← The Tony Kinnett Cast
The Tony Kinnett Cast
Ep. 404 - Charlie Kirk, CEO and Co-Founder of TPUSA, Assassinated at Utah Valley Uni. Event
01:08:30
Charlie Kirk, my friend, CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, has been assassinated during a campus event at Utah Valley University. Lead story is breaking and subject to change as more information becomes known.
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Transcript50 lines
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Narrator
Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other. When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a 4 liter jug. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.
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Tony Kennett
Oh, come on.
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Narrator
They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip. Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.
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Tony Kennett
Whatever.
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Narrator
You were made to outdo your holidays. We were made to to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.
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Guest Commentator 1
Tony Kennett.
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Guest Commentator 2
Tony Kennett.
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Tony Kennett
Tony Kennett. Tony Kennett.
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Guest Commentator 1
Tony Kennett. Tony Kennett.
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Guest Commentator 3
Tony Kennett, host of the Tony Kennett cast.
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Tony Kennett
Let's get down to business.
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Guest Commentator 2
You're listening to the Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIBC on CYTV, here on the Daily Signal.
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Tony Kennett
Thank you for joining us this evening. This is the Tony Knitt cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated, first on 93 WIBC. It's really hard to share with you guys the passing of an incredible man, a phenomenal husband and father. And we are going to talk in depth about the series of events in Utah today. Updates from the FBI, some of the reaction from individuals who stated statements are very relevant to how this country conducts its business, both in communication and in how it's governed. But before we get to that, I want to start off with a particular comment that was sent to me from a representative early this afternoon. So there was a House committee on which Congressman Russell Fry sits, in which Representative Jasmine Crockett was was confronted with a bill that bore the name of Kayla Hamilton. Kayla Hamilton was a 20 year old young lady who was killed by an illegal immigrant. She was murdered by an illegal immigrant. And it really upset Representative Jasmine Crockett that Kayla Hamilton was brought up in committee. And that is a very, very important and very important facet to how we start the show today. And I want you to see this because it starts with Congressman Russell Frye bringing to attention the comments of Representative Jasmine Crockett of Dallas. I want to be clear about what we just heard a few minutes ago from Ms. Crockett from Texas. Here's what she had to say when the name of Kayla Hamilton was brought up. Stop just throwing a random dead person's name on something for your own political expediency. So Jasmine Crockett was very, very upset today saying that the Republicans in the committee were throwing around, and I quote, a dead person, a random dead person's name for political expediency. That's what she said she was very, very upset about. Now, Congressman Russell Fry aptly criticized that because that's a very atrocious thing to say. But it is, in fact, for many individuals in this country how dead individuals, especially at the hands of violent crime, are viewed. This is how right now in this country, there are individuals who are officials in the United States government who are prominent figures in media, who have the influence of hundreds of thousands of millions of people who only see the dead as political pawns either to beat others with or when they are faced with deaths that do not align with their political narratives, to be beaten with. Which is what we saw in the case of Representative Jasmine Crockett today. She was furious that after Jasmine Crockett, like many Democrat officials, including speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries, has spent years saying that illegal immigrant crime doesn't exist and it's a minor problem and that it's, it's just you're imagining things and crime is actually going down and really, you're more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked by a white man on a subway, those kinds of things that when confronted with real victims of illegal immigrant crime, Democrats sat down during the State of the Union style address that President Trump gave earlier this year. They react outraged that there would possibly be a name brought before them. And the reason that I bring that up at the beginning of this show is that already, already forget the individuals for a moment whose immediate remarks were caustic and horrible and terrible and evil and despicable. And we're going to get to those. But right now, those moral leaders who are so outraged over the political pawning that might be used against them are currently using Charlie Kirk to beat people over the head politically in this country. And I want to point that out very clearly, because once we get into the particular details of what occurred today in the responses, I want you as the individual who is spending their time tuning into this show, I want you to walk away with a clear understanding of why everyone in the United States who carries a job in urban centers in rural areas are throwing off the mantle of this insane, radical, entitled, spoiled brat, whiny child ideology. Now that out of the way because again, that does in fact frame the entire series of events which occurred today. Now, to Utah. So this, this afternoon, Charlie Kirk, the co founder and the CEO of Turning Point usa, began a question and answer session which he's done quite a few of. We're going to get to those. The American Comeback Tour campus event at Utah Valley University. And Charlie Kirk's been doing this for quite some time and he has gained considerable media Fame even more so in the last week when I was in the airport in Reagan. This morning, flying back from D.C. to Indiana, I was in a conversation about the growing reach and influence of Charlie Kirk, noting specifically that after the discussion of the Charlottesville stabbing, that after the discussion of. Of the bringing back up of the Daniel Penney case from New York City, after we looked at the transgender shooting from Minneapolis or Nashville, Charlie Kirk has been put in the media crosshairs, specifically in a deliberate fashion. All of these articles had come out lambasting Charlie Kirk specifically as being the leader of this treacherously hateful movement and Charlie in the way that he has done so, not just in the last couple of years, but really as Charlie has done since he's been involved in the movement at all. He has conversations on university campuses with all kinds of people. People on the left, people on the right. He'll argue with them. He'll talk doctrine or theology with them. He'll talk politics. He will just have conversations. He won't get into big screaming and shouting matches with him. It's not just a dunk fest. He'd hold conversations. And today, while he was in the middle of a particular question and answer session, and I am, and I am not going to share the clip of the shot taking place today, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to be honest with you. I can't take seeing it again. It's not appropriate, an individual who we believe to have fired from a rooftop, and I say believe to have fired, as there's other footage that. That is confirmed to be real