Dan Bongino on Status of Charlie Kirk Assassin Investigation, Plus, Cultural Decline, with Mark Halperin, Emily Jashinsky, and Peter Navarro | Ep. 1149

Summary

The Megyn Kelly Show – Episode 1149

"Dan Bongino on Status of Charlie Kirk Assassin Investigation, Plus, Cultural Decline, with Mark Halperin, Emily Jashinsky, and Peter Navarro"

Date: September 15, 2025
Host: Megyn Kelly
Guests: Dan Bongino, Mark Halperin, Emily Jashinsky, Peter Navarro

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Overview

This packed and emotional episode centers on deepening developments in the aftermath of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk's high-profile assassination. Megyn Kelly is joined by FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino for an exclusive, detailed update on the ongoing investigation. The discussion expands to cultural fallout, political implications, media reaction and polarization, the erosion of norms in American discourse, and resiliency in the face of tragedy. Later, analysts Mark Halperin and Emily Jashinsky weigh in, followed by ex-Trump advisor Peter Navarro who contextualizes the event within the broader saga of lawfare and cultural decline.

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Main Topics and Timely Highlights

1. Megyn Kelly’s Opening and Reflections on the Tour

[01:02 – 09:00]

• Megyn opens with a somber and determined reflection on Charlie Kirk’s role in her upcoming live show tour, vowing not to cancel any appearances in the face of danger.
  • “There is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this tour, not one stop.” (Megyn Kelly, 03:31)
• She describes heightened security measures and collective resolve “to keep talking,” emphasizing the necessity of open discourse despite threats.

2. Honoring Charlie Kirk

[06:58 – 08:00]

• Megyn shares an RFK Jr. quote, relayed by Peter Navarro, about courage in the face of mortal and constitutional threats, resonating with the mood:
  • “There’s a lot worse things than dying. Chief among them is losing our constitutional rights and having our children raised in slavery…sometimes our consolation is that we can die with our boots on.” (Peter Navarro, relaying RFK Jr., 07:14–07:49)

3. Charlie Kirk Assassin Investigation: New Developments

[09:00 – 42:17]

Key Details from Dan Bongino (FBI Deputy Director)

• DNA Evidence Uncovered: Suspect Tyler Robinson’s DNA found on a screwdriver from the rooftop, on the towel used to wrap the firearm, and evidence pending on the rifle itself.
• Manifesto/Note and Motive: Robinson left a pre-shooting note, later destroyed but partially reconstructed, expressing intent to "take out Charlie Kirk."
• Digital Trail: FBI investigating multiple trans and trans-adjacent social media accounts that referenced or appeared to have foreknowledge of the attack.
  • “His family…told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology…” (Dan Bongino, 09:38)
  • “There appears to be significant anger at Charlie Kirk because of some of his ideas.” (Dan Bongino, 22:08)
• Suspect’s Background:
  • Confirmed that Robinson was in a romantic relationship with “Lance ‘Luna’ Giggs,” a biological male transitioning to female, deeply involved in furry culture.
• Non-Cooperation: Robinson is not cooperating with law enforcement.
• Roommate/Accomplice Investigation: The FBI is continuing to determine foreknowledge or complicity among Robinson’s close circle, particularly Giggs, and others who posted “cryptic” messages in advance.
  • “We are not done…not even the end of the beginning of the investigation.” (Bongino, 17:15)
  • “There were a lot of warning signs here.” (Bongino, 19:05)
• Security Lapses Examined: Questions raised about how the rooftop from which Kirk was shot was not secured, and implications for future event security.
• Emotional Toll on Investigators: Both personal and professional reflections from Bongino, underscoring the unique position of investigating a friend’s murder:
  • “My wife said…would you rather be on air with your audience or in this job, hunting this person down? …It’s clear as day I need to be in this job right now.” (Bongino, 40:23)

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• On freedom of speech and emotional resolve:
  • “To cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer.” (Kelly, 04:35)
• On the investigation's integrity:
  • “Facts are facts, evidence is evidence. And we…feel the need to talk to the public here.” (Bongino, 20:45)
• On online complicity:
  • “How did all these people know this?...Did they just luck into it?” (Kelly, 10:27)
• On left-wing radicalization:
  • “You see a lot of these warning signs in advance, where they tell people. Is that the case here? It appears warning signs were there.” (Bongino, 19:05)
• Emotional impact of tragedy:
  • “It’s not the time for emotion about people. It’s time to go find these guys and do your job.” (Bongino, 40:23)

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4. MK Media Panel: Cultural Fallout and Media Analysis

[45:53 – 71:56]

Mark Halperin & Emily Jashinsky Join

• Transparency vs. Trial Integrity:
  • Mark voices legal worries about pre-trial disclosures, “I love the interview [with Bongino] … but I think the governor and the FBI putting this stuff out, I’m not a big fan.” (Halperin, 46:38)
  • Emily notes the binds federal investigators are in, balancing public interest and due process.
• Security Realities and Changing Landscapes:
  • Discussion of how conservative campus events, never truly under “presidential-level” protection, will likely escalate security post-Kirk assassination. (Jashinsky, 51:15)
• Political & Cultural Implications:
  • Megyn and the panel reflect on the left’s, and especially media elites’, rush to demonize Kirk even in death, with Megyn noting:
    • "I genuinely don’t get it…never in a million years would I celebrate something like this happening to them.” (Kelly, 61:25)
• Cancel Culture & Double Standards:
  • Panel discusses high-profile firings (e.g., Karen Attiah at Washington Post) for celebrating or downplaying Kirk’s death, juxtaposed with years of left-leaning cancel culture.
  • “There needs to be shame and there needs to be a pause.” (Jashinsky, 60:10)
• Impact on Younger Generations:
  • Emily highlights Kirk’s positive influence as a role model for young men—contrasting traditional courtship and marriage values against toxic online culture.
  • “He gave these young men a model—how to date, how to properly court…” (Kelly, 69:56)

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5. Lawfare and Broader Political Weaponization

[93:24 – End]

Peter Navarro Segment

• Navarro’s Experience as a Lawfare Target:
  • Released from prison after contempt of Congress conviction, Navarro frames his ordeal as part of a broader campaign of asymmetrical legal warfare by the left.
  • “This asymmetry between what the left does to us and what we don’t do to them…If we don’t hold them accountable, they’ll do it again.” (Navarro, 94:27)
• Connecting Lawfare to Culture War Escalation:
  • Navarro muses on the linkage between legal targeting of right-wing figures and rhetorical as well as literal violence.
  • “They call us fascists…we’re the ones they put in prison and kill, and they’re not the fascists.” (Navarro, 95:35)
  • Megyn underscores the right’s comparatively peaceful response—vigils, singing “Amazing Grace,” no riots.

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Emotional and Cultural Aftermath: Grassroots & Faith

• Widespread Mourning and Mobilization:
  • Expansion of Turning Point USA chapters and social media surge; Megyn spotlights stories of people moved to “be better husbands, fathers” after Kirk’s death.
  • “Charlie started as somebody talking about fewer taxes, smaller government; he ended talking about the importance of a beautiful family, being a good father, church.” (Jashinsky, 90:57)
• Viral Reaction:
  • A viral TikTok (89:43) of a man who “never believed in God” deciding to wear a suit to church and “be a better husband.”
  • “We’re going to make heaven crowded, honey.” (Erica Kirk, cited by Megyn, 89:18)

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Final Themes and Takeaways

Courage & Refusal to Cower

• Refusal to be silenced or to cancel dialogue in the face of assassination threats.

Cultural Reckoning

• Overwhelming and often ugly reaction from some on the left, juxtaposed to calls for empathy, renewal, and constructive masculinity by Kirk’s supporters and admirers.

Lawfare, Political Violence, and Asymmetry

• Peter Navarro contextualizes individual tragedy (Kirk’s assassination) within systemic campaigns waged against high-profile conservatives.

Media Critique

• Sustained criticism of elite media’s treatment of the Kirk assassination, both in coverage and their handling of “problematic” internal voices.

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Timeline of Key Moments

| Timestamp | Event | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:02 | Megyn’s determination to proceed with tour despite assassination | | 06:58 | Inspirational RFK Jr. quote about courage, relayed by Navarro | | 09:00 | Breaking FBI investigation details, Bongino segment begins | | 15:41 | Bongino confirms details: suspect’s boyfriend “Lance Giggs,” foreknowledge| | 23:17 | Motive tied to Kirk’s anti-trans stances | | 24:06 | Suspect refusing to cooperate | | 27:05 | Security failures at event discussed | | 39:41 | Megyn reflects with Dan on emotional toll | | 45:53 | Panel shifts to Halperin, Jashinsky on media/cultural fallout | | 51:15 | Lasting changes in security for conservative speakers | | 59:00 | Karen Attiah firing, broader “cancel culture” theme | | 69:56 | Charlie Kirk’s unique evangelism and inspiration for young men | | 79:34 | Trans/gender identity, crime, and cultural divides | | 93:24 | Peter Navarro, lawfare and asymmetry, tying legal/cultural themes | | 89:43 | Viral TikTok on Kirk’s legacy—prompting better fatherhood/church-going |

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Noteworthy Quotes with Timestamps

• Megyn Kelly: “There is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this Tour, not one stop.” (03:31)
• RFK Jr. (via Peter Navarro): “There’s a lot worse things than dying… one of those chief among us is losing our constitutional rights…” (07:14)
• Dan Bongino: “We are not done… not even the end of the beginning of the investigation. We’re exhausting every lead.” (17:15)
• Mark Halperin: “I love the interview … but I think the governor and the FBI putting this stuff out, I’m not a big fan.” (46:38)
• Megyn Kelly: “Never in a million years would I celebrate something like this happening to them.” (61:25)
• Emily Jashinsky: “He gave these young men a model—how to date, how to properly court…” (69:56)
• Peter Navarro: “If we don’t hold [the left] accountable, they’ll do it again.” (94:27)
• TikTok’er (Robbie Wood): “I didn’t know Charlie Kirk. I’m gonna wear this suit to church…try to be a better father, husband, and leader for my family.” (89:43)

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Conclusion

This episode stands as a moving, unflinching chronicle of a moment where political violence, institutional trust, media credibility, and cultural identity intersect. Megyn Kelly and her panel confront tragedy without succumbing to despair, advocating for dialogue and transparency. The episode documents, in real time, the tectonic shifts in American public life, catalyzed by loss but answered with renewed determination.

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For listeners: This summary reflects all major threads, emotions, and revelations discussed, providing the context, quotes, and flow to understand the historic and personal impact of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the investigation’s trajectory, and the profound consequences for American society.

Transcript

[Megyn Kelly]

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[Mark Halperin]

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[Megyn Kelly]

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[Mark Halperin]

Bit extravagant, but when it can come.

[Megyn Kelly]

With a car, suddenly it seems quite practical. The all new 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan, packed with premium features like available massaging front.

[Dan Bongino]

Seats, it only feels extravagant.

