Rest in Peace, Charlie Kirk

From the heart of our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., backed by the trusted voices of Team Fox, a clear, fresh voice, cutting through the noise to tell the truth. It's Guy Benson with Guy Benson. It is Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. I'm Guy Benson. Welcome to Guy Benson, everyone. Thanks for tuning in between 3 and 6 p.m. Eastern every weekday, then around the clock for free on our podcast at Guy Benson.com or Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm the political editor at townhall.com and a Fox News contributor. I'm scheduled to be on special report tonight on the panel with Brett Bayer. Fox News Channel 6 p.m. hour hope you will tune in for that. We have a lineup in store for you today with some breaking news that we'll get to. Lucas Tomlinson is standing by. Brett Bayer's scheduled to be on the show today. Katie Pavich will be here, Byron York as well. But we begin with a Fox News alert and some very disturbing news. Charlie Kirk. The founder of Turning Points USA has been shot. He was conducting an event, speaking at an event, at Utah Valley University. There were hundreds, if not a few thousand people there gathered, and at least one shot rang out. There is video circulating of this on social media already. And it appears that Charlie Kirk was shot in the chest or the neck, which of course is extremely, extremely disturbing. We don't have a lot of details. We do know that our colleague, Jason Chaffetz, who is from Utah, was at this event and witnessed it. We are going to bring you some audio of him describing what he saw. But based on the videos that are already out there, as I mentioned, there's at least one gunshot. Charlie has been struck. His condition is unknown. Crowd screams. People start diving for cover. Authorities have told us and informed the press that a suspect is in custody. Turning Point USA confirming that this happened. I mean, it's just beyond obvious, unfortunately, because it happened in front of many, many witnesses. And when Charlie does these events on college campuses, many people have their phones out. He does these sort of famous high-profile debates back and forth where people come and challenge him and he answers back. So people are filming the whole time. I know Charlie a little bit. I've known him actually for years. He's a young guy who was born in the early 90s, 1993, and he started Turning Point USA as this youth organization out of Chicago in Illinois, which is where I got my start. He reached out to me. I want to say he was in high school at the time. I was just beginning my career in Chicago.

And he said, hey, I've got this group. Would you come talk to this room full of young people? And it wasn't a lot of people. But at the time, I remember saying, oh, this is a pretty good crowd, high school age students. And the idea was to introduce these kids, these students to conservative ideas. I think I was maybe the first or one of the first speakers he ever invited. to a turning point event long before it was this huge national juggernaut with a huge budget and pyrotechnics and on the radar very much of President Trump and all of that. It started small. It started with Charlie. And he approached me and asked me to come and I did. And over the years, I went to a number of turning point events and spoke. And I know that Charlie is very provocative. He has strong opinions. I agree with many of those opinions, sometimes disagree, but he was someone who cared a lot about the country and still does, but he has for a long time. From really the earliest days, he didn't go to college because of this deep-seated conviction that he could make a difference when it comes to young people, young Americans in this country. And he has devoted his entire adult life to the cause. And to see this news crossing minutes ago that he has been shot apparently very seriously at a public event in Utah, Utah Valley University, it's, honestly, it's difficult to be sitting here bringing you this news at all. I'd prefer to be sitting quietly by myself and praying for him. But we have a show to do here, and I would just say this. If you are someone who believes in prayer, Charlie certainly does. I would ask that you pray. If that means turning off your radio or pausing this show, I don't usually encourage that, but it's okay here today. Please say a prayer for Charlie. We don't know what his condition is based solely on the reports of the video. And I'm really avoiding watching it just like I've avoided watching the full video out of Charlotte, North Carolina, some things you cannot unsee. But based on eyewitness reactions, eyewitness testimony in some of these videos that people are at least describing and many of them are sharing. I think Charlie Kirk's life is in grave, grave danger right now. So if you are the praying type, please extend your prayers for him, for his family, for everyone involved. We don't know very much. Right. So I want to be careful and I want to be responsible. I don't want to speculate. We know that there is a suspect in custody and a parent shooter in custody. We know that Charlie's politics are very public and brash and unapologetic. And he rankled a lot of people based on those beliefs. Whether that is what motivated this, we don't know. Would I be surprised at all? Absolutely not. Would that be my number one suspicion in terms of a motive? Yes, it would be. But we don't know.