from the campus that day that shows there might have been an individual moving around on a roof, some kind of a sniper position. That seems to be the position of federal law enforcement to a degree, some kind of. On background sources sharing that information, as well as some university officials, those on the ground. And this individual fired and hit Charlie in a spot right above his left clavicle on the neck. And clearly it severed or at least took a serious amount of structural integrity out of one of the two main arteries in his neck. And blood was hemorrhage, hemorrhaging out from the wound. He slumped over immediately in a way that producer Daniel and producer Nick, excuse me, noted. I was on with Scott Jennings at the time, and I wasn't able, mercifully, to see the video. The moment that the information was released, the way that Charlie had slumped over indicated that it was very unlikely that he was going to pull through from this. Individuals in the crowd immediately started running And I thought it was interesting that in the video the people were running towards Charlie and past the tent as though you're at some kind of venue. You're standing, you're watching someone on stage. And then after the shots were fired, after Charlie slumps over due to the injuries, as he's being led around the tent to the back of it, people are rushing forward. And if you're thinking if there was a gunshot close by, then there would be a large amount of people that were rushing away. Which gives credence to the the current rifle theory. Producer Nick at this time, at 7:15 and 30 seconds Eastern Time, has a federal official. Do you know if they've confirmed a rifle shot from a distance? You could find out. I don't want to say anything. This definitely happened right now. That's more on the analysis side. I understand. While he's looking that up here, the immediate aftermath, a lot of individuals that were trying to take cover. There was again, people flooding away. Charlie was rushed to a nearby hospital. The updates started coming out very, very quickly. I'm sorry, radio crew. FCC rules say I've got to send you to commercial. We'll be back as soon as we can. We're going to continue on the live stream. It's the Tony Kennett cast. For those who are joining us for the first time, I apologize. We have to follow FCC rules for commercials in the eastern time clock. So Charlie Kirk has been rushed to the hospital and we start getting a flood of information. Now. I talked about this on the show earlier this week that a recent cottage industry in the United States after major tragic, especially heinous crimes, has been posting AI images, facetious claims that are amplified by large accounts that are just trying to seek after engagement in order to be the first one to report some kind of a story. And so immediately we got every single headline in the book. Charlie Kirk had passed away. Actually, he was stable and fine. Actually, he'd been moved to a hospital. They have the suspect in custody. They don't have the suspect in custody. There are multiple suspects that are now in custody, various kinds of headlines coming out and an individual that was on the ground whose name he's not comfortable with me sharing on the air. I'm going to honor that. Said that he had seen a video of an individual who was being arrested, an older white gentleman, balding, and he was being arrested by police. And that person was immediately identified as the suspect on Twitter X and other social media platforms. To be clear, when I was on the air, the first thing that I said was, this is a guy that appears to have been detained. Guy that was on the ground messaged me and said, I have seen with my own eyes this guy being detained. The video is from this campus. This isn't from somewhere else being used as modern footage. And soon after the individual was, was seen being led away screaming don't shoot me, don't shoot me. Or no, no, excuse me. Screaming, screaming shoot me. Shoot me. The individual was the suspect, which is a very strange thing to scream. Now, since then I am told he has been released. Clearly either some very serious trauma or some mental concerns. An individual screaming shoot me. Who isn't involved. That's, that's a very seriously disturbed individual. There's a lot of people on the ground right now in that position that are suffering from a, a serious amount of, a serious amount of stress. That's all I'm going to say about that. I'm not going to speculate at all in that situation. But as time progressed we started to get a clearer image of the situation and the more clearly that we were able to look through this, we were able to discern that Charlie Kirk, according to various news sources, was in critical condition. And after that point that Charlie Kirk was listed as in critical condition, then the awful, horrible, despicable takes from, from journalists, from broadcasters, from anchors. Many of you have been working all day. This is the first time you've been able to tune into a news source. We write the show later in the day to allow for the coverage of certain events, God forbid, like these. And in this particular case, there were individuals after Charlie Kirk had been stated as being confirmed in serious critical condition, he was fighting for his life. That individuals, anchors, pundits, analysts on MSNBC and other major networks came out and said, gutter trash, gutter trash. And we are going to talk about that. We're going to get through some of the rest of the information. First, we do not have confirmation at this time. I see producer Nick's message in the slack and I appreciate that the person was wearing dark clothing. Right now, federal officials only believe it was one person. We don't have any confirmation to the public right now if this individual was on a roof or, or in a building. The current estimation is that it was over a 200 yard shot, which would be a longer shot than both the President JFK assassination and the attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump in July of last year. So I'm not going to get into the details at least insofar as to, you know, that's, that is quite the shot. I don't know any information yet as to whether a firearm has been recovered, if something has been thrown away. There is a good estimate that the individual knew the campus very well because this person vacated rather quickly. And we do have confirmation that Salt Lake City. Excuse me. Radio crew is back from commercial. I need to move to them. It's the Tony Kennett cast. We're going to bring everyone back in. All right, welcome back to the Tony Knittcast here on the Daily Signal. I'm sorry, I'm being told that the bumper track for the intro was supposed to play and it did not. We'll work on that one for you. So before we get too far, I do want to make it clear that right now the current estimation is that this was over a 200 yard shot. Right now, the governor of Utah, Governor Cox, has made the statement that he believes. Well, quote, I want to be very clear. This is a political assassination. End quote. And again, right now, from all of the evidence that is presented, that is an obvious truth. That is an obvious, obvious truth. So as Charlie Kirk was fighting for his life. Also from FBI Director Cash Patel. They do believe now they have the individual in custody. They do have the individual. Excuse me, not they believe. Cash Patel, the director of the FBI, has announced they have this particular individual in custody. Sorry, I want to be very particular with my words there. Now, from that point forward, the protesters that were at the event were expected. We don't have any answers yet as to whether or not there were security issues, whether there were, you know, metal detector checks or whether there was a general security kind of apparatus. We don't have any information on that yet. Not going to speculate. I've heard different interviews from individuals on the ground saying different things, which is why I'm not going to speculate at this point in time as Charlie is in the hospital. MSNBC begins its coverage by describing Charlie Kirk, who is again fighting for his life at the time that this broadcast.