[Megyn Kelly]

Welcome to the Megyn Kelly show live on SiriusXM Channel 111 every weekday at Noon East. Hey, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to the Megyn Kelly Show. We're coming to you live today from Sirius XM headquarters in New York. And I want to start with something that we've been talking a lot about in my house since Charlie Kirk's assassination last week. And that is the tour that we announced last Monday, MEGYN KELLY live. This is the first time we've taken the show on the road. It's a cross country tour set to begin next month. We're going coast to coast. And we began selling tickets last week and we began our promotional tour where I've just been calling into local radio stations and talking about the tour and the cities it's coming to. And Charlie was supposed to join us on one stop of that tour in California. And we paused all of our promotional efforts as soon as Charlie was killed, just out of respect, first of all. And second of all, because he was in a lot of the materials and the ads that we were running, totally inappropriate given what's happened. And then we had a serious discussion internally with my team and internally with my family about the tour because as you probably know, if you listen to the show, I don't actually go out there that often. I'm not like Charlie in that way. I'm more of a private person. I know it's odd because I have a public job, but I just am more of a private person and most of my spare time is spent with my family. And in all of those talks, I've heard everyone's concerns and I'm well aware of the challenges that now face us in doing this. And all I can tell you is there is no fucking way I am canceling one stop on this Tour, not one stop. It's not that I don't have some concerns. Of course I do. I'm human. I, as you know, have been covering the news very closely, but there is no fucking way. We're not doing this to her. It's more important now than ever. And I said to my team at this point, you know, I don't. I don't care if every single guest cancels on me. I don't care if there are two people in the audiences as we go from city to city. I'm going. I'm going to stand on these stages, and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show, and I will speak to those two people from the heart and be forever grateful to them for showing up. I. I see no other way. There is no other way forward. We can make this safe for me. We can make it safe for you and for our guests. And we absolutely have to keep talking. We absolutely have to keep this discussion going. To cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer. You know, it's just not the answer. So I'm going. And I really hope you do show up. I really, now, more than ever, would love to see you all face to face. God, I would love to see you face to face. I need to see you face to face. I think this is probably the best thing I can do for my own emotional state at the moment, just to see all of you. And so I hope you come. We are going to have significant security, as you might imagine, and so it'll be a pain in the ass to actually get into the venues somewhat, you know, more so than it was going to be, and I hope you'll understand that. But we're gonna make it safe. We're gonna make it safe for me. We're gonna make it safe for my team and my guests and you. And we are gonna get together and we're gonna talk about the things that matter, and we're still gonna have some fun. You know, I was really looking forward to the tour and sort of having a raucous good time. I think that still will be the case, because if you're coming out of your homes and you're gonna spend your time with me, I want you to enjoy yourself. You know, I'm sure that the stop in California where Charlie was going to join us will be more somber, and we're still debating what to do there. We're not canceling it. Trust me, I'll be there. But want to figure out an appropriate way to honor him. And I think we'll be honoring Charlie throughout the tour that we're still debating exactly how we want to do it, but we will be. So anyway, I just wanted to start this week as we did last week by telling you I am doing this tour and I would love for you to join me. You can go to MeganKelly.com to buy tickets and find out more info on it. And that's where the tickets are posted now. And I will resume my promotional tour with the radio stations and so on on this very soon. Okay, so Megan Kelly.com to buy the tickets and I can't wait to see you. One other thing just before I wrap this piece of it up. I was listening to it was my friend Sasha Stone this morning who has a wonderful podcast and substack and she ran this sound bite of RFKJ where they honored Charlie over the weekend at the Kennedy Center. And I almost didn't run this because I don't want it to sound too self aggrandizing. I'm not going to join the Marines. I'm just going out on a tour. But it was inspirational just to hear this, this comment he made about a conversation he had with Charlie. So I want to play it for you and maybe you'll have it in mind too.

[Peter Navarro]

I had a conversation once with Charlie.

[Dan Bongino]

Where we were talking about the danger.

[Peter Navarro]

That we both faced from challenging entrenched interests. And he asked me if I was scared to die.

[Dan Bongino]

And I said to him, there's a.

[Peter Navarro]

Lot worse things than dying. And one of those.

[Dan Bongino]

Chief among us.

[Peter Navarro]

Is losing our constitutional rights and having our children raised in slavery. I said to him at that time, I said, sometimes our only consolation is.

[Megyn Kelly]

That we can die with our boots on.

[Peter Navarro]

We can die fighting for these things.

[Megyn Kelly]

I thought it was very well said. No one's dying. Everyone's gonna go out, have a good time, talk about the news and do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real. Whether there's a threat or there's not, there is some nobility in that and there's nobility in showing up for it too, like you always do. Like all of you do. Anyway, I hope you'll join me megankelly.com for the tickets now to the news. And there's a lot of it. We've got a big guest to kick off this show and we'll get to him in one second. Throughout the weekend and even since our AM Update show this morning, there have been significant developments in this investigation FBI Director Kash Patel appearing on Fox News this morning, giving several updates. First, Patel investigators have found DNA evidence linking alleged assassin Tyler Robinson to the scene. Okay. They said that they found Robinson's DNA on a screwdriver that was on the rooftop from which he took the shot, as well as the towel that was used to wrap the firearm believed to have been used in the shooting in that nearby grassy knoll wooded area. Director Patel says DNA found on the rifle is still being analyzed. Patel also discussing that Robinson wrote a note of some sort before the shooting. This is different from what he engraved on the bullet casings. He, in addition, wrote a note of some sort before the shooting stating that he believed he had an opportunity to, quote, take out Charlie Kirk and that he was, quote, going to take it. This is before the assassination.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen, my job as FBI director is not to speak to motive, is to speak to the facts. And that's what I'm going to do. His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left wing ideology and even more so in these last couple of years. And he had a text message exchange, he, the suspect with another individual in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for. That are those are factually accurate investigatory findings by the FBI that we've handed over to the local authorities and the federal authorities to make their prosecutorial decisions. But I believe in this instance of such public importance, the public has a right to know.

[Megyn Kelly]

Now, it sounded like he had left that note in the apartment that he shared with his so called boyfriend, transitioning into female, which is not a thing, and that the note had been destroyed, but that they had managed to recreate it somehow. Director Patel also confirming reporting that Robinson himself is not cooperating with the authorities. He indicated that the FBI is looking into social media accounts that appear to indicate foreknowledge of an attack on Kirk, but said they must be careful in how those messages are obtained so as not to taint the legal process. His work will directly lead to Pam Bondi's prosecution of this shooter or the Utah state authorities. However, this winds up shaking out and so they do have to be careful. While we can all see these tweets online, they have to obtain them and the data around them lawfully and through a process or the defense lawyers will have them thrown out. So that's good. They're crossing those T's. However, the Washington Free Beacon, they don't have to abide by any of those protocols. And they are citing three people at the FBI familiar with the investigation, reporting that the Bureau is looking into posts by at least seven different accounts. Several of the accounts appear to belong to transgender individuals, and at least one of them followed the suspect, in this case, Tyler Robinson's roommate. Okay, so followed the roommate, the boyfriend with whom Robinson was reportedly in a romantic relationship. Minutes after Charlie Kirk was pronounced dead, the user posted on X we did it. This person has since deleted the account. Another user, five days before the shooting wrote, quote, you guys, I have something big coming soon. Just be sure to check the news. You'll know it when you see it. Along with an emoji giving a wink. I have something big coming soon. Just be sure to check the news. You'll know it when you see it. Five days before the assassination, then on Wednesday after the shooting, the same account writes, quote, well, that's that. And another chud bites the dust. Chud, Apparently a sling. Derogatory slang, derogatory term for right wingers. This user has also deleted the account. The Free Beacon also reporting a TikTok account by an individual who appears to be transgender, writing quote, charles James Kirk does not know what's coming tomorrow. This isn't a threat, it's a promise. So how did all these people know this? Did they just get lucky? They just stumbled upon. They just had a feeling something was going to happen to Charlie and they all wrote it and they have links to the trans community. Wow, that's quite a coincidence. And there's new information regarding Tyler Robinson, the suspect as well. As I mentioned above, he was in a romantic relationship with his roommate who's a biological man pretending that he can become a female. And in the process of that quote, transition, this news was confirmed to Axios by six sources. And not just that, but as we reported in our own AM update this morning, Tyler Robinson himself appears to have a link to so called furry culture and a website to this culture which is linked to the trans community and which involves people dressing up like animals and getting some sort of sexual fetish out of it. By the way, that same so called boyfriend who was trying to trans himself into female was constantly all over the Internet in furry costumes. That's where the things stand this morning at 12:13 Eastern Time. Joining me now to go over all the breaking developments is the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino. If you are stressed about back taxes, maybe you missed that April deadline or your books are a mess. Don't wait. The IRS is cracking down penalties add up fast. 5% per month, up to 25% just for not filing. But there is help. Tax Network USA can take the burden off your shoulders and stop the spiral before it gets worse. They have helped thousands of Americans. Whether you're an employee, a small business owner, or or haven't filed in years, messy books, it's not a problem. They've seen it all. Tax Network USA has direct access to powerful IRS programs and expert negotiators on your side. You'll get a free consultation, and if you qualify, they may even be able to reduce or eliminate what you owe. More importantly, they will help protect you from wage garnishments or bank levies. So don't wait for the next IRS letter. Call 800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com Megan to speak to a real expert at Tax Network USA. Take the pressure off. Let Tax Network USA handle your tax issues. Dan, thank you so much for being here. Let's just start with this. This person with whom the suspect was in a romantic relationship. Can you confirm this information that it was this man transitioning from male to female and that the two of them were in a romantic relationship together?

[Dan Bongino]

It appears, Megan, from the information we've accumulated, both forensically and digitally in the comms between the two and some of the statements from family and friends that there was a relationship here that may have been beyond platonic. I think we have a good body of information at this point indicating that. And can I just say, if I was listening to you open there, just let me say in advance, I don't do a lot of media coming from a media space and I may surprise some people, but I haven't. I've only done a few media appearances since I've been here for the last six months. But we believe, both the director and I and others, that given the public interest, significant, understand significant public interest in this case, understandably, that it's important we get out ahead and share as much as we can. I only say that because there are things I'm not as a deputy director able to come to communicate to you and other things I will. So I just want you to understand, don't mistake sometimes my lack of an answer for. For anything other than there. There's a reason there's so much we.

[Megyn Kelly]

Don'T have Dan Bongino, podcaster, sitting here. We have Dan Bongino, Deputy Director of the FBI. And you have to be more careful in that role. Totally got it. Totally got it.

[Dan Bongino]

Thank you.

[Megyn Kelly]

So you just blow me off If I ask something you can't answer, and we can be explicit about that, the audience will understand. Are you guys confirming, Dan, that the. That the boyfriend's name is Lance Giggs?

[Dan Bongino]

That is the boyfriend's name.

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay. And how many roommates did the shooter have? The alleged shooter?

[Dan Bongino]

Well, at this point, how many people. Roommate? Let's say that we have the. We have the suspect at this. In this. This case, and then we have Lance, how many people they associated with and how many in fact lived or resided there. It's up in the air. However, there is apparently a network of people, whether they were friends. And I think you hit on the important question in the open. Given his network of friends and associates, what was the level of foreknowledge about this attack? Did they know something and refuse to say something? Did they know something and think it was a joke? Now, you, as an attorney, you're well aware there's going to be a lot of opinions on the matter. However, we have to build a probable cause case and get over that hurdle in order to properly charge other people if. If they do have involvement. So that's. But I. This. I want to assure the audience I was. I was pretty clear on this in the news appearance this morning. We are. Are not done. Anyone under the assumption out there that this is, you know, the end of the investigation is. Is categorically wrong. It's, you know, not even the end of the beginning of the investigation. We're exhausting every lead. There are thousands. There are thousands of leads that have come in through open source, through our NTOC line, through our specific tip line. Some of them did not pan out. Some of them won't pan out, but some of them may. But we're not. We're not done at all looking into any possible support or aiding and abetting in the case.

[Megyn Kelly]

Do we believe the twigs had advanced knowledge of the shooting, given the fact that he clearly received texts from Tyler telling him where to find the gun, what was written on the casings, and so on, and that he had those when you guys went knocking on his door?

