BREAKING NEWS: Conservative Superstar Charlie Kirk Shot in Utah

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is September tenth, twenty twenty five, and once again we are seeing the scenes of students scrambling on a college campus because of gunfire. But it's not what you think. This time. There has been what appears to be a targeted attack on a college campus against a conservative superstar. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJA breaking episode here robes Charlie Kirk Headline has been shot on a college campus at this time, at this recording, we don't know how he's doing.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yes, but from all of the witness reports we've seen and the unfortunate videos that have been circulated on social media, which are incredibly explicit and very difficult to watch, and it was confirmed he was shot in the neck and those who were near him who saw it, some who were even recording it, describe a pretty awful, gruesome scene where blood immediately poured out, he fell limp and fell over, and he was immediately whisked away. We know he's in the hospital right now, but we have no idea, We have no word on his condition at this hour.

00:01:12
Speaker 1: All we're getting from the organization that he does work with, the organization that he did co found, actually only putting out a statement saying that he is in the hospital. Again, this is Turning Point USA, the conservative nonprofit that he works with and again helped found some I mean he was a kid essentially, he was a teenager when this was founded. But put out a statement only saying he is in the hospital and we are praying for him. That is all we got. Again. This is a conservative superstar, a young conservative superstar at the age of thirty one years old. He was on the campus today part of Robes a tour. This is the first stop on a particular tour that he's kicking off. So you had, at least by the numbers, we saw hundreds of kids, maybe even into the thousands, gathered in what looks like the quad if you will, of camp as a very popular spot, gathered all around when this happened.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, a beautiful sunny day. He was under a tent, he was seated, He had been speaking for most people, say, around twenty minutes, and he was in the Q and A section of his address to the students where he encourages people to debate him. And he does this Q and A session and ironically he was literally just asked about transgender shootings over the past decade, talking about these school shootings and certainly the one we recently saw. And as he was asked the question, that is when a single shot, according to witnesses, rang out and struck him directly in the neck.

00:02:42
Speaker 1: And you say, according to witnesses and according to the video. Because it is out there, we don't encourage you to look, but you're going to do it if you want to. But the video is out there, and you do see this event going on, and you hear one pop. You don't hear multiple shots. You hear one pop, and you see him sitting in that chair. Immediately his entire body reacts, but certainly his head goes back and to the side a little bit. But this happened in front on a sunny day, in the middle of campus. This took place, and we dig it. Word rose. We were watching this coverage and keeping up with everything online and we were wondering and even looking at the video with somebody come up on him? Did somebody rush this stage? Now we got just a short time ago the update of where.

00:03:28
Speaker 2: They say the shooter was two hundred yards away at a campus building. And I was asking you because I'm terrible with any sort of logistics. And you said it very clearly two football fields away. That's quite a distance. And obviously this person was a good shot, because that isn't an easy shot to make.

00:03:48
Speaker 1: And look from where they said they are saying that he was hit. It was a terrible almost.

00:03:56
Speaker 2: The perfect I mean, he was looking to kill.

00:03:59
Speaker 1: He was looking to kill someone, and you cannot. Again, we talk all the time about and we have had these campus scares, these hoaxes and whatnot, but we've seen campus shootings before and people just unload. You had a crowd there if you wanted to do that kind of damage. And again we're authorities, haven't let us know yet, but there's no other way you can try to find anything other than this was a premeditated, a targeted, a planned attack. To know where he was going to be, know where he was going to be seated, set up, and you would have had to stake out where your location was going to be to make sure you had a straight shot. And again, folks, this is a this is a conservative guy, but this isn't like like he has secret service scout.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: He had personally, he had private security with him. There was according to the news reports, there was no sort of metal detector for students to come and witness or be a part of this rally or this tour that this this appearance he was making where he was talking to students. But it's interesting because in a crowd of students, and according to several news reports, thousands of students were there in the courtyard at Utah Valley University. This is about forty miles south of Salt Lake City, so this is a conservative area in the country. Frankly, so this seemed like a safe space for him to be in to spread his message. But the person who there is a plenty of video circulating as well of the man who police took into custody, and he is not the suspect I think many of us would have imagined. Certainly, it was not a student. In fact, it was an elderly man. He had white hair, he was we don't know exactly how old he was, but at least in his sixties, maybe even in his seventies on his knees, and he looked like everyone's grandfather. Truly, it did not look like some menacing, twisted, tormented person. This looked like a friendly neighbor it did not look like somebody who would be responsible for this atrocity.