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Guest Commentator 3
Is going out in which a shooting like this happens.
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Guest Commentator 1
Yeah, and again, I emphasize what you just emphasized. We don't know any full details of this, that we don't know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration or so we have no idea. But.
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Tony Kennett
The individual goes. Goes on to say, and I'm not sure why the rest of this, this particular clip doesn't say. He says, we have no idea if this individual was firing a gun off in celebration. I'm going to repeat that. The, the individual from msnbc, the, the analyst or the reporter that they went to said, we don't know what, you know, the gunshot was. We don't know if it's someone firing a gun off in celebration as though that were what struck Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk in the neck, which is loathsome. It's disgusting. It is a horrible thing to suggest, and it's completely nonsensical. It is completely nonsensical. It is at a university. It is at a school. I don't know if you know this, but first of all, the. The coastal idea that there's just a bunch of hicks in the middle of the country firing guns into the air like it's the wedding scene from up and it's a shotgun wedding. They're all firing guns into the air in celebration. Yeah. That's a Hollywood trop from people who have no idea how middle America functions whatsoever. Number two, it's at a university, a place where, historically, there's not a lot of guns. It's atrocious. And I, by the way, I would classify that as malicious reporting. That's malicious. There's no ignorance there. That's malicious. That is trying to push some kind of political narrative so that you don't say what everyone in the United States is clearly, clearly thinking. This is a political assassination in progress. And it did get worse. Katie Tur, hosting the show that was on air when this, again, Charlie Kirk, at this point, has been confirmed is in critical condition. Here's how Katie Turk. Here's how Katie Turk, excuse me, describes Charlie.
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Guest Commentator 3
Yeah, we're showing, by the way, our affiliate in Utah and the aftermath of the shooting. You could see people running away pretty quickly, as you would imagine they would do at gunshots. The FBI director, Kash Patel, has weighed in on this. He just tweeted the. We're closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected. Agents will be on the scene quickly, and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and the investigation. Charlie Kirk is a divisive figure, polarizing, lightning rod, whatever term you want to use.
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Tony Kennett
What on God's green earth are you doing as an anchor? Why are you, like, vamping right now? Why. Why would you just feel the word to read? You don't need to characterize. Say he's a conservative activist. If you must say he operates a conservative organization would be more accurate. And he is considered a leader on the traditionally conservative side of the right. That's all one has to say. Instead, she makes a point Katie Turner on msnbc to say, well, he's a divisive figure, a lightning rod. It's so unnecessary. It's blisteringly disrespectful. Then we get to the, the announcement, I believe, and I want to, I want to check this with producer Nick here. The comment from Matthew Dowd was that before or after Charlie Kirk was announced as passed away? I believe that it was after. After. Okay. So to, to stay on up, to stay up to point and clear on all matters relating to the timeline. Charlie Kirk, after a series of very.
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Guest Commentator 2
Very.
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Tony Kennett
Different reports from individuals, everyone was reaching out to sources that they had that were as close to Charlie Kirk as individuals reaching out to family members, to federal officials, to hospital officials, to FBI officials, and from individuals closer to Kirk. There initially was a very hopeful moment, the outpouring, the flood of calling for prayers for Kirk and his family because he has a wife and two children, two little children, a one year old and a three year old. The outpouring of prayer was immense, as it should be, as it still is and should be. And amid this, finally there was information, I believe Jeffrey Ingersoll over at the Daily Caller started getting information from federal sources that just too much blood loss. We don't know the specific details, not going to speculate at this time. And Charlie Kirk did pass away. And the immediate response, Matthew Dowd, ladies and gentlemen.
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Guest Commentator 1
But following up what was just said, he's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions.
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Tony Kennett
Well, there you go. There you go. I have seen, in fact, we're currently working on a series on political crimes. We've been working on this for several weeks. I'm not going to get too much into details right now because that's not the important part of the coverage. But from what we have discovered so far through our research, I have yet to find an individual on the right side of the aisle or the center or whatever you want to call it, after there has been a political act of violence against the left who said, and I quote, this person had it coming. Even in the case of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in which autopsy reports later revealed that he had died of a fentanyl overdose and not from Derek Chauvin leaning, putting his knee on his neck, I didn't see any initial coverage whatsoever saying George Floyd had it Coming with Derek, I didn't see any of that. And yet here we are right after the announcement. Again, you want to make the case that, you know, you know, Charlie Kirk is polarizing and he's like, really, really conservative. Is this the time, really right now when there are individuals from all over the country that are tuning into news sources to discover information about what has happened? Radio crew, I'm sorry, we have to send you to the commercial break. We're going to continue on the live stream. It's the Tony Kennedcast here on the Daily Signal. So ABC News, or at least formally, Matthew Dowd over on msnbc. Katie Tur cannot stop, starts sharing concerns about someone taking up the mantle of Charlie Kirk.
