it because he went to college campuses. But no, all of this revisionist history the last couple days, like as you said, he was some freestyle speech warrior. Bullcrap. Charlie didn't have conversations. These weren't even debates. These were just creating viral moments. Yeah, and he was, he was really, really good at it. There's a whole website out there of of these moments where. Because his people would eliminate the, the parts where the college kids ate him up.
- [52:48]
Jim Acosta
Right. That's true.
- [52:49]
Joe Walsh
Yeah. So he, they would edit it to make it look like he's just, just all. He's an amazing. But, but that's not what we need. That's what he did great at. And that's why, again, young men glommed on to Trump and Charlie. Because it's all about being a bully and fighting people and knocking people down. And that's what Charlie was good at.
- [53:11]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, a lot of that. Pro wrestling kind of.
- [53:13]
Joe Walsh
Yeah.
- [53:14]
Jim Acosta
Mixed martial arts, ufc. I mean, it's, that's, that's that style of politics that has been successful for that.
- [53:20]
Joe Walsh
Jim. Like, Jim, Charlie Kirk got and God, I wish he was around. I wish.
- [53:26]
Jim Acosta
I know, I know. I, and I've. Yeah.
- [53:28]
Joe Walsh
Charlie Kirk would not sit down with someone like you for 45 minutes on substack Live and have a conversation.
- [53:37]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [53:38]
Joe Walsh
That just wasn't his thing. And too many people on the right don't do that.
- [53:42]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. No, you're absolutely. And they want to be in their bubble. And yeah, folks could say, well, want to be in our bubble. But honestly, I, I'm not interested in having bad faith people on anymore. I, I, I done that. You know what I mean? And, and I, I would much rather have conversations with folks like you and I. I, I think I read the other day, Joe, you and I haven't spoken in a while, but that you decided to switch parties. You're now you. Have you become a Democrat? Did I read that correctly or. Yes. Hey, Chip, I almost passed. I was like, you know, I still.
- [54:16]
Joe Walsh
Almost pass out when I think about it. From.
- [54:19]
Jim Acosta
I covered you in Congress when you were a Tea Party guy. Oh.
- [54:22]
Joe Walsh
And you used to beat me up, and I deserved it. From the Tea Party to the democratic party in 14 years. Three months ago, Jim, I formally became a Democrat. I never would have thunk it, but again, just, it's simple in my bones. I believe my former party's a threat to our founding principles. I want to help the Democratic Party get their act together so they can defeat the Republican Party. I want to recruit others to do what I did. Jeff Duncan, the lieutenant governor down in Georgia a few weeks ago, he became a Democrat. So we're trying to recruit others to create a big tent. But yeah, Jim, it is crazy.
- [55:00]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Well. And a lot of folks say if Ronald Reagan were alive today, he might not be. And I mean, John McCain, God rest his soul, you know, he. I tell people all the Time. He was one of my heroes. I thought John McCain was an extraordinary public figure. And folks will say, well, there was this thing about him and that thing about him, but, you know, when he went up there and did the thumb down moment to save Obamacare, you know, like he, and he had all of those Republican senators scowling at him. That took a lot of guts. It took a lot of courage. We don't see any of that anymore.
- [55:32]
Joe Walsh
I wanted to ask you this. If McCain were still alive, would he, he, he never would have sold his soul to Trump.
- [55:40]
Jim Acosta
No.
- [55:40]
Joe Walsh
Would he, would he still be a Republican?
- [55:43]
Jim Acosta
I, that's a very good question. I think it would be like a Liz Cheney kind of situation. Adam Kinsinger, where he just would have been chased out of Congress. Tom, Phyllis, Jeff Flake, they've done it to so many of these guys now.
- [55:57]
Joe Walsh
Yeah.
- [55:58]
Jim Acosta
And do you think you'll run again? Maybe you've already said so, but I don't know.
- [56:02]
Joe Walsh
No, no, no. People ask me that all the time. They assume I became a Democrat to run. And my answer is, I'd love to. I hope I can. But that's, that's not why I became a Democrat. We'll see if the cards are right. I mean, I can't imagine I could win a Democratic primary right now, but we'll see.
- [56:22]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, you're no mom, Donnie. I think that that's fairly safe.
- [56:26]
Joe Walsh
But, but, but we need a big tent.
- [56:29]
Jim Acosta
You need a big tent. You do need to. And, and the Dems just need a tent right now. Actually, they need to rebuild the tent, but. Joe, Joe, great to see you, man.
- [56:38]
Joe Walsh
Jim Costa, love you. Have a great weekend, brother.