00:05:59
Speaker 1: And again we have to be clear, folks, at this point, we do not know. No one knows the who and the why, but we know right now the what and what appears to be a targeted political attack, a targeted political assassination to a certain degree. No, this guy is not holding political office. But if you're not familiar with Charlie Kirk, he is a very high profile conservative and a darling in the MAGA movement. And a big part of that robes is because he was able to do with so many politicians, so many Republicans and Democrats wish they could do, speak to young folks and rally young folks to his cause.

00:06:38
Speaker 2: He has been credited by President Trump himself for helping President Trump get elected this time around by rallying those younger voters through his podcast, through his public speaking events. And yes, this was his first stop on his turning point USA's fourteen city American Comeback Tour, so he was just getting started. This was his first event, was making stops in Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Montana, and others. Stays continuing to rally that younger base that magabase those young Republicans to continue fighting for President Trump's agenda and perhaps the future of the Republican Party.

00:07:14
Speaker 1: And please know, and this is look, a lot of the things and a lot of the misinformation and a lot of the policies that a lot of people have problem with from President Trump are some of the same falsehoods that yes, Charlie Kirk has gone out there and pushed and promoted around the country. Okay, fine and dandy. That's politics, that's rhetoric, and that's what we cannot this, We just can't. Is this just a part of it now? We're just waiting for the next person to be shot? Is this just a part of how we deal with our differences now? Unfortunately it seems like it is, or at least we're going that direction.

00:07:55
Speaker 2: I don't know about you. We haven't actually talked about how we're feeling. We actually have been absorbing this news as the world is in real time. And almost immediately after news of this shooting took place, I heard directly from my college student daughter who is in Colorado, saying, Mom, did you just hear Charlie Kirk has been shot? And she said I'm scared I'm terrified what's going on in this country. And I have to tell you right now, my heart is racing, my heart is hurting. We can all disagree, we can all be even angry at one another's policy. We don't have to like it one bit, and we can do something to try and fight for change, but not in this way. This just seems so appalling and it just it's escalating. I mean, you think about President Trump has already had two assassination attempts on his life and now.

00:08:46
Speaker 1: This, well, if you mentioned your concern and yes, it's a lot of parents out there have kids on campuses, yeah right now. And look, we had those hoaxes going on. I mean I just thought about it with you, like what we talk about, is this a part of what we are in our politics and what we're doing now. Your daughter is in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder, Colorado is where we had the attack, the anti Semitic attack. A guy was trying to burn people.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: Right there on the heart of campus on Pearl Street.

00:09:19
Speaker 1: And what was it, the first full week of campus, campus classes, they had a hoax on the Colorado Boulder campus. These things are coming home, They're at our front door and they are involving our kids. And as we're sitting here now looking up on screen at another moment ago shooting at a Denver area high school and two students are going to the hospital, I'm just saying, at what point do we think we're better than this? Is someone now going to say this is how we deal with our issues? I got a problem with this other left leaning superstar influencer. Oh they're coming to my town. Is this the thing we are giving people now as an option for how we are dealing with our politics? And I'm saying that somewhat rhetorically, but it is. It has to be now a question we have to keep asking ourselves robes, yes, Trump to assassination jumps in the past what eight months?

00:10:28
Speaker 2: Or yes right now? Less than a year? Yeah?