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Guest Commentator 3
People are really upset and they start lashing out online and they start blaming others for what led up to this. I mean, we see it when Democrats are targeted, we see it when Republicans are targeted. And we're seeing it with this. Anna Paulina Luna, who's a representative from Florida, has put this out on X. She's blaming the Democrats. She's blaming the rhetoric the Democrats use. It use. Calling Republicans fascist.
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Tony Kennett
Yes, fascist is a particularly important remark.
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Guest Commentator 3
She's saying, you are the hate. If you're in the FBI field office and you see this sort of stuff bubbling up online, how worried do you get about somebody taking up the cause of Charlie Kirk and lashing out on somebody who's seen as a Democrat or some.
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Tony Kennett
Wow. Well, there you go. The fear from individuals like Katie Tur and the media, that particular thing to suggest right off the bat, just right out of the gate, to suggest that, well, the real concern is that someone will become Charlie Kirk, which therefore means violence. It's disgusting. More of these just from around the, the, the Internet again, msnbc, justifying these kinds of things. I do want to get to some of the political responses because these are perhaps more egregious. Governor J.B. pritzker of Illinois took the opportunity to make the case that this is all Donald Trump's fault. And January 6th, which is insane.
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Political Analyst
My sympathy to Charlie Kirk's family and to Charlie Kirk, who obviously is, you know, become a target for somebody. I don't know whether it's political violence because I don't know who did it. I know they seem to have somebody in custody. But I will say that political violence, unfortunately, has been ratcheting up in this country. We saw the shootings, the killings in Minnesota. We've seen other political violence occur in other states, and I would just say it's got to stop. And I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country. I think the president's rapid rhetoric often foments it. We've seen the January 6th rioters who clearly, you know, have tripped a new era of political violence.
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Tony Kennett
The gaslighting, the wanton gross. Again, this is not a situation in which it has been a couple of weeks. Charlie Kirk, an individual who has made an entire career out of talking with individuals one on one, who's been an active figure in the conservative movement, who has advocated for good and decent things in a manner far more, far more kindly than. Than I have advocated for, for certain things. And immediately, well, this is all Donald Trump's fault is disgusting. It is the lowest of the low. Again, as we talked about at the very beginning of the show, whenever there is an individual who has suffered at the hands of a despicable crime, a truly heinous tragedy, there are certain Democrat officials, some of them not, but there are certain Democrat officials who immediately rush to use it as a political bludgeon, no matter where the individual who or what the circumstances were of the murder and is a horrible, horrible thing. We have to bring the radio crew back from commercial. And then I want to get into a few key things in the house. It's the Tony Kindid cast here on the Daily Signal.
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Guest Commentator 2
This is the Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIBC.
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Tony Kennett
Now, some of the responses to the passing of Charlie Kirk were very appropriate, were very, very appropriate. Individuals on the right, of course individuals, some of them on the left, had very appropriate responses. What is the appropriate response in this? We are praying for the family of Charlie Kirk. That's the only appropriate response, especially if you didn't agree with whatever here, that when Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, someone who I would articulate is responsible by her hand for significant ills in this country. My response was that I was praying for her family because that is a common thread of decency that is supposed to exist in the Overton Window, but that's been completely thrown out when you start using individuals who have not even been dead for an hour as an immediate political prop to smack whomever is within arm's reach. The proper example, of course, of course comes from, and you could expect this, individuals like President Trump said, the great, even legendary, Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he's no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies Go out to his beautiful wife Erica and family. Charlie, we love you. Vice President Vance said again a lot of the same wonderful things to say. President Trump also ordered the flags to be put at half staff. Gavin Newsom had an appropriate response. Governor of California. The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile and reprehensible. He says, in the United States of America, we must reject political violence in every form. Not as bad as it could have been. Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Political violence has no place in America. The shooting is horrifying and I'm praying for Charlie Kirk and his family. Elizabeth Warren the shooting is nothing short of horrific. I'm praying for Charlie Kirk and thinking of the students at the event in Utah. Political violence has no place in our country. It's never okay. Then you have individuals like Nancy Pelosi who also had to start typing. Starts off fine again. This is when Charlie Kirk was still fighting for his life. She said this horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation. All Americans should pray for Charlie Kirk's recovery and hold the entire university community in our hearts as they endure the trauma of this gun violence. No, no, the gun didn't do it. Charlie Kirk, by the way, has been explicitly clear on that particular topic. And the more that we learn about individuals that may have been involved with this and the more clearly it appears to be a political assassination. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The political part of the political assassination is key. It wasn't because the individual had a gun, they suddenly got the idea to kill a father. The reason that Charlie Kirk was killed was for political reasons. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. Kamala Harris I'm deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear. Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act and we must all work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence. Now, that's kind of an interesting way to phrase that, because before I was during the day, I'm a national correspondent and I'm supposed to go on different media outlets and I'm supposed to talk about various news of the day. I was invited on to News Nation right about the time that he had that Charlie Kirk had passed away. And the individual before me, a political analyst, went on this long diatribe about how important it was that in this country we lower the temperature of the rhetoric so that there isn't more violence. And, and the Reason that you are seeing people from around the country right now talk about the rhetoric is they are worried about retaliatory violence from the right. And I'm just gonna make it clear that whenever there is someone. And again, the reason earlier that I mentioned that we've been doing political work on a series about political crimes is that we've been looking into political crimes lately as a show, as a team. And whenever there is an individual who has been killed on the left, the immediate response by the media is. Is consistently, consistently. Well, the right is really hateful and evil and bigoted and racist, and this is what their goal is, and all of that kind of stuff. And then when there was an individual on the right who was attacked, who was murdered, who was assassinated, who was shot at, the immediate response is, well, there's all of this rhetoric in the country, and everyone needs to tone it down. The right to. So when there was a person on the left who was attacked, the right is blamed. And. And when there was a person on the right who was attacked, the left and the right is blamed. Again, I will point out yet again that many of the commentators, the pundits, the analysts who went on networks like MSNBC today made it explicitly clear that, well, maybe Charlie Kirk brought it on himself. Maybe he had it coming. It is truly, truly sickening. Now, I could go on by, you know, on some of the other responses today, but I want to talk about something that is far more important to me, and that is that Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was. Charlie Kirk was my friend. In 2021, I was suspended from Indianapolis Public schools. I was the science administrator. So my job. I never taught at Indianapolis public schools. I taught at other schools in Indianapolis. I was an administrator. I was in charge of STEM for the whole school district. And my job was to make sure that whether you taught science in elementary, senior high, whatever, that you were doing it appropriately, that you were following state standards. And I was asked to incorporate elements of racial equity and critical race theory into my curriculum. And I ended up breaking this investigation on the school system and was canned, even though I acted as a whistleblower. And through that entire process, which was, of course, stressful on my family, my wife was nine months pregnant by the end of it. And dealing with preeclampsia. Charlie Kirk reached out to me personally. Don't know who he got my. Who he got my number from. Never found out, but he shot me a text and asked to make sure we were doing okay. And then he checked up on us again and again. And again. And he and I became friends, not extremely close friends, but we became friends a little bit here and there. We would share a couple of things. And he made sure that I was doing well, that my family was doing well. And later on, after we sold the chalkboard review and I was applying to work at the Daily Signal, he offered to be a reference for me. That kind of personal attention, that generosity and that graciousness. That's just one of like hundreds of examples that I've heard already from individuals who knew Charlie Kirk, a far more generous and gracious man that I could ever hope to be. And what I believe is desperately needed in this country radio crew. I'm sorry, we do have to send you to the commercial break. We'll have you guys back in a second. It's the Tony Kinit cast here on the Daily Signal. Yesterday evening, I was on with, well, the Tim cast, and in this particular episode, it was Tim Pool as well as Libby Emmons from the Post Millennial, Jack Bosobiak of human events, Phil Laban of all, all that remains. And we talked a lot about breaking news of the day and something that we continually kept coming back to. When we're talking about the events in Charlotte, when we're talking about the Phillies game with the father who took the baseball from his son and gave it to the angry older lady, when we're talking about other acts of violence, the new urban right is Jack Brisob had described it rather accurately. We kept coming back to the reason as to why this was going on, and it was because America has sorely lacked one thing and one thing alone over the last couple of decades, and that is strong, responsible duty led men who are husbands and fathers. It is the one crucial element that has evaporated from this country in part because we have driven it away in pursuit of. Of wastes of our time. We've elevated things we never should have elevated. And amid all of that, Charlie Kirk was a model husband, father and Christian. And I am very proud to have known him, if for no other reason than is the example that he set specifically. And it's not at all how he's being painted today. Again, as you heard the analysts talk about as politician. We could talk about this for a while. It's not really how I want to spend much more of the bulk of the show. But as Charlie Kirk is being lambasted as hateful and divisive and all the hate speech and all this other stuff, when he's asked about what Jesus love means to him, here's his answer.
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Guest Commentator 3
Can you please explain to everyone out here what Jesus stood for and especially the qualities of love.
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Tony Kennett
How to love your neighbor even if they don't agree with you.
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Guest Commentator 2
That's a beautiful question. So John 8, if I'm drawing from memory correct correctly, best embodies both Christ's mercy and love, but also his commitment to truth. And sometimes in the modern gospel, we over emphasize the grace and we under emphasize the truth.
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Tony Kennett
Yeah.
- [38:14]
Guest Commentator 2
And so we are far too willing to say, hey, Jesus loves everybody. But we don't get to the second part of the conversation that says, Jesus doesn't want you to live in sin. So this is in John 8. It's best embodied. Right. Almost every Christian in this audience will be able to tell you the first part of this, which is a bunch of Sadducees and Pharisees are sitting around, standing around with rocks and they're about to stone the prostitute woman. And Jesus comes up and says, let the first among you without sin cast the first stone. And everyone starts dropping the rocks. But what comes next shows that Christ is not just grace focused, he's simultaneously truth focused. He goes up to the woman who had a career in selling herself for sex and said, sin no more. Now imagine today how much trouble you would get in if you would go up to somebody and say, stop sinning, that, oh, you're being too judgmental. No, no, you're actually being Christ. Like so Jesus stood. He was 100% grace and truth. And that tension is very hard in a modern world because we want to overemphasize grace when in reality Christ loves us too much to have us continue to live in sin. He wants us to try to elevate our actions, to glorify God in all that we do.
- [39:25]
Tony Kennett
That was Charlie Kirk. That understanding of Christ's love and his holiness is key. We have to bring the radio crew back from commercial. Pardon me. Don't go anywhere. It's the Tony Kennett cast.
- [39:41]
Guest Commentator 2
This is the Tony Kennett cast on 93 WYPC.