[Dan Bongino]

Well, given the cooperation of that subject at this time, I don't want to say too much about what he's saying or not saying. However, there are indicators just beyond twigs that there were a lot of warning signs here in this case. And having said that, this is, you know, this is a good moment to put out there when you look at these targeted violence attacks, political assassinations, a space I'm unfortunately all too familiar with in my time with the Secret Service school shootings. You're not random violence, domestic violence, but targeted violence for political or ideological reasons. You see a lot of these warning signs in advance where they tell people, is that the case here? It appears warning signs were there. I don't want to get too specific about what they were. However, we hear this a lot, and I'm not suggesting it's in this case, but we hear, oh, I thought it was a joke. And you know, I hate the, just generic advice of the see something, say something, because it gets blown off. But this happens unfortunately, all too many times. And there were a number of warnings, signs there that this individual suspect in the case had taken a dark turn. And I, I want to put out in advance, obviously, as well as the Deputy Director, that everyone's presumed innocent in our Republic, no matter how vile the crime is. I think everybody understands that. But facts are facts. Evidence or evidence. And we really, really feel both Cash and I feel the need to talk to the public here. And again, I just don't want anyone in the public to assume sometimes my lack of an answer is in any way a problem with clarity. There were just some reasons we can't talk about some things, but we really do want to want to address as many of these issues as we can with the public.

[Megyn Kelly]

Director Patel said on Fox and Friends this morning that the, that the suspect had a text message exchange with another individual in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for. So that sounds pretty explicit by the director that in advance there was a text exchange with another individual in which Robinson claimed he had an opportunity to take him out and he was going to do it. So that would lead any of us to conclude, Dan, that there was at least one other individual who knew that Robinson was planning to murder Charlie. Is that true?

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, that was a reference to the note you referenced in your opening of your show that according to the evidence we have now that that particular statement may have been on the note. There's. We're still investigating whether that note was in fact seen in advance. We don't have the actual note. It may have been destroyed. But there, there is some evidence here that there were some, you know, pre attack indicators. The specificity of that and when they knew it and when they saw it, that we're still looking into.

[Megyn Kelly]

Do we believe that there's potentially some sort of trans group online that may have had foreknowledge of this attack?

[Dan Bongino]

Well, there's a number of forensic digital pieces we have indicating that this was ideologically targeted. I mean, Charlie Kirk was obviously a prominent, well known public figure known for espousing proudly his, his conservative views. Charlie was a friend of mine. That's a secret. That's, you know, we've had a relationship that goes back years. I have had to put a lot of those emotions aside in order to assist our FBI team in, in getting answers on the case. But some of the digital footprints we have and traffic we have that we were able to accumulate after we had the suspect in custody seem to indicate that there was a, a significant ideological component to this attack. I mean, clearly Charlie was a target. Clearly he conservative commentator. And when you look at the evidence we've accumulated from friends and family and digitally, the communications traffic, there appears to be a real significant anger at Charlie Kirk because of some of his ideas.

[Megyn Kelly]

Did, did that include his ideas on transing children and trans individuals?

[Dan Bongino]

Well, when you look at some of the bullet casings, the inscriptions on some of the bullet casings and some of the digital traffic to people in his, it appears that may have been a part of it. It appears pretty significant in this case, especially given the relationship. We want to make sure we nail that down for, of course, for charging documents in conjunction with our state and local partners. But I don't want to give up exactly what we have on the digital side right now.

[Megyn Kelly]

I don't want to make you do anything that would compromise the investigation. I want you guys to keep your hands clean. Is it true that Robinson is not cooperating?

[Dan Bongino]

Robinson to this point is not cooperating. He has an attorney, which is his constitutional right to do so. And hence that's why, you know, I did a cable interview news this morning about this, this case. That's why there are some questions I'm hesitant to answer because if he was, if he was cooperating in this case, again, most of us in the legal space, you included, know this. It's obviously easier to get answers because he is a suspect in the case. So you'd like to hear from the susp if you're suspicious of the suspect, what exactly they say they may or may not have done. So there are some elements to the mechanics of, of the, of the crime where it would be helpful at this point if Robinson was cooperative, but he has a constitutional right which is exercised at this point. We feel, however, again, everybody's innocent or proven guilty. But we feel, however, that we've built an extremely strong case. The FBI team did an amazing job. The state and local partners could not have been more cooperative. And you know, I know when tragedies like this happen, this isn't time for back patting. Who cares? We lost Charlie. I mean this. But I do want you to know as, as taxpayers and citizens, you pay for the FBI, you pay for your Utah DPS and other entities out there, that there's been none of this kind of internal fighting that may have happened in the past. I mean our ert, our evidence response team. Megan, that was a massive crime scene, Massive crime scene, hundreds of people, articles of there were, you know, listen, it's, I can't get emotional about this. You have to just process information. But I was there and the crime scene and we spent a couple of days there, both the director and I. And when you go in the room where they had put the school bags and then the, you know, one of the things, Sorry, but one of the things that really hit me, there's a room where all of the personal articles that were left behind at the scene, which were significant, were being stored on the campus. And you know, when you're processing all this and it hits you weird, you know, just weird things. You think about the weirdest of things. And I just, I couldn't believe how many water bottles would. Everybody had one of those water bottles, I don't know what they're called. The kids have these fancy water bottles and they were everywhere in the room and there was a baby carriages and things like that. And our evidence response team responded and immediately had this crime scene ready to go. We had an agent there in 16 minutes from the time Charlie was shot. And thanks to the incredible work of the state and local partners as well, they were able to process this crime scene and accumulate an unbelievable amount of forensic evidence. When you walk the crime scene, there is little they did not think of when I was up there on the roof.

[Megyn Kelly]

Do we have any idea why the roof wasn't covered by security?

[Dan Bongino]

I don't, Megan. And as someone in the security space, it's fairly easy for me to Monday morning quarterback anyone? I have done events with Charlie, quite a few as a matter of fact. And I've always found his security team to be very professional. I, you know, did a turning point event where I, I joked one time that they had better magnetometers than I saw in the Secret Service. Why in this case was the roof uncovered? I can't say. I think in the future at political events, regardless of who's speaking, I think there's going to be a significant change in security posture going Forward back on.

[Megyn Kelly]

The subject of the defendant and his boyfriend, the boyfriend, Twigs, is he still cooperating.

[Dan Bongino]

As of this point? The family and friends. We have a good number of people, including the. The romantic partner, who have been. Who have been cooperating and continue to. That could change, of course, we hope it doesn't where it's very beneficial to have these folks cooperating. It's of note that pursuant to the press conference where we put out the photo of the suspect at the time and the video and the reason we put out the video, I just. I'll answer your question, but this is important too. There's a tie in here. The reason we decided, and there's a lot of second guessing going on and that's important. Listen, this is a taxpayer funded operation. The FBI, it's not a private company. You have every right to question everything. You pay for it. But we have an explanation forever. Nothing we did was by accident. You know, when we held that press conference that night, the reason we had the governor and everyone put out that video is we wanted to anchor the new photos we had released. And we're going to put out in front of a national primetime audience. We wanted to anchor it to the video. So you understood why we were looking for this particular suspect. Now to get back to your question about cooperation pursuant to that, it was just a short time after, thankfully, due to the work of all the partners involved in this, the. There were members of the suspect circle that recognized him and agreed and he went and they cashed himself.

[Megyn Kelly]

Cash said this morning his dad. His dad recognized him.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, yeah. And that was due to the, you know, the work of these folks. Again, this is no time for dopey, silly, you know, victory lapse. None of that stuff matters. You know, this is a serious crime that's had repercussions and will have repercussions moving forward that are going to be very dramatic for political dialogue in the country. But yeah, that, that decision was. Was not an easy one. You know, you don't want to put out a picture. And they say, well, that picture came out earlier. Yeah, but it didn't come out earlier to a primetime audience of potentially 5 to 10 million people. I was sitting in the command post, Megan, with our entire team, which was significant. There were a large number of people there, from state and local officials to our FBI team, to people who are going to manage the media because the media can be your friend and was our friend in this investigation. I said to them when they came in, I said, you know, someone's sitting next to this guy in a restaurant right now. And when they walk back in. And we had an identified identifier. I mean, to speak in jargon, we had an identifier on it. I don't want to say exactly what they said, but when they walked back in the cp, you know, and I looked at Cash, and it was just this sense of relief. We.

[Megyn Kelly]

Were you there, Dan, when he was brought in?

[Dan Bongino]

3 hours. No, he was brought in to. To. It was about. Forgive me if I'm not exactly correct, but it was about three hours from where we were in Orem in that whole Provo area. It was a different place down near St. George. So he was brought in there. So we had to transport him back. We just wanted to be sure. Obviously. Megan, we all know. We didn't care where he. As long as it was a law enforcement facility and we could appropriately take a suspect at the time into custody, we were not particular concern.

[Megyn Kelly]

Now, I got to ask you this, and you know why, but is he being watched so that there can be no suicide?

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, that's. That's what we've been told from local officials who have custody over him right now that he is. He is, in fact, on watch. It's. That is obviously going to remain a concern.

[Megyn Kelly]

Is that. Did he buy this gun legally?

[Dan Bongino]

I don't want to say right now how he acquired the gun, but there was. I will say there was some significant concerns expressed. Expressed by the suspect in the case about the gun and retrieving the gun. The reason I bring this up is again, I'm here with you in every effort to share what we can appropriately share so that information vacuums aren't filled. There was some conversation I heard on. I'm sorry, it was a news chat. Forget which one I was listening to about retrieving the weapon, and there was some confusion where I believe that one of the hosts thought it was a retrieval from an ffl. A firearms dealer. That. That's not what happened. The digital comms traffic that we have and the concerns the suspect in this case we're expressing were Rich was retrieving the firearm from the crime scene, not. Not from a firearms dealer.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, that. But that's another thing that people are confused about, because if Cash said that they found his. What we presume was his screwdriver on the top of the building and they found his DNA on it, leading many to believe he had disassembled the gun when he jumped off of the roof. But then it appears when you guys found it in the woods it was assembled. So can you provide any clarity on that?

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, and I was a little hesitant in a media appearance this morning to go into specifics on especially the video and where the gun was. And there's a reason, again, I. I'm. We only. We only want to be transparent.

[Megyn Kelly]

Just tell us what you can.

[Dan Bongino]

The suspect. Yeah, the suspect not cooperating is. The video is obviously grainy. And. And as folks in the video space know out there, we can. We have a number of really excellent tools in our lab, which is they're doing amazing work and they've been up and. And handling this for days now. But the video is very grainy, and I want to be very clear, and I don't want to. Oh, there was. You know, I've already seen some online show. Yeah, I can see it on the screen. You'll see it's a grainy video. Now. Now, I've been. I've been on that roof in that corner, and when you see the camera in the distance away, it's clearly not the best video. Now let me just go back to what I said before and I'll get into the gun. Don't let me forget the gun portion of it. It's because. What. I just want to watch this for a second. You'll see here. Yeah, there's. There's a couple different. What we call it. All right, There you go.

[Megyn Kelly]

Getting down. He's getting down off the roof. He hangs for a couple seconds. He drops to the floor to the grass, and then he runs. Go ahead, Daniel.

[Dan Bongino]

Sorry, I forget sometimes there's an audio only. I should be better. This is a former media person. I forget there's an audio component only.

[Megyn Kelly]

Got you watching.