I would again ask everyone listening to me. If it aligns with your faith and your values, please pray. Jason Chafetz, our colleague, as I said, was there. He was at this event at Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk, if you're just joining us, the founder of Turning Point USA, conservative activists, very plugged in with the Trump administration. He has been shot extremely seriously. like something very evil just happened minutes ago. We don't know if Charlie is still alive. We don't know. We pray that he is. We pray that he will survive this for him, for his family, for his wife, for his kid, for everyone who loves him. We know that an alleged shooter or suspect has been taken into custody. And that's about all we have at this hour. So with that and with just a pit in my stomach, we will step aside. We will take our first break of the show today. There's a lot of other news happening in the world. Major news out of the Middle East that we started to cover yesterday, some very concerning developments in Europe last night with Russian drones violating NATO airspace into Poland. What does that mean? I mean, there are many, many very important things to discuss today. It's just difficult to start moving on to anything else as we open today's show, given this information that... came to our attention, the news that broke literally minutes before we went live here on Guy Benson. Charlie has been on this show, by the way. When I had my very first show back in Chicago as basically a kid, he was on that show. As I said, Charlie and I go back many years. So I am just distraught and disturbed. to report that he has been shot. His condition is unknown. There's a suspect in custody at this terrible incident at Utah Valley University. We will be following this and bringing you as much information as we get it. We are going to try to vet the information and be responsible about it, but we know this is a very, very bad development, regardless of the outcome. So as we send this to break, once again, Please consider praying for Charlie Kirk. It's Guy Benson. Stay tuned. Miss a minute. Miss a lot. Guy Benson. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FN Radio 20. 20%. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 older to order. Please drink responsibly.

I'm Guy Benson. We are back. If you're just joining us, I'm afraid we have grim news that we're reporting here as we've come on the air on this Wednesday. Charlie Kirk, who is the founder of Turning Point USA, which has become a huge, huge force in the conservative movement in the Republican politics space. Charlie has been shot and very, very seriously wounded. at an event in Utah. He was speaking at Utah Valley University, big crowd. And at least one shot rang out. Right now I'm seeing reports of one single shot. Apparently from a building, an elevated space about 200 yards away from where Charlie was speaking. There's an outdoor event. And... panic and chaos ensued people running in every direction. Charlie is in a condition that we don't know. There are rumors all over the place. Some of them scary, some of them hopeful. I don't know what is true. I know some people who have actually seen there's video of it, and I'm going to really try to avoid watching some of this video, honestly. I just don't think I can take it. But based on some people that I know and trust who have seen it, the prognosis one way or the other is going to be extremely dire. I've seen some people saying that it might be a miracle if he survives. If that is true, let us pray for a miracle. The type of... Hatred that has been directed Charlie's way over politics is very public. It's been ubiquitous. So there is very much a reasonable suspicion here about considering that this seems to have been an intentional, a very intentional assassination effort. What might have motivated. this would be assassin to do what he or she did. I, again, I'm imagining it's probably a he, although that is not confirmed. I don't want to immediately leap to that conclusion. We know that the authorities do have a suspect in custody. So this was not, you know, a random spray of bullets, mass shooting and then, you know, turning the gun on himself situation. We see that sometimes. This was. reportedly as of now a single shot cold calculated right into the center of charlie kirk's upper chest or neck and the suspect apparently is alive and in custody we pray to god that charlie is alive and remains alive He's a young man in his 30s. As I mentioned in the opening segment, he's married. He's a young father. I don't care if you are a turning point USA devotee who goes to every conference and student action summit available and you idolize Charlie Kirk or if you're a leftist who can't stand him and think he's all that's wrong with the country.