- [56:40]
Jim Acosta
You too. Let's do it again soon. I'll look forward to your tequila tweets later. Okay, you got it, man. Thanks. Okay, bye. Bye. That's Joe Washes. It had been a while and I, I, I, I had read that Joe was, was close with Charlie Kirk, and I thought it would be important to hear from him in this moment. And, and I hope folks appreciate the nuance that I try to bring to the show because I do think that there has been some revisionist history when it comes to Charlie Kirk. And that's not to say negative things or speak ill of the dead or the recently departed and so on. I'm not about that. I'm an old fashioned guy. I don't believe in that. I hesitate a little bit to even go down that road. But what is extremely important right now, I think to go back and review where we've been over the last 72 hours is how it is important to wait for the facts to come in, that facts still matter. And in the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk being shot, there were all kinds of suppositions and assumptions and a jump to speculation and so on. And it turns out now this Tyler James Robinson, 22, of Washington, Utah, who was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, and so on, that he's. He's a bit of a mystery at this point, and we're still learning more about him. And I'm sure there are a lot of folks who are my age, and Tara and I were talking about, you know, being in the 50 category now, and, you know, it's a little hard to swallow sometimes and so on, but it. It is a strange and. And I think foreign concept to be thinking about somebody engraving on an unfired cartridge. Hey, fascist catch. And another message saying, if you read this, you are gay. Lmao. Laughing my ass off. And then messages cited by officials from this young man also included up arrow, right arrow, three down arrow symbols. Another engraving said, notices bulges, O, W, o. What's this? I'm assuming if there are folks, you know, absorbing this information, as I'm saying it right now, who are. They're probably saying to themselves what I'm saying, that this sounds like hieroglyphics or something. It just doesn't make any sense. And I think we need to hit the pause button and do a deep dive perhaps, on what is going on online and what some of our young people, whether they're our kids or our grandkids, are doing on their screens. And so, God, whatever hour it is in the morning. And, you know, it was something that the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, who I think was striking the right tone, was saying earlier today, let's play a little bit of that. I know we're running a little over, but let's play it a little bit, and I'll. I'll wrap it up pretty quickly after that.
- [59:40]
Spencer Cox
Or the beginning of a darker chapter in our history. Look, I mean, if you look at true political assassinations in this country of someone of this stature, this feels a lot like the late 60s and having one so gruesomely displayed on camera in all of our hands and in all of our pockets. We are not wired as human beings biologically. Historically, we have not evolved in a way that we are capable of processing those types of violent imagery. And by the way, we've seen another one with a gruesome stabbing very recently that went viral. This is not good for us. It is not good for. To consume social media is a cancer on our society right now. And I would encourage, again, I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community. There are, that is happening and it's happening organically right now. Had a friend in a, in a small city in Utah who said, we're, we're, we're getting together. The Republicans and Democrats in my little town are getting together to have a discussion tonight, last night, just to find a way to, to, to find their better angels. So, so yes, this, this could.
- [61:03]
Jim Acosta
Hear, hear, hear, hear is what I say to the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox. I think that those are exactly the right kind of comments. And I, I just want to, as I, as we close out just a very difficult week and as we're heading into the weekend, and if you're watching this over the weekend, thank you for, for watching this program, subscribing to this program and so on. But spend a little time touching grass, spend a little time offline, spend a little time hugging a relative. Spend a little time thinking about something other than yet another crazy week in the news in America. And let's start thinking about whether we can somehow come to grips with what the governor was just saying a few moments ago, that what is happening online in our world right now is a cancer. It is a cancer. And our kids are swimming in it. They're immersed in it. They're doing God knows what online, in these gaming worlds that we don't understand. And I don't want to sound like one of the olds here. I get that a lot of kids can have fun playing games. I grew up playing video games. I played Atari and all of those things growing up. There's no question about it. But there's something to be said for, you know, we cannot just drown ourselves in online content, online garbage, online trash, and we better be damn sure we know what our kids are consuming in that world. It is not the world that exists when we go outside and touch grass. And I think it's something to think about. A lot of people formed some assumptions this week that were wrong. They were wrong. And it is probably asking too much for some of those folks who were calling for war and so on and saying we're at war. It's probably too much to ask that they do some deep thinking and contemplate perhaps, maybe they, they got a little carried away. Maybe they got a little over their skis in the aftermath of something like this. We are still Americans. We are still one country. We need to have a little bit of faith in one another even if the guy in the Oval Office is, is totally disinterested in that and I grant you that. But that doesn't mean the rest of us have to give up on, on what the governor was talking about, reconnecting in a real human way away from this, this other universe, this other world that exists online, which as it turns out, not always good for us. Want to thank Joe Walsh, Tara Settmeyer, Jack Cottrella. Really appreciate it and thanks to all of you for watching all week. We did a lot of coverage on what took place in Utah and thanks for everybody watching. I know a lot of people are watching, subscribing and so on. Once again, thank you for supporting this program. Means a lot. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good weekend.