[Dan Bongino]

The camera is quite far away. It's not the best camera to see exactly what happened to the gun. However, we have some working theories, and one of them is that he. He drops the firearm fully assembled onto the ground and. And then retrieves it. Now, the firearm, we're processing in conjunction with our ATF friends, but the firearm was wrapped in a towel. And as the director said this morning on. On a cable news appearance, the towel. We did get a pretty strong forensic DNA hit, so that's the only reason. Again, I don't want anyone to speculate. Oh, they're not sure where the gun. Oh, no. I just. We have to be careful what we put out. And the video is not the best quality. It's. It's not. And for no other reason than. And it's, you know, the video was that camera where it is is not a crime scene camera. It's a camera designed for just general surveillance on campus. And when you're there, you'll see it's, it's, it's a distance away. But I missed my point. I want to wrap this point up because it's really important. You may fairly enough as, as taxpaying citizens again say, well, you know, during the press or why release grainy video? Because that is the crime scene there. That's where we, you know, we have evidence of a suspect who shot location. We have a suspect appears to be on camera there fleeing the location. And we wanted to anchor that. This is really important to the photos we were releasing. What we didn't want is we release a photo and people say, well, why, why that particular photo? We thought the video, how the, the quality is okay, but not, you know, the pixels are, are not great. We wanted to be sure we could anchor it to. Here's why this particular suspect is of interest to us right now.

[Megyn Kelly]

I gotta ask you about this Fox News report by Jackie Henrich, the White House correspondent who says you and Cash are under fire, political fire, that she reports the White House, Pam Bondi, Todd Blanchard, deputy, have no confidence in Cash Patel, citing one source. Pam in particular cannot stand him. Blanche either, they said, referring to Pam Bondi and Todd. Blanche. Bondi and Blanche denied the characterization. White House officials denied any plans to remove Director Patel. But the headline, knives are out for Cash Patel. It ends with something about you, Dan, saying. Three sources also point out Dan Bongino's days are more likely numbered than Patel's as he threatened to quit amid fallout from the Epstein feud with Bondi. I want to give you the chance to comment on those two pieces.

[Dan Bongino]

Megan. I don't even. So, just to be clear, I've read the report. I spoke to Jackie. Everyone on the record. Record you just cited on the record said the exact opposite. You read the report yourself?

[Megyn Kelly]

Yep.

[Dan Bongino]

So just to be clear, off the record, who person who was not willing to put their name to any of this, who may not like what the director and I are doing here? Off the record. Off the record said, wow, these guys are in a lot of trouble. On the record, everyone from the president to Todd to Pam to everyone else says the exact opposite. Opposite. So your story, not you, but the story is what knives are? Where are the knives? Who's holding the knives? The knives are out. You know, Megan, we've been here. I've been here six months. The director's been here at seven. You know, we've Moved a thousand agents out into the field. We finally found an FBI headquarters building after what, 20 years of fighting. We've rescued 200 kids in VCAC, violent crimes against Children case. We've arrested cases. We've arrested over 800 hundred sexual predators. In Operation Restoring Justice. We engaged in a massive nationwide manhunt for violent fugitives in Operation Not Forgotten, We've arrested. Now, between illegal immigrants and violent felons during Operation Summer Heat and our emergency removal operations with our DHS and ICE partners, tens of thousands of people, the violent crime rate is dropping to historic lows. News we've had Operation Viper ongoing for a long time in conjunction with the White House in Memphis. Something I can tell you on your show today, the White House, the Department of justice and Cash and I got together early and we've been engaged in this Summer Heat violent crime effort. You know, you have four of 10 FBI's most wanted. We've accumulated. We've dealt with the LA riots, the Coeur d' Alene shooting, the attack on the Minnesota lawmakers. We've dealt with school shootings, the Palm Springs incident, the Boulder, Colorado attack, public corruption cases. We have had epic disclosures in the transparency front on things you never would have seen if the White House was unhappy and President Trump was unhappy. You and I have known the president a long time. You really believe the president's not just going to call? Just to be clear, I don't mean to get personal, but you know the president like I do. Do you think he's the type to not call you? So I'm a little skeptical of garbage reporting about unnamed sources who may not like what I just told you, who are saying, oh, my gosh, the knives are out, when everybody on the record is saying, what are you talking about? Everything's going great.

[Megyn Kelly]

President Trump is not usually shy when he's unhappy with a staffer. Yeah, I got to ask you this, Dan. I know you got to run, but just before I let you go, a word on Charlie, because you have to, like, you're in this. I'm in a unique position in that I had to report on the death of my friend as it happened. And you're in the unique position of now having to investigate your friend's murder. This has got to be a strange, strange headspace to be in, as you have to be both a cop and check your emotions at a time when you're still a man, you're still a friend.

[Dan Bongino]

I, you know, I, I, whenever I need good advice, I talk with my wife. Probably, you probably do the same thing with your husband. You know, it's. They know you better, right? Nobody knows you're better than your spouse. They see you at your best, your worst. And she said to me, you know, about an hour or so after we found out out I had texted her, I said, you know, he's dead. And because this floor is a skiff, you can't carry your cell phone. So I had to walk outside to do it. I'm walking back this corridor, which is not very long, but it felt like it was a thousand miles. And it's a thin corridor. It's an old building. And I went back to my phone and I called my wife, and we were talking a little bit, and she said to me, a little bit into the call, she said, you know, would you rather be on the air with your audience right now walking people through this, or would you rather be in this job, you know, hunting this person down? And I said, it's clear as day. I need to be in this job right now. This is God's spot for me, and I know I can divorce my emotions and handle this just like we did with the lawmakers in Minnesota. It is not the time for emotion about people. It's time to go find these guys and do your job. And it was powerful. And my wife said, I think you're right. I think you're right.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah. It's probably also no accident God had you in this post. I don't know. Just feel like you guys are always going to take crap from the public because people are never satisfied. But I feel a hell of a lot better having you there than if this had been Biden, DOJ and FBI. I thank God if this had to happen, it happened under the Trump administration and the people he put in place. So Godspeed to you, Dan, and to Cash, too, as you guys go forward. You know, everybody's rooting for you.

[Dan Bongino]

Thanks, Megan. Appreciate it.

[Megyn Kelly]

I'll talk again soon. Oh, God. Think about it, you guys. Think about it. Dan's strong. He's very strong. He's been through a lot, but think about it. He's got to go out there and try to check all those emotional emotions. And I know he can do it. I mean, like, he's a Secret Service agent. You got to check all your emotions there, too. But what a challenge. And, like, what a high bar. He's got to get over every morning to go out there and. And make sure he's asking the right questions and not doing anything to, you know, like, you. You heard him. Super careful because the last thing he wants to do is say anything to Megyn Kelly or anybody else else that would jeopardize the prosecution. That's really where the rubber meets the road. These guys are doing all the investigative building blocks to hand the right evidence over to the prosecutors. You know, the main goal is a get the evidence and B don't it up. Don't do anything that's going to give the skilled defense attorney and there will be one in this case because this guy's going to be a media star. So a lot of defense attorneys who are super talented will volunteer to do this even though they normally wouldn't do defense work. The that's pro bono to give that person a way to wiggle out very high stakes to what we're seeing now. And yet you see a Trump administration that's determined to be transparent. When do you ever see the FBI come on television and talk about arrests like that? They don't. They're taking shit right now for saying that they thought they had a suspect in custody the night before they arrested the real guy. It wasn't the guy. You know what, it's fine. We live. We thought they had somebody in suspect. Then they said they were wrong. Cash said, would I have liked to have had my wording back of that tweet? Yeah, but I wouldn't have taken down the tweet. I think it's fine. We're fine. They got the guy and I for one am thrilled to see them coming out and giving interviews. You never saw that, never, never saw that with previous administrations. And there are things that you can say to, to tamp down some of the media speculation. P S he's not a right winger. Hello. That's one of the things we've learned very clearly. Coming up, we've got two of our MK media stars here, Mark Halperin and Emily Jashinsky. Don't go away, don't procrastinate about what matters most. Protecting your future. With life insurance for about the price of one streaming service, you can get the coverage you need with Select Quote. Even if this is your first time thinking about life insurance, they make it really simple. For over 40 years years Select Quote has helped more than 2 million Americans secure more than $700 billion in coverage. As a broker, they work for you for free. Comparing policies from trusted top rated companies to match your health, lifestyle and budget. Some providers even offer same day coverage up to 2 million bucks with no medical exam. And if you've got a pre existing condition, no problem Solectquo partners with companies that cover people with high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease. Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than [e-mail] Megan that's SelectQuote.com Megan.

[Mark Halperin]

This episode is.

[Dan Bongino]

Supported by FX's the Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truth seeker who is always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts.

[Mark Halperin]

Him head to head with a powerful.

[Dan Bongino]

Family that rules Tulsa.

[Megyn Kelly]

Meaning only one thing.

[Dan Bongino]

He must be onto something big. FX is the Lowdown premieres September 23rd.

[Mark Halperin]

On FX stream on Hulu.

[Megyn Kelly]

Welcome back to the Megyn Kelly Show. Joining me now on set are friends from the MK Media Podcast Network, Mark Halperin, host of NextUp, and Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party with Emily Jasinsky. Check them both out, YouTube and podcast. Just type in their names. It'll take you to the right spot. So, I mean, a bit of, a bit of COVID the FBI is trying to provide for itself this morning between Cash on Fox and Dan here. But also some real information. I mean, Dan explicitly naming the boyfriend, confirming it was a romantic relationship, confirming they are investigating these seemingly advanced noticed trans posters. So they're on it. I do trust. Notwithstanding some reports that they're not looking into the translink, that they will. What did you make of the FBI's defense this morning?

[Mark Halperin]

I'm a First Amendment guy, but I also believe in due process. And quite honestly, I love the interview. I love what he had to say. But I think the governor and the FBI putting this stuff out, I'm not a big fan.

[Megyn Kelly]

You're worried about it. Like it's compromising compromise, the case.

[Mark Halperin]

But also it just sets a bad precedent. You know, they'll file in court tomorrow. It's a state case. It's not a federal case as of now.

[Megyn Kelly]

Now.

[Mark Halperin]

So, again, I love the interview. I'm glad you got it, but I just, just, I'd rather they argue all this in court. I, I understand everybody's super interested, but I'd rather just wait and have it done properly. I do not want to risk.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

The case.

[Megyn Kelly]

I hear you. I don't think they said anything that, that they're going to. What, Steve? Go ahead. Steve. Trying to tell me something? Oh, it's just reminding me that tomorrow is when they're filing the charging documents against this suspect.

[Mark Halperin]

Right way to do it.

[Megyn Kelly]

And we also expect we're going to hear a lot more about that. No? Now, what we gleaned from Kash Patel was that the shooter sent the lover a note, or wrote a note in some capacity, maybe online. They said it was destroyed. I don't know if that means deleted. And yet, because they seem to have found it anyway. So to me, that suggests you text him something and it was deleted and then found that said he had advance notice. And I'm sorry, you know, Dan won't go there and cash, but that the roommate stinks to high heaven, Emily.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah, and that's also interesting because we keep hearing that the roommate is cooperating. So if the roommate is cooperating and there's also evidence the roommate was deleting evidence, that's a significant discrepancy. And, Mark, I totally get what you're saying. I'm also wondering to what extent they've been pushed by media reports. These are public posts in a lot of cases. The free Beacon report that you mentioned, Megan, I'm sure because the FBI is looking at the reporting that's coming out publicly, they then are trying to balance what they say with what's out there. And man, what a difficult situation to find themselves.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, they're also under fire. On Friday, I played the sound bite from Steve Bannon, who is ripping them for the way they've handled this so far. It's not just Tim Dillon, who's influential in this space, a very smart guy. He went off on them, not thinking they could figure out, like, who stole something from his Walmart receipt. I can't remember exactly how he put it. So there's been some, Some criticism coming in, even from more right wing or right wing, friendly stuff, sources of the FBI.

[Mark Halperin]

We're in a new age, right, of transparency, where people are demanding our government be more transparent. And I applaud that. But again, when it comes to prosecutions, again, it's not even a federal prosecution. They have no jurisdiction in this case right now. So I'm happy to wait a little bit.