Seeing political violence, which at least for now seems quite likely on the heels of other examples of political violence, targeted violence against people because of their views or because of their identity, it feels like it's almost becoming somewhat commonplace in this country. And it cannot. That cannot be. an acceptable status quo in this country. We cannot have this. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, seriously wounded at an event in Utah. We're following it with the breaking news on Guy Benson. New talk for a new generation, Guy Benson. We're back. It's Guy Benson. Fox News Alert. We are following a story out of Utah, Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, has been shot. Apparently in the neck or chest, witnesses saying there was a single gunshot. And... There's video of this that I am scrupulously avoiding. Extremely, extremely disturbing. And based on reports and descriptions, it is safe to say that Charlie is, if he is still with us, is fighting for his life. And we have been urging this audience to please pray. For Charlie, he's a young man in his 30s married. I believe he has two kids, if I'm not mistaken. Father of two. Young kids. New York Times reporting that a spokeswoman for Utah Valley University where this happened said that Kirk was struck by a suspect, a bullet from a suspect from a gun that was fired from the low sea center, which is a building about 200 yards away. suspect had been taken into custody. She said the suspect was not a student. And in fact, there are now images of the alleged suspect circulating on social media. And based on these photographs, which also match other suspects descriptions, this looks like a man, I would say, in his 60s or 70s, bald head, white hair, glasses. It looks like he's wearing a blue shirt and some shorts. And he's down sort of on the ground here being handcuffed is the image that I have seen. And we don't have any information about Charlie's condition. We don't have any information about who this person is. We don't have any information about motive, although one might certainly guess. Joining us now. back on the program we usually don't have guests on multiple times in a week but exceptions are made this is one of them and we

Just offer our apologies. I know that we had Lucas Tomlinson teed up to talk about a very serious issue in Europe and Russian aggression, apparently, over Poland. That is something that we will still cover. It's just there's so much news breaking. Brett Bayer had to reschedule for reasons that are obvious with this breaking news. I'm scheduled to be on Brett's show tonight on the panel. We'll see if that actually comes to fruition with this news. A fellow panelist, at least scheduled to be on the show with me tonight. is our dear friend, best friend of the program, Fox News contributor, Mary Catherine Ham. Mary Catherine. Welcome back. Your thoughts so far. Yeah, this is personal for both of us. So in addition to the horrific... act that took place and the people suffering from it, we know the people who are suffering. And I'm praying so hard for him and for whoever is taking care of him right now, if that is happening, and his family and whoever is with them right now, with his children, with his wife. So first and foremost, we pray. That's the most important answer in a moment like this. It is Shocking. I think it's such a horrific moment. We've seen, again, as you say, technically we do not know a motive, but this certainly looks like political violence. We do the same job that Charlie does. I do not understand the urge to even like... to do anything of harm to people who disagree with you. It is so beyond me because I have grown up my entire life with people who disagree with me and had tough and loving, and by the way, have disagreed with Charlie, right? Yeah. And I've had tough and loving and good conversations and a little sideways conversations depending on the day and depending on the people. And when it evolves to this. It's so ugly. And I think between this and the Charlotte story, there's... We live in a fallen world. I know that. I'm a person of faith, but it can become very overwhelming at times. And I would also just say on a practical level for anybody who's on social media right now. If you do not wish to see video, this is a lesson learned the hard way from the Charlotte story for me. Turn off auto play on your phone and your devices so that you don't run across it by accident, so that your kids don't run across it by accident while this is happening. Because it spreads very fast, and there's not a lot of filter for that. Mary Catherine, I want to continue this conversation, but I did mention that our colleague at Fox, Jason Chafetz, former Utah Congressman, he lives out in Utah. He was at this event with Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, and he called in within minutes to America reports on the Fox News Channel to report to the country what he saw. This was, again, like less than an hour ago, cut 29. He got to the second question, which was about.