00:10:30
Speaker 1: And a year.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: Look. I think the other issue too is that, Look, we have talked about the struggle with we have to report on these incidents, obviously, but it is scary because you start to give people ideas or give people the option or thinking, hey, this is how I go down in history, and maybe even think that there's somehow, especially in this case, we don't know this man's motivation. We don't know if the man arrested is actually the shooter. None of that has been confirmed, But you have to try to think about whether or not we're actually providing a platform or a space for people to martyr themselves or make their voices known in a way they can't be heard otherwise. So let me speak with my gun. It's just frightening, and I don't know how we can, even as journalists, how we can bring down the temperature and not provide a platform for folks to think that they now can go down in infamy or make their point known to the world by getting international attention by making heinous decisions about acts of violence.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: We weren't going to go those way, but you just made me think of it when you said that. How we go about how journalists report on it and how we report on it. But too often we are a part of the news cycle. I'm just making sure we lump ourselves. Oh absolutely, when what we're talking about it on oftentimes television, conservative and liberal television. When you're you have to the person who says the most outlandish thing gets invited back to be a guest the next day. You gotta get people on TV screaming and yelling each other and promoting these outlandish ideas and nobody's bringing the temperature down. And even today after this shooting, we saw, based on which channel you were watching, that you actually had guests blaming some cuts the President Trump has made in the FBI or moving people around that possibly took people away from roles they could have had and getting prepared for an event like they were making this drawn out connection in some kind of way. Yes, robes blaming President Trump for this shooting today that we immediately went there.

00:12:46
Speaker 2: Well, that's what's so frightening that less than an hour I believe that was less than an hour after the first initial reports came out that Charlie Kirk has been shot. He is certainly fighting for his life. We don't know what condition he's in, but from what any of us have seen in those videos, it's a dire situation. And immediately you're going straight to blaming or finding a way to blame the administration for what's happened or how they could have prevented it. That to me, in less than an hour of the shooting, already we're seeing cable news outlets take a political stance and start pointing fingers already.

00:13:24
Speaker 1: That's just where we are. I mean, like I said, I don't know this hard. This is awful. This guy, this is a young guy, thirty one years old. He's a husband, father of two young kids. I'm not I don't care what he said on stage. I don't give a damn what he's out there promoting. Nothing he said. Has that wife and those two kids deserving of this moment that this man had today. And I hope he's okay. I pray he's okay. I am desperately, desperately trying to find something robes that lets me know that this is not just the beginning, like we're we're just getting started on how violent, how nasty, and even possibly how deadly our politics is going to.

00:14:14
Speaker 2: Be, you know, And it's incredibly alarming. It's very scary. And I also it's interesting you pointed out obviously he toes the line of much of what we hear from President Trump. He says things that upset people, who people wildly disagree with. But as a part of this tour, and I believe this is the section he was on where he has this proved me wrong table. So he's sitting at the table and he's urging people in the audience who disagree with him to debate an issue with him, So he's actually opening it up. I actually have to appreciate the fact that he was, Hey, prove me wrong, say what you think. Let's have a discussion. Let's talk about this. I mean the fact that that was the part of the presentation he was at when he was shot, and it was actually about gun violence. It's just discussing. It's discussing, no matter what he was talking about, no matter what he was saying, but certainly especially given what he was doing and how he was talking about it.

00:15:10
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we'll let you know here next what the president said. He did put out a statement pretty soon after reports of the shooting. Also will let you know what some witnesses are saying that they saw. Continuing here now on Amy and TJ. Charlie Kirk, conservative activists, young conservative activists and pretty much a young conservative MAGA superstar who has helped President Trump along the way. President Trump's even given him credit for getting him elected. He has been shot at an event he was holding, an outdoor event on the campus of Utah Valley University out in Orum, Utah. We don't know how he's doing at this point. But from witnesses and from video, it appears that he was shot around the neck. And from some witness reports we were watching here on TV robes what they were describing just, of course, somebody gets shot, that's bad, but they were describing a pretty dire scene.