[Dan Bongino]

But.

[Mark Halperin]

But to your point, young men, you know, they're living in a fantasy world. They're. They're living out their fantasies online and in real life. And there, there's clearly a lot of culture here that we need to understand more generally. But in this case, case, everything I've learned so far, everything that's been reported so far, this is a. This is a group of people who are going to need a lot of excavation to understand exactly what they did.

[Megyn Kelly]

The, they were pointing out the FBI earlier that it took them 33 hours to apprehend this suspect. It took them five days to get the Boston Marathon bombers. I mean, it's a good point. You know, I think one of the things that's cursing them right now at the FBI is CSI culture. You know, where we're like. Like we should know in two minutes, right.

[Mark Halperin]

By the time the episode ends, right?

[Megyn Kelly]

Like, how did the guy get away in the first place? You know, and the truth is, and I asked him about the security and why somebody wasn't on the roof. And that's my own Monday morning kind of question. I'm not blaming anybody. It's just a legit question. I don't understand it. And I'm not suggesting government conspiracy, like they intentionally kept somebody off the roof at all. I just genuinely don't understand how they could not have done that given what we saw in Butler 14 months earlier. But that too is a bit of like a hindsight, because I think while they were conscious of security there, I don't think any of us goes into an event prior to this thinking we need presidential level security.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, yeah, that's an important point. And actually I've checked in with some of my friends who work in the campus conservative lecture space, and one of the things they told me, this was really interesting, it's that because. And you may know this, Megan, because you speak in highly public places when you're outside.

[Megyn Kelly]

The.

[Emily Jashinsky]

The benefit of that for a conservative speaker is that the leftist trolls on campus can't buy up the tickets if you're inside. And because these groups, I mean, Charlie was enormously popular, but he's not Justin Bieber. And Turning Point USA is not. It's not Paramount or some major corporation. So you actually are just not even in the habit of having that kind of money to put behind security. There's always security. It's very serious. But it's actually really, really difficult to put that many resources in for a nonprofit. Nobody ever really thought about it. And it does seem in retrospect, crazy after Butler, but, I mean, this is the new world that we're in now.

[Megyn Kelly]

They clearly weren't thinking that they needed that level, you know, like drones and snipers on the roofs and so on. I'm sad to think that this probably will change everything. This is going to change graduation speaking from now on, it's going to have a lot more bulletproof proof glass in front of people between them and their audience, and it's gonna feel very un American for a long time where we're a free country and we haven't behaved like that before. But someone, some sick motherfucker, had a new idea that just changed us last week. And, you know, I personally can't wait until he gets strapped into the electric chair. I really can't. I'm sure he'll have his day. He'll go through his justice. But the guy they have, this guy, Dedra Wright. Stan's not gonna say it, but they've got his DNA on the tower. Sure. They had a palm print on the gun. It's going to match him. He confessed to his dad and the family friend.

[Mark Halperin]

It's not too soon, though, to think about whether the prosecutors this would happen in the Idaho case will make a deal.

[Megyn Kelly]

I know.

[Mark Halperin]

You know, it's not too soon to start talking about that.

[Megyn Kelly]

They better not.

[Mark Halperin]

I think we're all shocked at Idaho that they made that deal and even the families were disappointed. So if people need to start thinking about who's going to make that decision, especially if there's.

[Megyn Kelly]

Better not.

[Emily Jashinsky]

If we find out that there is some type of bigger picture conspiracy, multiple people involved.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, well, all those people need to be prosecuted. We're going to talk about them and also the evildoers on the left and how they're celebrating this at a level even I can't comprehend. And, and like doctors and, you know, pilots. Yeah, pilots. Respected people. Anyway, that's next. Teachers, they stay with us right after this. You know what's crazy? Trusting the government or some random insurance agent to give good Medicare support. Court. That's how people wind up stuck in the wrong plan. Get this. Trump's Department of Justice sued three major Medicare brokers for pretending to be unbiased while allegedly pushing people into the plans that got the brokers the biggest kickbacks. Let's be honest. The government made a mess of Medicare and no one should have to untangle that mess alone. It's overwhelming. This is why I want to tell you about Chapter. Chapter. Chapter compares every single plan nationwide, not just the ones that pay the biggest commissions. Because of that, they can save people an average of eleven hundred dollars a year. That's real dough. So whether you're brand new to Medicare or you've been on it for years, consider making the call and finding out more. If you are already in the best plan, Chapter will tell you. If not, they could help you save thousands. It's free, it's fast, and in less than 20 minutes, they're going to review your options. Call the number 27 Medicare today. That's 27 Medicare. And finally feel confident about your Medicare. Welcome back to the Megyn Kelly Show. Back with me now, Mark Halperin, host of Nextup with Mark Halpern, and Emily jasinsky, host of Afterparty. Go and subscribe to their shows now on YouTube and on all podcast platforms. They, of course, were with us on the air the day this terrible news broke. And I just want to tell all of you, I've received all of your emails thanking them and our other guests and yours truly for that program. And we appreciate it. We've heard you. And I never really thought about it, but it made sense to me, guys, when I read what they were saying, which was if they had to hear the terrible news, they. They preferred to hear it from people who actually knew Charlie and appreciated Charlie and loved Charlie and knew what he did, as opposed to like, what, are you going to tune in CNN and listen to one of these people who's helped demonize him over the years tell you this stuff? It's just like another interesting piece of the media story, right? Like how much things have changed. And on the media story, I have to spend a minute on Karen Attia. So this woman may or may not be familiar to our audience. She worked, I think at one point for the New York Times, but has been with the Washington Post for a long time. And I mentioned her right after 107 because she and I followed each other on X and it was an interesting relationship because she's this lefty black woman at the Washington Post and I'm this righty white woman in the digital lane. But we followed each other. And like, I would like her posts with her cat, you know, like, you kind of go to the safe ones, you know, or like, it just to me, it restored my sense of humanity. Like, you can have this relationship with somebody and she lost her mind after 10 7. She actually liked a tweet which read, this is what decolonization looks like, as we were having Israeli babies murdered. And I couldn't believe it was such a reveal, like, mask off. And she and I got into it via dm and I've never read this, but it's kind of crazy. I was just going back and looking at it because she's now tweeting about Charlie, which is where this is going. But. But she was basically saying it was a private, like, and so what? And then she went off on Palestinians and so on and so forth. And I responded to her by writing. So now it's morphed from. All I did was like a Tweet to I liked it, but it was a private tweet or a private like to I liked it, but only because I secretly didn't like it. Got it much clearer. And then she responded and now you're probably hoping that one of your followers finds me my address and causes harm to me because of a like, is that what you're after here?

[Emily Jashinsky]

She read your mind.

[Megyn Kelly]

And my response was calm down and stop playing the victim.

[Mark Halperin]

And that was pretty much private likes. I don't know about the private no.

[Megyn Kelly]

There'S no private likes.

[Mark Halperin]

Making sure there is no private feature.

[Megyn Kelly]

But now this woman. So we unfollowed each other and that was the end of our weird little fake friendship. And now she's out there tweeting about Charlie. So she's been with a longtime columnist with the Washington Post, and she's now claiming that she was fired for her Blue sky posts following Charlie's assassination. And also the Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman. The Post accused her of gross misconduct, unacceptable behavior, and endangering colleague safety. She rejects the charges as false, hasty, and a violation of journalistic fairness. Her posts on Blue sky for everyone saying political violence has no place in this country. Remember, two Democratic law legislatures were shot in Minnesota just this year and America shrugged and moved on. Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence. And she goes on, I don't care for empty rhetoric because America, especially white America, is not gonna do what it needs to to get rid of guns in their country. Blah, blah, blah. Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. She's quoting Charlie Kirk here. You have to go steal a white person's skill lot. And she is saying this is why she hated Charlie Kirk. Which of course completely takes Charlie out of context. That was in response to it was Ketanji Brown Jackson and it was her being chosen on the U.S. supreme Court and saying and then what's her name came out, Sheila Jackson Lee came out and said I was a diversity hire, I'm an affirmative action. And he was like she openly admits that she's the following things. In any event, that's all a long wind. Your thoughts on Karen Attiah now officially getting fired by the Washington Post.

[Mark Halperin]

I don't like anyone being fired and I care about the First Amendment and it couldn't have happened to a nicer lady. She's representative of all these people around the country, even if everything they're saying about Charlie were true. And in her case and others, it's not the mentality of someone who would root for someone's death to be so cavalier about it. It's really shaken me as much as anything that's happened since he was killed. I just. I struggle to understand the mentality of someone like her who would do that. And there's a reckoning the Washington Post would not have fired a liberal communist for any reason three years ago. So this is part of now.

[Megyn Kelly]

Not even for. This is what decolonization looks like.

[Mark Halperin]

No, this is part of a different environment that exists at the Washington Post. I don't know that exists at the New York Times yet. But we see this everywhere. We see it in corporate America. There's a new sheriff in town and a new mentality. And I think that the mentality of people doing this is now being met with the mentality saying, no, this is not acceptable. And I think, again, I don't like anyone being fired, but I think it's great that they cannot do this with impunity.

[Megyn Kelly]

What do you make of all these professionals, Emily? I mean, like, I don't pay that much attention to the blue haireds on Twitter or whatever. Blue Sky.

[Emily Jashinsky]

I was gonna say, how did anyone know what Karen Attaiya said if it was on Blue Sky?

[Megyn Kelly]

I. I know. That's a good point because given her role, people were like, whoa, here she goes again. I mean, the 107 thing was bad enough, but now here she goes again. And there has been a rash of like. Like you say pilots, like corporate pilots and doctors. One nurse who complained about a doctor who celebrated Charlie's assassination. She just got laid off, the nurse did, for outing the doctor. But, I mean, the joy at his assassination is so widespread, it's deeply unsettling.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah. And it's. What's interesting is the performative nature of it, too, that you would do this into a camera and then post it on the Internet. It's not just feeling a moment of private joy, which is still reprehensible, but actually then sharing it. And part of me wonders if just the opportunity to share it is actually what makes people think that they should feel joy. Because you can get likes and retweets for posting stuff like this on TikTok or wherever it is. And the fact that, I mean, I think we just all need to pause for a second and think about why a teacher of children would think that's okay. And from what I can tell, dozens of professionals, to your point, Megan, I mean, there Are people compiling databases that are. You have to like go through and verify and confirm it. I'm not a huge fan of, you know, some of what I see looking like crackdown type stuff. But there needs to be shame and there needs to be a pause and say, what in our cultural psychology right now is making so many people think it's rewarding to post that publicly, to celebrate stuff like that publicly? It was completely insane. And it's beyond just the reasonable spectrum on a. The reasonable spectrum of opinion on an editorial board of a newspaper. I mean, this completely. We're talking about like doctors and nurses.

[Megyn Kelly]

I genuinely don't get it. I don't get. There's. I. There are a lot of people on the left. I can't stand a lot of long list. Never in a million years would I celebrate something like this happening to them.

[Mark Halperin]

I want to add one more level of insanity to it. The Washington Post, the New York Times this weekend wrote about these things. And their reproachfulness in the news stories was not about what people were writing. It was about people trying to call attention to it. And they're being fired. All of a sudden. After two decades, decades of celebrating cancel culture, of having no hesitation to help people get fired, all of a sudden it's like, how could people be. How could people be identified as doing something wrong and be fired?

[Emily Jashinsky]

Accountability culture.

[Mark Halperin]

That's what they called it all of a sudden. And it's like, it's like, no, these stories should be about what's wrong with America, that people who are teachers and doctors and pilots would say these things about a man who was just assassinated?