30 minutes into his presentation, 2.30 local time. And the question was about transgender shooters, mass killings, versus people that weren't transgender. And when that happened, when that question came out and he's going to have the interaction, one shot, I was watching Charlie. I can't say that I saw blood. I can't say that I saw... him get hit but i did see him fall immediately backwards into his left i mean it's disturbing doesn't even really begin to describe it mary katherine and the the subject of the question i mean you're talking about you know the charlotte north carolina murder and you and i talked about that on this show earlier in the week were also not at all removed very far from the situation in Minneapolis, where Christian children were targeted and some killed. Because they were Christian, it would seem, by someone who was very demented, who happened to be a trans shooter, the second such shooter at a Christian school in a matter of just two or three years. I think it was just the last two years. And there were difficult conversations around that as well. Charlie got a question about it. I'm sure what he has said on those issues have upset some people. But back to your point, we cannot have a country and a society where violence and murder or attempted murder are like in any way expected. And yet it kind of feels like things have gone out of control and accelerated on that particular front. I mean, you were giving a few examples. I also mentioned earlier in the show Donald Trump being shot at a rally. And by the grace of God surviving because he turned his head. I mean, he barely survived that. That was. Clearly, you know, a politically motivated assassination attempt. There was another assassination attempt against him weeks later. That was prior to the election. There's, I just, I have this sinking, sick feeling not just for Charlie and his family, who were at the forefront of my mind and I know yours as well, but for our country. This is, this feels dark and getting darker. Yeah, I think it feels like a moment. It feels like there's something bad brewing, and it's like almost because it's Trump and because he miraculously escaped, two assassination tips, one particularly miraculously. And because, frankly, national media isn't interested in giving him sympathetic coverage, those were much smaller stories than they should have been. I look back and I go, I've sort of edited it out for a while, right? Like I'll forget that it happened. And it's deeply important that these things happened. And if you sort of let them ride, then I don't know, like it becomes an environment in which certain media commentators can say this is all coming from one side, right?

And I don't want to jump to that. I anticipate that we will see irresponsible and bad coverage. I don't want to be part of it by speculating. I'm just saying that there does seem to be a lack of taking accountability sometimes for these things. And that leads to the idea that people can do this either without cost or even with lauding. I mean, frankly, our friend Greg Lukianoff, who's the head of fire, which is a free speech organization, he says, as we do, we want maximal tolerance for difference of opinion and no tolerance for violence. That's what we want. And we've seen for years now on college campuses the opposite, right? Minimal tolerance for difference of opinion. A lot of tolerance for violence. And that starts to build. And when people are violent toward a difference of opinion, speakers get scared to speak. And then the people who are violent go, well, that's the way to get them to shut up. And if they're not afraid, and if they're not afraid, and they won't shut up, like Charlie Kirk. someone decided the course of action would be to shoot this man, this young father in the neck, or in the chest, which is what happened a little over an hour ago is the report out in Utah, Utah Valley University. And Mary Catherine, you said something when we brought you in that you and I are in sort of the same. space or industry as Charlie is. And he does, he runs an organization. He's much more explicitly political and partisan than I think we are, but he's very much all over media. He has, you know, a radio show and he has been on Fox News, of course, many times. I mentioned he's been on this show. I've known him for years. It is impossible, I think, for someone, I'll speak for myself. It is impossible for me not to think about. You know, could this happen to any of us? You know, if this is now how it's going, we're political candidates or political commentators that anger certain people find themselves getting bullets flying in their direction. I mean, it is, it is scary, right? It's frightening. It's very upsetting. It's also. so so pernicious and insidious and destructive to our politics and to our country right i mean if you have people afraid of physical violence for speaking words that offend people or might offend people i And again, we don't officially know what happened here. But, I mean, the overwhelming, I would say probability, at least, you know, if you were a detective trying to glean a possible motive, the very first thing at the top of the list with everything else much, much farther down, would be politics here. So based on this little limited information that we currently have, Mary Catherine, I know that there are a lot of people.