- [39:45]
Tony Kennett
See? Welcome back to the Tony Kennet cast. There's a couple of ending points that I, I want to make here kind of in this back half of the show about Charlie Kirk and the man that he was and why. I believe specifically that the legacy he's leaving behind will in fact make this country a far, far better place. The idea that Charlie Kirk put first and foremost his salvation and the equal parts grace and love of Christ and the love that comes through the understanding of holiness, not lying to someone about Whether sin is okay or not. And that then playing into how he was as a husband and a father and a phenomenal husband and father. Fox News released this clip that I guess Kirk went to appear on Fox and Friends and he brought his wife and his daughter. And it's, it's truly wonderful and it's sweet. You can see Kirk responding to his, his three year old coming over. It's, it's precious. It is, it is an active father who understands the amount of time, care and attention that a marriage and children need. That is what our country is lacking and that is what Charlie Kirk was inspiring young men around the country to do. There has been a recent poll, Elise McHugh talked about it on yesterday's show, an NBC poll which shows that Generation Z men are more interested in marriage and children than far, far earlier generations. And I will argue end on end, that a key reason is because of the work that Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA did to inspire individuals to seek after the things that made America great. Good fathers in strong marriages made this country great. And you can say, well, wait a minute, you know, I mean, what about the President of the United States? He's been divorced a bunch. And after all, there's a bunch of Christians who are divorced. And well, you know that things aren't. There are a lot of problems here, there and everywhere. And well, and Charlie Kirk would say very clearly, I didn't say that anything was perfect. He wouldn't make the case that you had to be the holiest of holy without sin. But he didn't excuse it either. And the return of the American father and husband is something that you just can't squash out by painting Charlie as divisive or oh, he's a lightning rod or oh, he said hate speech and, and a bunch of angry, bitter individuals who are outraged. Not that Charlie Kirk is, has passed away. I'm again not going to speculate. The broadcasters often can tell when there is an individual that is trying to hide a smirk. But I will say that some of the individuals are beyond furious that their power has been completely ripped away from them and they are lashing out at anyone and anything that they can. And that is why I again, our prayers are all for the comfort of his, his wife and his two kids. And now the next question comes, and it's actually one that I've, I've been wrestling with since the news this afternoon, which is the where do we go from here? It's a very hard question because there are a lot of people who have seen the brutal, brutal murder of Irena Zarutska in Charlotte and the callousness towards that murder, who have seen the murder, the political assassination of Charlie Kirk today. And from what I'm hearing from other sources, other concerns of, other concerns of violence in the near future, but I'm, I'm, I'm going to say that looking forward, I don't believe that retribution is where America is going to move. I don't, I don't see the legacy of Charlie Kirk ending. And as the MSNBC host was fear mongering, oh, someone's going to take up the mantle and they're going to cause more rhetoric device. I don't think so. I do think that there are a large group of Americans that are simply done playing around. But done playing around doesn't mean wanton, angry, retribution style violence. It simply means no longer taking seriously those who try to paint a both sidesism kind of picture. Individuals who try to say the rhetoric on the right is just as terrible as some of the rhetoric on the left and refusal to condemn open violence from individuals who are affirmed in mental illness. I just don't see that as the future here in the country. Now we are at a very high stakes, high risk time. Absolutely. We are at a time when there are individuals who are running around chanting in glee and joy videos celebrating some of the worst of the worst. And I'm not, I'm not pulling your leg on this one. Some of the, the videos of these animals reacting to Charlie Kirk's murder are truly, truly horrible. So he says, first Nepal and now Charlie Kirk shot in Utah. Something happening is all grinning and smiling and the music's playing very loud. A young black lady, Charlie Kirk got shot and she's excited and playing the hopeful music.
- [45:42]
Narrator
I'm not saying she deserved it, but I'm saying God's timing is always right.
- [45:49]
Tony Kennett
Sick, sick. This Charlie Kirk was just shot in the neck at a Utah event. She's putting up like the loser emoji and she's all excited. They, this is a small, small, small fraction by the way. When individuals on, on the right make it clear and they say that they're after you, Trump was just in the way. They're after you. Charlie Kirk was in the way. These videos do in fact provide a lot of credibility to that. And the individuals on the left are not just the youths that are, that are running around per se posting on social media. Legacy institutions that are trusted as experts in the field like the Southern Poverty Law center are key in this. Now we're going to cut over to Tyler o' Neill in a second. I want to make this clear. We recorded this before the show began in order to get this in. This is very, very important. Tyler's work is currently being thrown around on a lot of social media because the SPLC labeled Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA alongside the kkk. At one point in the interview, Tyler says they haven't caught who they believe to be the shooter yet. They now have. So when you hear that here in a couple of minutes, it's a prerecorded interview. So Tyler o'. Neill. And joining us now is my colleague Tyler o' Neill over at the Daily Signal and one of the key investigators in the Southern Poverty Law Center's blatant malpractice in reporting. We've of course, talked about this on the show before. Tell us a little bit about what the SPLC has done in the past and. And then we'll pivot that over to the relevant events from today.
- [47:32]
Tyler O'Neill
Yeah. So I think your audience is probably familiar. The Southern Poverty Law center started as a noble civil rights group in the south representing poor people who didn't have the ability to get legal representation. Very noble. Cause then in the 80s they started suing Klan chapters into bankruptcy. Everybody hates the Klan. Thank God they were able to get sued into bankruptcy. At the same time, people, people accused the SPLC of going after the Klan as a showy thing to get money. And of course, the SPLC did make a lot of money going after Klan groups, suing them into bankruptcy, but they ran out of grand dragons to slay. And so they started going ever more mainstream with their targets. And that's when it really became very interesting to me because I saw them put conservative and Christian organizations on the map with clan chapters, suggesting that if you Disagree with the SPLC's radical agenda on transgenderism, on immigration and all these things, you are hateful on the same level as the clan.