[Megyn Kelly]

No, it makes me wonder, like, how can we have that teacher teaching a class full of students that may include kids from conservative families? How can we have that pilot flying a plane that may include someone like me? Like, I don't want any of that. And I also just feel like I don't give a shit. A certain male gesture comes to mind when I hear them lamenting cancel culture. Do you know what I mean? That's exactly what I want to do. You've got to be kidding me. I mean, honestly, some of us have actually experienced cancel culture culture up close and personal in our face over talking about fucking Halloween costumes. And now they want me to feel bad that somebody gets fired because they cheered a political assassination of an innocent 31 year old father of two. I don't.

[Mark Halperin]

But they're saying this is ominous that our culture could head in this direction. Where were you for 20 years as our culture headed in this direction. It's just your friends weren't the targets back then.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yes.

[Emily Jashinsky]

And the common thread is this inflation of a definition. Definition. So racism. If you can inflate the definition of racism, you can weaponize it. And that's what's going back to the Karen Attire post. It's like, this is obviously in context. You're a journalist. Take some time to contextualize it. Read the full remarks. Don't just take a social media post. Like, that's insane and honestly disqualifying. If I'm an editor at the Washington Post in the first place, I'd be like, what the are you doing?

[Megyn Kelly]

You're so careless.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah, this is insane. How did it make it into print? Like, that's also crazy, but because that wasn't just a Twitter post. That was in her column, wasn't it? Yeah, so that's crazy. But secondly, like, how do you even get to a point where, as a journalist, you aren't actually saying, this is the argument at hand. You're taking it out of context. You are flattening it into something completely different and doing that in good faith. It's not. It's bad faith. It's either bad faith or incredibly stupid. But that's what's been happening over the. The last 10 years. As many on the left have either cheerleaded for that or stayed silent. And if you're right now concerned about cancel culture, join the club. Like, everyone's been on this bandwagon for 10 years outside of Illinois, by the way.

[Megyn Kelly]

You created the bandwagon. Yeah, you built it.

[Emily Jashinsky]

But that's what happens when you're broadening these definitions of racism, sexism, misogyny. You end up not hearing the nuance. And for Karen Attaia, she's not making the best arguments argument. It's hurting her at the end of the day because she ends up making a stupid argument instead of one that actually would make sense.

[Megyn Kelly]

She's like, well, now I'm free to say I'm gonna be even more bold. Oh, great. Literally no one's going to watch that.

[Mark Halperin]

Five days ago, when Charlie was alive, people like her, Adam Schiff, their whole orientation in life was Magaz evil, Trump's a fascist. And I'd say, you know, maybe for 10 hours after Charlie was assassinated, they were like, well, let's consider every. Everything. It's all just back, right? They can't help but go back to their orientation of, you know, they spent the weekend trying to say that this guy was super Maga. And that's why he killed Charlie, that.

[Megyn Kelly]

They saw two white parents who were registered Republican. He's not the shooters. Registered, unaffiliated. And everybody, everybody from the Utah governor to the FBI to his friends and family say he'd been radicalized leftist. But they, they won't. They just go with it. Seems like a MAGA loving family. So he's maga. Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

But now they're, they're back to being, having the orientation they had before. Charlie must be demonized in death because he's close to Trump. Because that's all the only way they think so.

[Megyn Kelly]

They're always, is it that, Mark, Is it that legit question, like, I don't know the answer, or is it that he's suddenly an enormous threat?

[Dan Bongino]

You know, they don't, they don't know.

[Mark Halperin]

What a threat he is.

[Dan Bongino]

They don't.

[Megyn Kelly]

They think they're totally clueless.

[Mark Halperin]

They're so. They know Sola. I think this could change the entire midterms.

[Megyn Kelly]

Do you?

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, I think this could be galvanizing the way the Dobbs decision was. But they have no idea what he did. They don't have any idea what his following is like. And this weekend, you saw the donations, you saw the chapter request to be formed, you saw the vigils around the country and around the world. They were barely covered. Again, you just think if this were a Democratic person of Charlie's place in the world, close to a, like, close to Barack Obama, it would have led these vigils, would have led every newscast. It would have been on the front page. So there'd be a statue. Yes. Barely covered. Partly because they're hostile, but I think more because they don't understand. They don't know anything about him. I can't tell you the number of well informed Democrats who said to me, oh, I've learned now about who this guy was. I really didn't know much about him, except he was some sort of young guy who was for Trump. They don't understand that he was literally an historic figure and his memory. If Turning Point connects again, execute. If, if the vice president and his team can execute, I think it could change the whole election.

[Dan Bongino]

But they don't know.

[Mark Halperin]

They, they're so. It's just like they've underestimated Maga for 10 years.

[Megyn Kelly]

People are flocking to the Republican Party in droves right now. Not only because they want to be on Team Charlie, they want to stand for the things that he stood for, but they're looking at what's happening on the left, saying, I don't want anything to do with that. Right. Like, I, I don't even want to be associated with this vile reaction to something, something so horrifying. That's, I think, the one thing that they really don't understand, that their side has become so repugnant. They're driving the few people that were aligning with it before away it. When I grew up, you know, 70s and 80s, my family were all Democrats. We weren't political, but they were all Democrats. It was like, okay, we were Catholics, so they didn't love that the Democrat Party was pro abortion, pro choice, whatever, but they thought Republicans were for rich people. We weren't rich, so we had to vote Democrat. That's pretty much what now. My mom, who's 84, she looks at her, she's like, my God, she doesn't recognize anything. She voted for Trump and she, God willing, will vote Republican again. But I think they're not sufficiently calculating it in. And I also think, Mark, if they did, they still wouldn't change.

[Mark Halperin]

I agree. Totally agree.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well, I'm gonna say that's actually where it gets even worse for them because as Charlie grew into the man that he was until last week, he had become so popular in the context of evangelizing and bringing people. I mean, Brad Wilcox, who's an expert in trends about marriage, has looked at the data and recently said Charlie Kirk may have been responsible in no small part for encouraging young men. Like why we're seeing this movement with young men in terms of marriage. You can also look at young men going back to church. The blind spot that people who are just now coming to understand what Charlie Kirk meant to Gen Z. That's remarkable in and of itself. I mean, if you didn't know about that last Monday, you're completely out of touch with the average like 18 to 29 year old. Actually younger than that, probably like 14.

[Megyn Kelly]

Such a good example. You know, he, Erica said in their like how they met and fell in love video that he would wake up every morning and say to her, how can I serve you better? You know, he. And he took all this shit for. Because he was on camera saying, women, just submit, just submit to your husband.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It took some shit from me for that, actually.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah. I mean, it's like a jarring comment for 2025. But I think he didn't mean just go along with everything your husband said. He meant there are traditional roles and goodness can come if you choose to follow them. It's not, I said this on the air last week. It's not how Doug and I, I approach our marriage. But there's something beautiful about asking a wife to submit to the husband's needs and desires at some point and having the wife, having the husband wake up every day saying, how can I serve you better?

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yeah, it's Ephesians 5. And that's what he was talking about in the clip that I gave him ship for, honestly, because I thought he should have, you know, kept going a little bit deeper into the verse, which Erica has since said is one of his favorite verses, Ephesians 5, which talks not just about the wives submitting, but also about husbands loving their. Their wives as Christ loved the church. It's beautiful. And that is a very positive example that we never saw in popular culture until people like Charlie Kirk broke through.

[Megyn Kelly]

He gave these young men a model, a model for how to date, how to ask a woman out, how to woo her, properly court her. As Charlie said, not just when it comes to paying the tab, but when it comes to actual courtship and being a man and being assertive and being confident and being somebody a woman would be attracted to.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Right, but not being Andrew Tate.

[Megyn Kelly]

But not being Tate. Yeah, exactly right. And then how to be a husband, how to be a loving husband, a loving father, how to prioritize your private life, how to talk about your future goals in a way that's aspirational and directed as opposed to just wandering and all this meandering.

[Mark Halperin]

A huge priority for him and a huge source of his appeal, which again, people who haven't studied him or listened to him don't realize. They just think he was like some.

[Megyn Kelly]

Trump flunky they're going to learn the hard way. I hope you're right about the midterms and beyond, because I can feel those high school chapters turning into voting Republicans in the next couple of years. Mark's got to go. Emily stays with us. Don't go away. We'll be right back. You've heard me talk about Jacked Up Fitness and their amazing all in one home gym. They know that many people are short on time and money, but still would like to get fit. And now you can start your fitness journey for under 60 bucks and in just six minutes a day. Introducing the all new Shake Weight by Jacked Up Fitness. Fifteen years ago, the original Shake Weight shook the world. Now the fitness legend returns. Bigger, better and built to perform. Why now? Because science has finally caught up with the explosive power and fast twitch muscle training. Something that this Shake Weight delivers in a compact, powerful way for beginners, heavy lifters and serious Athletes alike, beginners could tone and tighten arms, shoulders and chest. And athletes could sharpen reaction times and build explosive power to get that competitive edge. The Shake Weight. It's no joke. It's serious training made simple. If you are looking for a fun way to jump start or supercharge your fitness routine, get the all new Shake Weight by Jacked Up Fitness at jacked up shake weight.com that's jacked up shake weight.com.

[Mark Halperin]

Like most husbands, even the good ones, we're sometimes imperfect.

[Dan Bongino]

And I took from that moment that.

[Mark Halperin]

I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father. Because of all these moments that I.

[Dan Bongino]

Shared just in the last few days.

[Mark Halperin]

The books that I've read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and.

[Dan Bongino]

Kissing them and hugging them before bed, I just realized that all of these.

[Mark Halperin]

Moments that I get to have, Charlie is not able to have them anymore. And Charlie's kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore.

[Dan Bongino]

And maybe the best way that I can contribute and the best way that.

[Mark Halperin]

I could honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be. To be the kind of husband to.

[Megyn Kelly]

My wife that he was to his. Wow, that's the Vice President of the United States, who is close personal friends with Charlie. Hosting Charlie's show today from the White House. His team was on the White House lawn this morning getting ready. And inside the White House, they had on Caroline Levitt, they had on Stephen Miller, JD Vance, playing podcast host to honor his friend in an extraordinary moment. And good for him. That's so beautiful. You had of course these leftist assholes out there ripping on him. Like, don't you have something better to do? Okay. You know, it's something that is a beautiful tribute. It's a tenderhearted thing that most people with a soul can recognize is a beautiful tribute that might help the family and others heal. So honestly, just screw you and your ugliness. I do want to play Jamel Hill. Speaking of so called journalists who have it all wrong, here's this jerk, SOP15. Of course, as you all know, in the wake of Charlie's murder, there was.

[Emily Jashinsky]

An incredible amount of angry discourse from the right.

[Megyn Kelly]

Blaming the Democrats, blaming liberals, saying you're the reason this happened.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Only to find out, surprise.

[Megyn Kelly]

22 year old white dude, love guns, raised by two parents, lived in a.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Good home, dad is a minister.

[Megyn Kelly]

Also a share of of didn't check any of them boxes y' all thought.

[Emily Jashinsky]

He would check, did he?

[Megyn Kelly]

Okay, first of all, a coat of mascara would be your friend. I'm just going to tell this to you woman to woman on television. You need a little work. And you should have them back off the camera a little bit because you are not attractive enough to have that extreme closeup. Push away your laptop, Jamal, and add a filter or two. Honestly, like, we actually don't use any on this show because I do put on makeup so I look present. But you need work because you can't both be ugly on the outside and the inside. You need to choose one. Okay. Choose one. That is disgusting. That was absolutely disgusting. Fuck her. It's a. It's weird how she lost the points about him being a furry loving trans dating. I don't even know what this guy's fetishes were, but leftist ideology infected guy who wrote on his book bullets anti fascist catch and notices bulges, OXO, et cetera, didn't make her little monologue.