In our line of work, not trying to make it about us or play the victim at all. This is about what happened to Charlie. But I worry about the impact, the potential chilling impact in terms of free speech and open, sometimes raucous political discourse. And I worry about a country where it feels like there are people being shot and killed for their... or, you know, attempted to be killed for their beliefs, this could, as awful and ugly as this is, it could get somehow worse if this metastasizes even further. No, I think in some ways I look back at the first assassination attempt on Trump, and it's shocking that I have to say first. And I think because he turned his head, we were spared. a great conflagration and falling apart in that moment. But I'm not sure how long we will be spared it if this keeps happening. Mary Catherine. What worries me. Yeah. Mary Catherine, please stand by. We're going to take a quick break here as we're monitoring this. horrifying story out of Utah. Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and political figure and commentator, founder of Turning Point USA, has been shot. He's been very seriously wounded. That's all we have. There's a suspect in custody. When we come back, Tommy Leran, our colleague here at Fox News, who knows Charlie as well, she will be joining us on the show right after this break. Not the same talking points here, but Guy Benson's show.

We continue it's Guy Benson as we are following just awful news out of Utah, where Charlie Kirk, the conservative activists and media figure, has been shot and very seriously wounded during an event at Utah Valley University. Tommy Laren is a Fox News contributor. She knows Charlie. She joins us now here on Guy Benson. Tommy, we're glad to have you back. We are not glad to have you under these circumstances. Tell us what you're thinking. So, Guy, I mean, like everybody else that knows Charlie, I'm just absolutely stunned like this doesn't feel real. I've known Charlie for over a decade. Back when he started TPP USA, I was kind of one of the first speakers that he had, and we did a lot of events together, and he was always so supportive of me. And since then, I've done a lot of Turning Point USA events on college campuses. You know, for me, it's even more shocking and surreal because I've done these events where we've had to worry about security. And I've done events where we've had to, you know, close the doors and call the SWAT team. That's happened to me more than once, unfortunately. So it's just so disturbing to me, not only what happened to Charlie, but just this time that we're in right now where conservative speakers can't even engage in conversation at a university. fearing for their lives. And there's no amount of security that makes it safe to do this anymore. And that's a realization that I'm coming to grips with now. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, you are very much. a figure in media who gets a lot of attention and people want to hear from you and people like to disagree with you or even hate you and you know there have been these incidents especially on campuses now for years Tommy that we've talked about where people demand that speakers be canceled and they'll make threats and they'll you know break down the doors to an event and the event gets canceled this is next level evil right and it feels like if there's some sort of sliding scale if we're going to accept cancellations based on threats it kind of almost felt like a matter of time before there would be actual violence, right? Because Charlie Kirk was not going to have his events canceled. Charlie Kirk was going to show up at a tent outside in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of people, and take these questions and mix it up and say things that a lot of people will love and a lot of people won't. And that's how free speech works. And here we have an example of what many people are. at least believed to be, Tommy, political violence. That's the obvious motive that would come to mind. And it's like it feels both horrifying and in some ways inevitable too. I'll give you the last word, Tommy.

Yeah, there's so many things that are disturbing about this. I mean, first and foremost, for Charlie and for his family, and we're all just praying that he can make it out of this. But I also say it's so hard when you are somebody like myself and so many other speakers, we don't ever want to cancel an event. We don't ever want to have that chilling effective. Oh, we don't want to do it because we're scared. You know, we always feel so invisible. No, I want to do it. I want to speak and I want to fight the good fight. I mean, this just puts it in perspective, especially for Charlie, who's got such a young family. I just can't imagine the horror that they're feeling right now. So everybody will just join in praying for him and his family. And I just so hope that he's okay. Yeah. Thank you for that, Tommy. Agreed. Well said. Another hour of Guy Benson upcoming. We're on this story. Please stay with us. generation of conservative talk right here right now fair fun and backed by the trusted voices and reporting resources of fox news you're listening to Guy Benson and now here's your host Guy Benson