- [48:35]
Tony Kennett
And to be clear, that particular map they actually had on their have on their website a large map of the United States with dots. And you, if you drag your mouse over the dots on the screen, they have a legend down below where you can actually see them all listed. Where you can find Ku Klux Klan chapters listed right next to Moms for Liberty or Focus on the Family as hate groups they consider tantamount with the Klan and other racial supremacy organizations. And now bring us into TP USA and Charlie Kirk regarding this.
- [49:11]
Tyler O'Neill
So, yeah, in May they made the decision to add Turning Point usa, which I think your audience probably knows is the largest conservative youth grassroots organization in the country. And they just put it on the hate map alongside clan chapters, alongside Moms for Liberty, alongside the Family Research Council. And, you know, this set off alarm bells to me. I think I was the very first person ever to report it because I was just going through the list and I saw Turning Point USA on there, and I was. I was shocked and flabbergasted. And they only put one chapter anyway.
- [49:48]
Tony Kennett
They.
- [49:48]
Tyler O'Neill
They usually exaggerate hate like they've done with Moms for Liberty by having hundreds of Moms for Liberty chapters on the hate map. With Turning Point usa, they just put the one. And they put the headquarters of Turning Point USA on the map. But this sets off alarm bells because in 2012, we saw a terrorist use this map to target the Family Research Council for an attempted mass shooting. He had in his bag a semiautomatic pistol and a bag of Chick Fil A chicken sandwiches, planning to smear a Chick Fil A sandwich in the face of every single one of his victims. And thank God his attack was stopped. In this case, we don't know what the motivations are behind the person who shot Charlie Kirk and now led to his unfortunate, horrific death. I mean, my heart goes out to Charlie Kirk's family, to everyone touched by his arguments on college campuses, to Turning Point usa, to the organization, so many people affected by this tragedy today. But we have to say, I mean, I think it's very important for us to note the Southern Poverty Law center put Turning Point USA on the hate map just a couple months before this horrific shooting. And, you know, to the SPLC's credit, they came out with a statement today saying they condemn violence in all of its forms. But they didn't say, we're reconsidering putting Turning Point, taking. Having Turning Point USA on this hate map. And this is the same thing they did with the Family Research Council. They condemned the shooting, but they never took it off the map.
- [51:28]
Tony Kennett
And I want to make it clear the effects of the splc, because it's not as though this is just some random NGO or Tumblr blog or subreddit. The SPLC is used, as experts say, whenever you are on an MSNBC article or a Washington Post, a New York Times, an Associated Press, USA Today, Axios article. And they say experts say that this racist white supremacist group, blah, blah, they often cite the splc, you've written about that specifically as providing kind of like the. The crowbar to. I mean, the. The expression is the crowbar to beat them with in this case. A. A it. I. My blood boils thinking that there is an individual out there who likely was in part radicalized by the same kind of. Experts say Charlie Kirk is dangerous. It's very difficult to paint any other picture.
- [52:27]
Tyler O'Neill
Yeah, I mean, it's hard to see otherwise. I think, you know, as I've said, we don't have evidence yet. We don't know who the shooter is from. From what I understand, there are conflicting reports. They got one potential suspect and then they eventually released that one. I hope they can. They can find shooter because anyone who's willing to. You know, Charlie Kirk has been engaging in debate in college campuses across the country, and now he's silenced for good by this act of violence. And anybody who engages in this sort of politically targeted murder. I don't care if the people who are targeted here are on the left or the right. I think it's. It's absolutely horrific that it's Charlie Kirk in this case, but I would be saying the same thing if someone on the left had been attacked, because this is not acceptable. And I think it's very important for us to note the SPLC has been putting these people on this map for years, not being held accountable. And now we see yet another, what looks like another example of someone getting targeted after being put on this map. And it's like you said, the splc, Tony, has been cited not just by news outlets. It's been used by big tech to censor people. It's been used by the Biden FBI to go after radical traditional Catholics. And they. They were advising. I mean, it wasn't just that one memo either. They were advising the Department of Justice throughout the Biden administration. And I have many reports on that. That's what led to my second book. Don't need to go into that.
- [54:11]
Tony Kennett
I do want to. I do want to bring up right here at the end that the. When you start allowing individuals political takes to be now used as leverage for the arm of the law or the arm of the vigilante to commit violent acts and knowingly doing so, which I believe based on, of course, your works. Based on prior reporting, the Southern Poverty Law center is aware of the exacerbatory nature of their actions based on how they have interacted with those asking questions about the inclusion of certain organizations on that hate map. Regardless. Tyler o', Neill, thank you very much for joining us, for giving us a little bit of insight here. We know that right now there's a lot of stuff Sweeping around online. We'll link to your reporting and other writings so that individuals can get a little bit more perspective amid all of the flying rumors. Thanks for sharing a moment with us.
- [55:03]
Tyler O'Neill
Thanks again so much for having me, Tony.