[Emily Jashinsky]

The smugness in that clip is unbearable and unthinkable for any decent human being to go and make a public statement in the wake of somebody being assassinated in cold blood on a college campus for practicing free speech. The. The impulse to take a smuggle victory lap because you think some people on the right got it wrong when you are incorrect.

[Megyn Kelly]

Right.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It's astounding. I mean, the confidence and the arrogance with which people are coming out and spewing some of this stuff tells you everything you need to know about the double standard. Because if the standard were fair, if conservatives and liberals were treated fairly in media, that would have been laughed out of any serious venue. I guess maybe she kind of has, but like, it never would have stuck.

[Megyn Kelly]

What are they going to do when and if it turns out that there's some trans ring that knew about this and possibly helped? Honestly, what is the media going to do with that?

[Emily Jashinsky]

They won't talk about it.

[Megyn Kelly]

They.

[Emily Jashinsky]

I mean, they're already not talking about it. They're already like downplaying that part of the story.

[Megyn Kelly]

NPR this morning was like, we may never know the motive.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Which is what happened to Butler.

[Megyn Kelly]

We know. We know the motive.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Butler.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yes.

[Emily Jashinsky]

We may never know, so we must just move on. Las Vegas. We. You may never know, so we must just move on.

[Megyn Kelly]

He literally wrote it on the bullet casings.

[Emily Jashinsky]

It's crazy. I mean, it is so insane to be talking like that right now. And I mean, like, I. Charlie had enemies on like the disgusting fringe. Right. And so it was not impossible at some point that that could have been the case. And the best thing for everybody to do was to keep their powder dry because we didn't know. Although there were already signs that it was heading in this direction. And when you have a conservative who is shot in cold blood in the middle of talking like a conservative on a college campus, I mean there's some pretty obvious.

[Megyn Kelly]

And look at the moment he was shot.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Exactly.

[Megyn Kelly]

That was another tell. He was talking about trans shooters committing violence and causing mass shootings. That's the moment that this particular shooter shot Charlie dead. I mean like all of this is gonna come out and we are gonna figure out whether those tweets in advance of the shooting about something big is gonna happen. And then we got em are in fact more than just random coincidence luck in predicting this event. I mean look, we all know how this is gonna land. There's just no way that many of these trans people tweeting out from these accounts just happened to call it like just happened to randomly predict Charlie was gonna get hurt at this event. Fucking no way. There's no way. And the one thing I want to know is how many other people in the crowd crowd were in on it. You know, already people are super analyzing the video. Like were those hand signals? Did this person distract in order for him to get away? Because you, Mark and I were discussing in the break, like how did this guy know that he was going to be able to just get on the rooftop, right? I mean how did he know that there wasn't going to be a security guard there, right? How. How did he realize that it would be such easy ingress and egress from.

[Emily Jashinsky]

This spot or some type of obstruction from that point to the speaker? I mean who knows if there's like some type of barrier that gets put up.

[Megyn Kelly]

A sign.

[Emily Jashinsky]

That is genuinely interesting. And I also, I mean I know I get Boston bombers, five days, it took them a really long time. That was a completely botched investigation. But this is a person who was out on the streets for 30 something hours after assassinating a human being in a very crowded area. So there are a lot of questions that still have not been answered. And the sooner we get to those answers the better because otherwise people are going to fill in the block blanks. And reasonably so in some cases because these questions just seem like the handful of social media postings. It's not just one, it's not just two. No, it's more than that.

[Megyn Kelly]

Multiple. Go look at that free Beacon report online. It's heading their website right now. It's got a lot of details and it's very dark and it's very believable. I'm sorry, but it is. We looked it up. Just in the past couple of years we've had seven mass shootings by trans identified shooters. Seven. This is number seven. This guy's not trans, but he's into furry culture and he's dating a trans person. It counts. And he's written trans messages or furry messages on his bullet casing. So we're good. 7. That's a big number. The left won't tell you that. They'll pretend that it's not. It's nothing. They go back from the beginning of shootings and say percentage wise, how many is it? That's not the meaningful metric. Something has to be done. I mean we need to be protected right now. The law is that you must hire this person person that if you would otherwise hire them, you cannot use their trans identification as a reason not to hire them.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Bostock, Neil Gorsuch.

[Megyn Kelly]

Thanks a lot, Neil. That'll be undone. That's going to be undone. 100% it's going to be undone. That was written at a time before we had all this when we were still in the, in the fever state of wokeism, thinking it was just kindness that was, you know, holding us back from recognizing these people. And now we've just seen an explosion of serious mental problems around the them. It would be absolute folly to require employers to take these people on. Are you kidding me? Or what about schools? What about a pilot? What are you like, you want this kind of a person teaching your child? I don't. Furry is somebody who's on this spectrum at all on the trans. I'm sorry, but I don't.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Well in that case, and correct me if I'm wrong, but part of it was going back to a funeral home where the employee was dressing as the opposite sex and the funeral home directors were. Was family business. We're saying it's making people uncomfortable when grieving, which is such an obvious.

[Megyn Kelly]

Like they don't want to be thinking about you.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Right, yeah, exactly. So I mean I think there should be a paradigm shift at this point. And we, you know, remember this is what, within two weeks of the shooter in Minneapolis. And so there's obviously which has been.

[Megyn Kelly]

Totally memory hold and there's some copycat.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Potential there as well. We know that there's media contagion as it relates to these types of shooting shootings. So I mean that seems again like a pretty obvious piece of the puzzle here that nobody in the major media outlets is talking about.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, it's, it's deeply disturbing. I mean, we'll, we'll continue to talk about it. The msnbc, they put out like this, map the court. There was a corporate letter by NBC like, we're going to lower the temperature. Of course, because it was MSNBC that had Matthew Dowd on right after Charlie died blaming him.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Oh, he didn't even know if he had died.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, he didn't.

[Emily Jashinsky]

He was ready to.

[Megyn Kelly]

He was just like, whatever, you know, he got shot and he deserved it. And now here's MSNBC misinformation reporter Brandy Zadrozny.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Oh yes, she's on the case.

[Megyn Kelly]

This is on Friday. Listen, here's, here's what she had to say. 16 again. It's really hard to tell when you look at what he put on these shell casings. Allegedly. It's hard to decipher if he really means them, if he's trolling, if he making fun, if he is trying to set up another ideological enemy for the shooting. It's just impossible to say. Is it? Because now we've heard from the Utah governor who says specifically he was indoctrinated in left wing ideology which his family has backed up. We know he hated Charlie Kirk and on top of that, he's into furries and he's dating a. So fuck off.

[Emily Jashinsky]

This Brandy I look at.

[Megyn Kelly]

I look forward to you updating your report on msnbc, which will now never happen because she doesn't actually care about misinformation.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Megan, I'm putting my glasses on because I think you are actually doing it wrong. When you are wearing hipster glasses like this, you have to do up talk and be really, really pedantic. Because here's the thing, we just don't know that people who are into furries are a little bit weirder than the average person who could possibly know. I mean, it's just absurd.

[Megyn Kelly]

Oh my God.

[Emily Jashinsky]

To say that in public. And by the way, there are all kinds of layers of irony that go into online shit, posting and trolling. It is a deeply weird way world, but it is not healthy. And that's the black and white distinction that you need to make. It is postmodern bananas craziness. It is a gateway to insane like Marxist ideologies. Obviously many people have gone through that with their children. So to, to just kind of whitewash it like that is pretty stupid.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah, I mean this is like that's one of the big questions we have, which is how did this happen to him? Like how did he go from a relative normal ish kid. I mean he did get a full scholarship to Utah State and then dropped out after only one semester. So something happened. We're gonna find out what. To me, he seemed like he was on the spectrum. In a couple of those videos we saw he had the perfect grades. He had a nearly perfect ACT score. He was obviously very, very bright. Sometimes you see that and like severe social deficit can go with that. Not always, but sometimes. And then he got radicalized somehow. Was it through these gamer, like we need to know, we got to figure out was like somehow game culture. Was it the fact that he was into trannies? And this guy radicalized him. This guy Twigs, who's now cooperating. I'd cooperate, too, if they found out that I knew about the shooting prior to the FBI knocking on my door, you know, and now they're here and they've got evidence. I sat on this. Yeah, I'd cooperate, too. I'd be begging to save my own ass. Sure, that's what he's doing.

[Emily Jashinsky]

And it looks like there were posts on Discord after the shooting, which is interesting.

[Megyn Kelly]

Well, with their friends, where they said, this looks like Tyler.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Right. And it's not the dad. It's not until the dad turns him in.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah. No, the friends didn't actually believe it was Tyler.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Right.

[Megyn Kelly]

But.

[Emily Jashinsky]

But did the roommate slash lover think that or know that?

[Megyn Kelly]

No, that that person clearly knew that. This is my supposition. I don't know this. That person clearly knew they had a no note. That's it was on the. Very clearly. What the FBI is saying without saying it explicitly was the shooter wrote a note to the roommate that was later destroyed saying, he's coming to town, I have an opportunity to kill him and I'm going to take it. So fuck off, Twigs. Because you appear to be the one who received that. That's my guess. But you definitely received the notes about, I have bullet casings, here's where the gun is. And I don't know whether he was looking for. Here he is in his little furry with. What's his first name? Deb.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Lance.

[Megyn Kelly]

Lance. Okay. Thank you. But then he changed it to Luna. He started going by Luna. But he clearly received the texts about the bullet casings and the gun after the shooting and where they were. It sounded to me like the shooter was looking for help cleaning up the mess that he left behind. Again, my supposition based on what they have told us. But he did send texts to the roommate and now they have to be nice to him when there are discussions about him because he's Talking, and they'll be nice until he comes, can say, no, nothing more new, and then hopefully he will wind up in cuffs. That's. That's my own prayer.

[Emily Jashinsky]

I mean, I think it's going in that direction pretty clearly right now. And that's. I mean, it is almost impossible, impossible to conceive of a situation where this person, from what we know right now, had absolutely zero inclination that there was something going wrong. And whether or not that's on one side of the law or the other, it is still a pathetic statement on this human being that they saw another person's spiraling and apparently let that happen without realizing, oh, there's a gun involved. I mean, presumably this person knew he had a gun.

[Megyn Kelly]

There's no way he didn't know. There's no way, in my opinion, he knew. I'll bet he knew in advance. I'll bet he told some of his trans friends, and that's why they were posting online this is happening. I think there's a much larger group that knew. And the only questions I have is how big was it and who else was in on it? And, like, at what level did it go? To what level?

[Emily Jashinsky]

As you're saying that, another thing I'm thinking of is that in a lot of these cases, if not almost all of them, the person is killed at the scene and. Or, you know, Butler, that was the case. We don't know if he was trying to get away. We have no idea what was going on with that. But this is someone who actually had an escape plan, and that's not common in a situation like this, which does invite, I think, a lot more questions about who else may have been coordinating. Yep, that's a hard thing to pull off.