A new hour of Guy Benson is here on this Wednesday. Thank you for tuning in. Guy Benson.com, our website, our podcast, is always free. I'm scheduled to appear this evening on special report on Fox News Channel 6 p.m. hour Eastern time. I will see with the breaking news how that all shakes out, but hope to see you there regardless. Guy Benson.com, the website here, just reiterating that. I want to share with you a statement that has been put out by Salem Media Group. which is the parent company of townhall.com where I also work. I'm the political editor there. I've worked as a Salem employee since 2008. I've been there a long time. Charlie Kirk is also employed by Salem. He's got a radio show there. Quote, we are closely monitoring the tragic news regarding Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are heavy for Charlie, his family, his friends, and all those impacted at Utah Valley University. As a Salem family. We lift him up and his loved ones up in prayer asking God for healing, strength, and protection during this difficult time. That comes from the CEO of Salem Media Group, Dave Santrella. Dave is a guy that I know. Dave was the first person to hire me in my career in Chicago, which is also where I met Charlie Kirk, when he was a very young guy, I think still in his teens, starting this little group called Turning Point. and did some speaking for him locally there. And of course, that's grown into this influential behemoth of an organization. He was the founder. He's still the leader of it. And he was shot earlier today during an event, a big public event outdoors at Utah Valley University. The Associated Press is reporting that Kirk is now in critical condition. And you go. online and you see all different rumors and conflicting reports and people, even some big names saying one thing and other people reporting other things, the Associated Press at least out there saying he's in critical condition, God help him. Shannon Bream is with us. Shannon Bream, anchor of Fox News Sunday. Shannon, it's sometimes, you know, hard to find words in moments like this. To some extent, we all know or know of Charlie. And it's almost hard to believe that this is real and that this happened. So it is both surreal and unimaginable and somehow simultaneously very real and quite imaginable, given this climate that we've been living in for a while now, but especially recently. I just want to get some of your thoughts as we're all just grappling with this in real time. Yeah, I think praying for him is the right answer to everything and everyone who's wondering what they can do at this moment. I met him for the first time years ago. when he was really young, like I want to say 21, 22, and you could already see this enormous conviction and passion in him. He wasn't going the traditional route of going to college because he had decided for me to go on these campuses and for me to get out there and fight for what I think is important and to get this message to young people. He'd already made that career path choice. And I was just struck by how.

together he was as such a young guy. I'm thinking myself at 21. I was not that focused on a message and on a passion. So just really impressed with his conviction at that young age to know what he was doing, the path he had chosen, and what he believed in. And he just was taking a different path. And, you know, he is the kind of person that... You know, everybody should be rooting for him at this moment. You think of his precious wife and his young kids. And I am heartbroken for him. I believe in miracles. You know my sweet assistant, Sammy, called her into my office and we got on her knees and prayed. I don't know anything else to do to pray for a miracle. And I do worry more broadly about this country and about where we are and our ability to have conversations and disagree and not resort to this kind of thing. And it feels like a very deep... Deep divide. I think I've been around the country. I was in Boston for an event a few days ago. I was in Mississippi for an event yesterday. And I get the same kinds of questions. I'm sure you do too when you're out in public when people say like, how do we come back from this? We're so, so divided. And this country has been in dark, terrible places before. And we have found our way back to each other. And I can only pray that this moment that Charlie's life will be spared and that hopefully it is a wake up call for us. to have very real conversations with each other about just how unacceptable this level of violence and rhetoric has gotten. You'll find in the midst of anything happening on social media online. people reacting terribly, right? That when you have everyone with access to just impulsively put out into the universe what they're feeling at any given moment, some people in the face of horrific events like this are going to behave terribly. And of course, we're seeing some of that already. Celebrations in certain areas. They're happy and excited that this has happened. I think I hope. That represents a small fringe in our country. That said, we also saw on one of our competitors and on our commentator, I mean, he hasn't been, the news broke less than an hour ago. At this point, a little over an hour now. But this is a very, very fresh news and information. And someone went on the air on. a news channel and was saying, well, maybe his hateful rhetoric begets hateful conduct, like kind of victim blaming already. That's not the fever swamps of the internet. That's, that's... Did you be willing to put your face in name behind that statement in this moment? It's just crushing to me that we are at that place. We should never wish...