- [55:06]
Tony Kennett
All right, there are a couple of updates that we want to make sure that we get to that have been brought up to speed since the show began. So first of all, according to an Associated Press update, the first individual who was detained who was believed to have been the shooter, this would be the older gentleman that was seen saying, shoot me, shoot me. He was. He's currently being held on obstruction, so he hasn't been released. Earlier we said we thought he had been released. That was again, speculation. As we said, I think at the time, that was what we had been led to believe by a statement from a university official. Now, the, the Associated Press had put up a little update clarifying that there is he is still being held on obstruction in some particular instance. So trying to be as transparent with you guys as possible right now as to the identity of the shooter. There are 15 different profiles that I've seen in the last five or six minutes. Bring ourselves up to speed. There is no way that I could begin to speculate on the identity of the individual arrested for the shooting. So as far as advice, if you would permit me to offer any kind of advice that you might take with a grain of salt, I would recommend being patient, patient, patient. On spreading any suggested identities of the shooter and their social media profiles, which may or may not exist until the FBI releases the official information. I do believe that the, the FBI is going to release this information on the suspect number two. Again, as we've said on prior shows, we've gone through in detail the, for example, the stabbing of Irania Zarutska in Charlotte. There was a GoFundMe started for Decarlos Brown Jr. The one who stabbed her and walked away muttering, I got that white girl. He. The GoFundMe that was set up in favor of him was taken down by GoFundMe. But there was a profile picture of an individual that was linked back to the sex offender registry. And people were saying, ah, see, it's a rapist that actually set up the GoFundMe in favor of the stabber. And we cautioned, hey, you might want to be a little careful with that because the names aren't matched. And, and why would someone use their photo from the sex offender registry to make a GoFundMe kind of strange? That kind of cottage industry is becoming extremely common after Heinous events. The last thing that is going to benefit the cause of justice for Charlie Kirk and allowing individuals who are committing especially horrible decisions right now on media and on broadcasting networks, social media statements on the floor of the House, which we're going to get to here in just a second. The best thing to do right now is genuinely to be patient and not to say or do really insane things or spread those around. Case in point, right now there are still representatives who are yelling at each other on social media after events in the House today. So I want to get to the right document here. Producer Nick has a kind of a video outline key here. All right, so in the House of Representatives today, there was a moment of silence called for for Charlie Kirk and his family. And the chair asked members to president in the chamber and those in the galleries rise for a moment of prayer for Charlie Kirk and his family. And that wasn't allowed to stand. The chair would ask that all members present in the chamber and those in the gallery please rise for a moment of prayer for Charlie Kirk and his family. So there's this moment of silence. The microphones go down and then there is, I believe, and I want to make sure we're going to play through this because there's a little bit of motion occurring on the Democrat side of the aisle. Then things get a little sketchy. So we're going to try to go back to this spot where things start to kind of get out of hand here. Representative I believe Lauren Boebert starts shouting, individuals, things get really out of hand really quickly here. We're gonna see if we can pull up kind of the update, see if there's maybe an updated recording of this particular event. So Boebert requests prayer on the floor of the House. And then it's hard to hear on the C Span clip, but Democrats can be heard shouting, no. What purpose did a gentle lady from Colorado rise? There you go. Okay, so for those who didn't turn their audio all the way up, the representative Lauren Boebert says, can we ask someone? She just asks someone, can someone please lead us in a moment of prayer for Charlie with the time was fighting for his life in critical condition. And the immediate response from Democrats side of the aisle. You hear ladies voices going, no, no. As though all of this was theatrics and none of it mattered at all anyway. And then, you know, Representative Anna Paulina shouts back, y' all caused this. There are some words that are thrown around that I don't really want to risk playing because we'd have to go back and cut those out later. All one has to do in that moment is simply nod. It's not that difficult to just go along with the moment of silence and the moment of prayer. The Democrat House in 2020 put on Kunta Kinte scarves and took photo ops, kneeling on the floor in their color African scarves in order to stand with George Floyd, who wasn't even a descendant from that part of Africa. I mean, again, it's all ridiculous nonsense anyway, you know this. As we said at the beginning of the show, and we iterate now, in the case of the political assassination of Turning Point USA founder, husband and father good man Charlie Kirk, the immediate choice by individuals in the media and individuals on the left side of the aisle. Some of them, some of them have not gone insane. Some of them, yes, have gone insane. Their desperate desire to run out in front of the entire nation and use this as an opportunity to swing a political bat. Not to call out direct immediate examples of things that exacerbated. But saying, well, this is really all about Trump in January 6th. I'm sorry, that is just political cudgel. There is nothing about that that is at all relevant. And yet we're going to see this again and again and again. And I do believe that is where from a particular group who has been told over the last couple of decades that Republicans are coming to kill you, that they were erasing transgender people, that there is this inherent white supremacy in the United States and it's coming for you that exacerbates individuals, especially those who are mentally ill, to believe that it is either fight the Republicans physically or it's death. I mean, you had people like Chris Murphy, senator from Connecticut, just yesterday saying, man, what we're doing is not working. We gotta fight, we gotta do something new. We gotta get out there and try this, this new kind of fight stuff. And then when these kinds of things happen, no one on a certain side of the aisle seems to point and say, yeah, I mean, that was kind of inappropriate. I apologize for maybe some of the scatterbrained coverage of this this evening. It's been a particularly difficult show. But we do appreciate your stopping by, we appreciate your tuning in. Again, we would like to encourage two things. Number one, that you keep Charlie's wife and kids in your prayers. And I would recommend, I really would recommend finding some old videos of Charlie talking to people one on one. And some of the books that he recommends, I recommend reading them because that's what he did. I would recommend going to church I really would. Because at these times and at these moments in acts of great unspeakable evil, to draw nigh to God is far more appropriate than getting out in front of people and saying, well, you know, he deserved it. And with that, we wish you guys a restful and a quiet evening. And we hope to be back with you real soon. I'm Tony Kinnit. This has been the Tony Kinnit cast for the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated and first on 93 WIBC. Take care.