[Megyn Kelly]

Did he have help, by the way? He wasn't a student at this university, so how did he get into the business building? Right. Whose idea ID did he use? That's probably one of the first questions they're asking themselves. And how did he know that there wouldn't be security on that rooftop? Like, we now see, at least, you know, post Butler, that's going to be more common, or at least a drone. How is he so confident? The FBI telling us today for the first time that they believe he may have thrown the gun off the roof before he jumped. That's news and information, but we're going to learn more. We're going to learn answers to all these. Before I let you guys go, can you just speak to the positives, like the outpourings that we've seen, like South Korea, New Zealand, all over the Poland, the UK with that Tommy Robinson march that was chanting for Charlie like all over our country that the turn the turning point. Submissions to form a chapter at your high school or your college. There were 900 college. There were 1100 chapters in high schools. They were received 32000 applications as of 36 hours ago. It's probably double that now. They're way like these are Charlie's social media followings which were at 20 million have received 25 million more. It's incredible. And Erica of course is saying this is only the beginning. I'm not slowing this thing down at all. I. I love that message. They. It's a challenge obviously without Charlie, but. But I feel like people are super motivated to hear more of his type of messaging and to get on board with his mission in a way the left never could have predicted before this.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Chris Martin of Coldplay, Chris Pratt posted a beautiful public prayer and Pat McAfee during college football. I mean I was at a every.

[Megyn Kelly]

NFL team but five honored Charlie this weekend.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Yep. I was at a county fair on Saturday and saw people in homemade T shirts that said Charlie Kirk on them with a cross like Sharpie and a white T shirt. Incredible. And so yeah, I think this is something the left still hasn't quite wrapped its head around is this was not just a political assassination, this was a cultural assassination. This was somebody who is intertwined in the fabric of Gen Z's popular culture. And you know, this is Turning Point's moment. I mean whatever differences I've had with them in the past, God bless. Like this is, is a huge jumping off point. They're not gonna be slowing down anytime soon because Kirk trained up thousands of many Charlies who now by the way, have the best of Charlie as their example to go forward with him talking about his faith, his marriage. Just before he passed away, he said he thought his job was to prevent a revolution. That is an incredible example for young conservatives and they now have that and we'll take that as rocket fuel.

[Megyn Kelly]

I love how Erica mentioned in her remarks, we're going to make heaven crowded, honey. We're going to make heaven. Like get everybody there. That was his goal. Get everyone there. That's how Charlie Kirk looked at the world. I do want to show this one video that jumped out at me. I thought it was so beautiful. His name is Robbie Wood. He posted something on TikTok about him wearing a suit and for the listening audience. He's in one as he's speaking 27.

[Dan Bongino]

I didn't know Charlie Kirk. Never met that guy before in my life.

[Megyn Kelly]

Life.

[Dan Bongino]

And something else that I've never done before in my life is believing God. I'm gonna wear this suit to church. I'm gonna go to church. I'm going to try to be a.

[Peter Navarro]

Better father, husband, and leader for my family.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm gonna try.

[Peter Navarro]

Y', all, look at this suit.

[Megyn Kelly]

I look good, bro. Yeah, you do.

[Dan Bongino]

My wife made me feel this way. Charlie's made me feel this way.

[Megyn Kelly]

Wow. And on the post, Emily, his dad responded writing, son, you look like a million bucks. Keep your head up, son. And that fire in your eye. Your dad is so proud of you. I love you with all my heart. And he responded, I love you too, dad.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Let's go. That's awesome. And I mean, that is just awesome. And Charlie started as somebody who was using his platform to talk about fewer taxes, smaller government. He ended talking about how the most important thing that you can do in the world is have a beautiful family, be a good husband, be a good father, be a good member of your community, be a good member of your church. Go to church. That is so special.

[Megyn Kelly]

It really is. It's amazing. Those are the people I'm focusing on these days. Not these losers like Jamel Hill, though they managed to work their way into my algorithm here and there, Emily, and it gets my blood boiling. They do need to be called out, but I'm just more focused on his legacy. It's crazy, it's huge, and it's growing by the minute, which is super exciting. Lots of love.

[Emily Jashinsky]

Thanks, Megan.

[Megyn Kelly]

We're gonna be right back with Peter Navarro, who's here with us at Sirius xmhq. I'm Megyn Kelly, host of the Megyn Kelly show on SiriusXM. It's your home for open, honest and provide conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal and cultural figures. Today, you can catch the Megyn Kelly show on Triumph, a SiriusXM channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love. Great people like Dr. Laura. I'm Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megyn Kelly. You can stream the Megyn Kelly show on SiriusXM at home or anywhere you are. No car request. I do it all the time. I love the SiriusXM app. It has ad free music coverage of every major sport, comedy talk, podcast and more. Subscribe now. Get your first three months for free.

[Dan Bongino]

Go to SiriusXM.com MKShow to subscribe and.

[Mark Halperin]

Get three months free. That's SiriusXM.com MKShow and get three months free offer.

[Megyn Kelly]

Details of the welcome back to the Megyn Kelly Show. We've been talking a lot in the past few days about the way the left has amped up the atmosphere in America over the past few years, claiming President Trump and anyone associated with MAGA are part of some fascist takeover. They don't care how they talk about the right. They don't care what the consequences are. Well, one of their mechanisms, of course, has been their use of lawfare. And one of the most egregious and prominent examples of that is Peter Navarro, who served as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing policy during Trump 1.0 last year. He spent four months in a federal prison in Miami after he was convicted of contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with the J6 committee and prosecutors and a judge rejected his claims of executive privilege. You may remember this dramatic moment from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last year when Navarro spoke about being released from prison that same morning and revealed a surprise female guest.

[Peter Navarro]

Yes, indeed, this morning I did walk out of a federal prison.

[Megyn Kelly]

In Miami.

[Peter Navarro]

Joe Biden and his Department of Injustice put me there.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm Peter Navarro. I went to prison. So, so you won't have to.

[Peter Navarro]

This is my beautiful girl. She did the time with me. That's what these friggin Democrats don't understand.

[Dan Bongino]

They do this to our families. She's my girl.

[Megyn Kelly]

A kiss and a hug. Ah. Well, Peter's now back. He's working at the White House as President Trump's Senior counsel for trade and manufacturing. And he's out with a new book with the woman you just saw on your screen, his fiance, Bonnie Brenner. It's called I Went to Prison so you don't have to A love and lawfare story in Trumpland. Peter joins me now. Great to see you. Thanks for being here.

[Peter Navarro]

It's so nice to be with you here, man.

[Megyn Kelly]

I'm sorry that you're, you're saying we wanted to do a big segment on the book, but you know what the Charlie is.

[Peter Navarro]

We're grieving here, but the only thing about the book is it's so germane. I mean, I wrote this as a warning to America that if they can come from me, they can come for you, they can come for Donald Trump, they can come for anybody. And what's so disturbing about what has happened with Charlie is this asymmetry between what the left does to us and what we don't do to them. And if you think about it, you have the very worst with the assassination. Charlie Kirk on the other end, you've got both Steve Bannon and I going to prison for doing nothing more than defending the Constitution. In between, you have four carts of law, trying to put Donald Trump in prison, two assassination attempts, everybody. I was in the White House with Megan during the first term, suffered from lawfare in one way or the other, whether it was just getting subpoenaed and having to spend millions of dollars like Dan Scavino, Mark Meadows. I was here. I came. I'm here in New York because I was at the 911 ceremony in the morning. The reading and the names, very moving. And who was there? Rudy, America's mayor. The man had just been hit by a car, like a week ago. His ninth thoracic spine was in shambles. That man was there. But you know what the left has done to him. They bankrupt, corrupted that man, and we don't do that back. And here's the problem. If we don't hold them accountable for the lawfare, they're just going to keep doing again. Whenever they get in power, they want to go all Kumbayana, oh, let's come reason together. And they call us fascists. Isn't that ironic? We're the fascists. We're the ones they put in prison and kill. And they're not the fascists.

[Megyn Kelly]

So we. It's been amazing after Charlie's assassination, our side has been out there singing Amazing grace, holding vigils calmly together, holding one another. There's been no riots, there's been no destruction of property. There's been nothing that endangers cops. There's a very clear and stark difference between the two sides.

[Dan Bongino]

That's who we are.

[Peter Navarro]

And they're dancing on his grave.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah.

[Peter Navarro]

And I want to say this very clearly. It's like, there's the left now. Even when they kind of praise Charlie and say he never should have been shot, there's always a but. There's always a but. And whenever that but comes in, that's a license to kill. And they're sending the wrong message to people.

[Megyn Kelly]

And I don't understand. Like, you, You. You would never say, oh, you know, I disagree with. Forget I'm not going to name it again. This hypothetical, like, far left, Democrat, congressperson, but I'm really sorry they got assassinated. Like, you don't have to say the part about it. I disagree with it. That's for another time.

[Peter Navarro]

Exactly.

[Megyn Kelly]

You only need the other part of the message.

[Peter Navarro]

Exactly. And the whole social media thing, I mean, I've been thinking a lot about what must be done. I mean, one of the things we have to do is hold them accountable for the lawfare they're waging. There's very interesting. Chuck Grassley, Senator, has done a really good job with whistleblowers, uncovering a lot of what was done, going back to the Russia hoax with the president. Now, why do I mention that? The agent, the FBI agent who came at me and my fiance at Reagan Airport, five armed FBI agents put me in leg irons, put me in handcuffs. This, Megan, this was the same guy who read the Steele dossier, the fake Steele dossier that Hillary Clinton paid for. They created the Russia hoax and said what? That it was real, not a fake. And that set in motion Crossfire Hurricane, which was that whole thing, the Mueller report and everything else. And this guy Giardina was part of all of that. And if you look at all these people who have tried to interfere with our election, put Trump in prison, take him down, get him out of office, once he was in these. We have to hold. It's James Comey. It's Clapper. It's Brennan. It's Page. It's Strzok. It's Lyon Schiff. And if you don't believe that we need to do that, then you don't understand. If we don't hold him accountable, they'll do it again.

[Megyn Kelly]

So you're not all up in arms about him threatening people like Tish James with potential fraud investigation or prosecution on her mortgage claims?

[Peter Navarro]

I am. I am totally on board with that. And I wish we were moving with all due speed, because these people, I mean, if you just look at what Grassley's uncovering, it's truly extraordinary. This is the greatest political scandal in American history. Not only did they try the Russia hoax in 2018, and by the way, another one they got was Mike Flynn.

[Megyn Kelly]

Yeah.

[Peter Navarro]

Do you remember that?

[Megyn Kelly]

Big time.

[Peter Navarro]

I'll tell you what, if Mike Flynn hadn't had to leave, we never would have got John Bolton. And he. It's like these things have a way of really hurting us. No, Letitia James, that was a pure election interference. No question about it. Bragg here in New York City, down in Atlanta, we don't forget this stuff. I mean, people, just because Donald Trump prevailed in a landslide, it could have went the other way. And the difference between Charlie and Donald, John Trump is a millimeter. They both could be dead now. I mean, it's just. It was that much worst day I had in prison, July 13. I was actually watching that event in Butler on the television, and I'M looking at and say, what the hell's going on here? He's about going to be on a stage and you got to stand at trees in the back where snipers could be. It just didn't look right to me. And within minutes, the bullets were flying.

[Megyn Kelly]

And it's like, I mean, you're someone who knows firsthand the lengths to which the committed left will go in order to win their battle. From putting you in prison to what we saw with Charlie. And it's got to stop. The book is called I went to prison so you won't have to by Peter Navarro. Please buy it and support Peter. I wanted to give him an hour and we couldn't today for obvious reasons. So please support him. I went to prison so you won't have to. Thank you, sir.

[Peter Navarro]

Thank you so much.

[Megyn Kelly]

We'll see you all tomorrow.

[Dan Bongino]

Appreciate it.

[Megyn Kelly]

Thanks for listening to the Megyn Kelly Show. No bs, no agenda and no fear. America is built on hard work and powered by American energy. Chevron has spent $44 billion with local businesses across all 50 states since 2022, fueling infrastructure and communities, all while strengthening local economies. Last year, Chevron increased U.S. production near nearly 20%, powering communities and businesses from the heartlands to the coasts. We're helping to fuel America's energy advantage, building a brighter future right here at home. Visit chevron.comamera to discover more.