On our worst ideological enemy, any kind of harm. One of the first tweets I saw was praying for the worst. And again, it makes me feel like we are so broken. And if you're not brokenhearted over this left, right, or center. You need to do a check on your soul. We should never be rooting for our ideological enemies to come to any harm. Yeah, we're seeing a number of statements put out on social media by elected officials from both political parties and the statements are appropriate, right? We're seeing these elected officials and leaders, Republicans and Democrats who are. saying the right things. Not everyone is. And I mean, wishing physical harm or death on someone over political disagreements is just, I mean, it's evil, actually. It's quite evil. And, you know, I'm just just thinking about, you know, if I had to rack my brain and think about a political commentator that I dislike the most, never, never would I hope anything like this would happen to them. And I just... I can't really process the depravity of that sort of reaction. And then the other reaction that I was mentioning from MSNBC was this idea that, well, maybe somehow he kind of brought this on himself through his, you know, hate speech, quote and quote, having aggressive, difficult, sometimes messy conversations. is free speech. It's what we do in this country. And if one of your, as a responsible on-air person, someone in this industry, one of your first ideas is to go on the air and be like, well, maybe he kind of brought it on himself. It's just, it's despicable. It's so irresponsible. But I think the reason I'm even mentioning it all, because unfortunately, I think there's going to be a deluge of darkness on that front. The reason I bring it up is because I think it goes to something sick in our society where speech and disagreement has now turned into this extra level of hostile where it's like, you know, we went to cancel people and literally cancel events or whatever, try to destroy people's livelihoods and say, you know, this person cannot, we cannot listen to their words. And unfortunately, if you start to normalize that kind of thing and you start to normalize some of the rhetoric that's out there and the words and the attacks, you start to feel like we are going to get to violence. And not even just eventually. I mean, you and I were on the air together within minutes of President Trump being shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. Last summer at the convention, you were doing the breaking news coverage. They raced me down there. And I feel. very similarly, except by that point we had some sense that Trump was probably going to be okay because he got back up and like some statements. Charlie did not get back up. No, he didn't. Charlie is in critical condition according to the Associated Press and I just, there's only so many things you can say in a moment like this, especially absent more facts. Yeah. But we have to talk about it and we're trying to do it in a way that is respectful.

and responsible here. I'm glad that you mentioned that you and your assistant said a prayer. Yeah. I've been urging people to do the same throughout today's show. It comes back to a conversation that we had nationally, what, a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, about whether prayer is an appropriate response. Because we had a lot of elected officials saying, actually, no, you know, prayers aren't good enough or prayers aren't welcome here because it's not action. You can do both. Like right now, praying that he is alive in this critical condition, obviously you want a medical team working second by second to save his life. So it's not, we're going to pray and not do anything. Just like, you know, the situation in the shooting in Minneapolis. You don't say, I'm just going to pray and not have conversations about policy or anything else. You can act, but you can pray. I don't think there's anything more powerful than praying personally. You know me as a person of faith. Charlie would agree. Yes. Charlie would. He was devout in his faith, is devout in his faith. But that does not stand alone. We are called to act as well. And so it's not just the idea of prayer and sitting back. So when people say, oh, thoughts and prayers, it's so crazy and stupid and active, it doesn't stand alone. And I think any sane person realizes there's more to that equation. We know that there's a suspect in custody here. I've seen photos of the alleged suspect, the shooter here. The police and the school, because there's at a university saying that it appeared that it's basically a sniper situation with an older man who was perched on a building or at some sort of a building in this complex about 200 yards away. He looks... maybe 60s, 70s, bald head, white hair, blue shirt, white man. And I see there's a video of him under arrest asking to be shot. So there's obviously... Well, and I was heartened in some way, not that there's anything... encouraging about this at this moment, but just that the shooter is in custody so often they take their own lives or they are engaged in a gunfight with law enforcement that needs to neutralize them. But I feel like I want to hear from this person. I want you to see what you've done. And I want to hold you accountable. I feel like taking your own life is the coward's way out, just like we saw with the Minneapolis shooter. I'm... I'm always glad to see that the shooter is going to have to stick around for the aftermath. You were talking about the importance of prayer, the power of prayer. And then in addition, taking action, you're sort of left wondering what does action look like. I mean, this was a young guy, father of two, outdoors on a beautiful day in Utah. talking about politics and taking Q&A and getting shot in the neck. You know, some people will immediately go to the firearm. Other people will go to, you know, political violence in the climate of hate. And there certainly was a lot of hatred directed at this man. And here it appears to have manifested in this sniper's bullet.