00:16:22
Speaker 2: A tremendous amount of blood is what the witnesses said they saw immediately. And for him to have kind of reeled back and slumped over and fallen, it does not sound good. It sounds very concerning, and so of course, as soon as word of this came out, we started hearing from lawmakers, but most notably from President Trump himself.

00:16:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, he said, we must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. God bless him. And this right now has been from both sides, at least as far as politicians political or is. I know California Governor Newsom has already spoken out, but yeah, even huckeing Jeffrey's I believe, is put out.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: Debbick Gifford, who also knows what it's like to be shot.

00:17:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, Democrats and Republicans have all. This is awful. This is we can't do this. The message it sins about how we handle politics these days. We just we have got to be better than this. This is terrifying, terri.

00:17:21
Speaker 2: If you're a if you're a lawmaker, or if you're anyone who has a political viewpoint that is at least you know, I don't even want to say you have strong political beliefs. It's it's scary because you think about perhaps people silencing themselves or being afraid to speak out, or being able to afraid to speak their truth, and you know. Jd. Vance also went on X and he said, say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father, reminding people that yeah, you might not like his politics, you might not like what he has to say, but this is a good man, a young father, a husband, and somebody who was passionate about his political beliefs, whether you like them or not. Utah Senator Mike Lee also said, I'm tracking the situation at Utah Valley University closely. Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk and the students gather their look that look obviously, the focus has to be on Charlie Kirk, his family, and his condition right now. But all of those young people, just as a mom with a daughter nearby in college, I just for them to have to have experienced that, to hear that shot, to have to run for your life, to have it all on camera, and just the fear and the PTSD that has to occur after you've witnessed what they saw. I mean, I don't want to watch the video, but so many of those young young kids saw up close and personal. Some of these kids were ten feet away, twenty feet away. Imagine what they witness They will never be able to unsee that. It's understandable, of course, that the campus has been closed, all classes have been canceled, and they actually have urged all students to go home. I mean, this is traumatic that there's not even a word to describe the trauma that has unfolded on that campus today.

00:19:06
Speaker 1: Youre talking about what they saw. What is every student, every student in this country knows what a gun shot at this point sounds like. So to be in a crowd like that, you hear one shot, what's the first thing. Probably so many of those kids who maybe weren't up close and seeing that maybe Charlie Kirk was hit they didn't know if somebody's gonna open fire, crowd correct their life. They literally were running for their lives today. Yes, the students we got.

00:19:34
Speaker 2: We got. I even you know, some of the videos that have been shown that aren't as graphic, you just you see initially they're just you know, poised on Charlie Kirk, listening to what he had to say, and all of a sudden, once they see or hear the gun, they the video is just like it's showing kids running, I mean, running for their lives. It's disgusting. And then yes, to see the man who was arrested is shocking. We don't know again for sure this is the person, and we don't have word on his name, his age, none of the above, and certainly not his motive. But he was speaking you can see in the video he was kind of arguing with police. And as there have been some witnesses who say they were nearby when he was being arrested and they claimed he was shouting about his rights as he was being arrested. He was there on his knees as police officers took him down.

00:20:20
Speaker 1: But again, folks, at this point, again as of this record, and we do not have official word about the condition of Charlie Kirk, shot today in Utah Utah Valley University during an event there and appears he was shot in the neck. No one else hurt, but they do tell us that they do have a suspect in custody. This was a breaking story we hopped on for. There will be some developments, we imagine if they warrant, we will hop back on for you guys. But please, please, please, you all be a little gentler and how you maybe discuss politics, maybe how you discuss this story. But there's a rhetoric has got to come down rogues because it's getting deadly.

00:21:01
Speaker 2: It's out of control, without a doubt. And yes, we will stay on top of the story and bring you any new developments. But in the meantime, thank you so much for listening. Everybody, stay safe and please, yes, be kind to your neighbors, even those you disagree with. I made Robach alongside TJ. Holmes. Please have a great day, everybody,