And he undoubtedly, he's got security. We know that. I mean, Charlie travels with security, but you talk about a sniper situation. And we all know. Which you expect for maybe like, you know, a politician. You need to guard against that, like a major world leader, not a political speaker or a punded out, you know, doing a public event. You might have a bodyguard here or there to make sure someone doesn't rush the stage and try to take a swipe at you or something. It's not like, you know, a sniper situation that I think you would ever anticipate. You and I know any time that we go to an event that has a president, a vice president, a very high profile politician, there is a sweep of the campus. Roofs are generally covered, locked down, those kinds of things. If they're going to be in an open-and-air situation, that's not the kind of security protocol that Charlie would have likely had. No, of course not. And he yet kept showing up. He shouldn't. No, no, no, we shouldn't ever have to have that kind of coverage. But he showed up and he had very uncomfortable conversations. So to me, the action part of it is being willing to have the difficult conversations and to normalize having difficult conversations. A couple of my favorite people are Robbie George and Cornell West, two professors at Princeton, could not be more ideologically opposed on politics, the best of friends. They have knocked down, dragout conversations. They do this publicly. They invite people into these really difficult heated conversations. And then they walk away and say, I love you, brother. And if we can't get back to that place, I mean, for me, I believe everyone's created in the image of God. One of the things that Professor George says is you've got to walk into these conversations with some basic level of respect and the open mind that maybe you're the one who's wrong. I have to walk into a conversation with somebody I disagree with to say, maybe it's me. Maybe there's something I can learn from this person. But when a wedge is driven so deeply that we have family members and friends who no longer talk to each other because of politics, they can't do Thanksgiving together. We're broken. That's not normal. It's not healthy. And we have to find a way to come back from the precipice. We have to. Yeah. And this is. This is next level broken, right? Having speakers disinvited or, you know, Thanksgiving dinners segregated or canceled. I mean, that is one level of broken. This is another level of broken. This is a deeper, darker level of broken. If you're just joining us, Shannon Bream is our guest. She is the anchor of Fox News Sunday. And we are just reacting in real time to the very serious shooting of Charlie Kirk. Turning Point USA founder at an event at Utah Valley University. He is reportedly in critical condition. I see another network is reporting that the suspect is not in custody. I think that's probably a typo or an error because we've seen him in custody or there's apparently some news on that front. According to the New York Times, all right, so let me bring this to you. New York Times now reporting. that the man who was taken into custody was not the shooter. Okay. According to police. So initially, the school said the shooter was in custody. They did. And you had this man in handcuffs, the person I described in his 60s or 70s. Now the police are saying that was not the shooter.

reading now from the Times, this just broke moments ago. The police have determined that a person who was taken into custody after the shooting was not actually the shooter. The university had earlier said the suspect was in custody, so evidently that was incorrectly reported by the school and then others. So we've got to break, Shen. Let's take the break very quickly. It's Guy Benson. Stay with us. Same issues, but with a fresh perspective. Guy Benson. We're back here on Guy Benson. We are covering the breaking news at Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA has been shot and is very seriously wounded out in Utah at an event. Shannon Bream, our guest here in studio, anchor of Fox News Sunday. We went really long, Shannon. So apologies, just very quickly, a final thought for now. Yeah, I would just say at moments like this, we can't make sense of what is happening. But I'm always driven to the verse. Psalm 3418, God is close to the brokenhearted and to those who are crushed in spirit. So please just keep praying. Thank you for that. Shannon Bream. Our guest here on Guy Benson, we have Martha McCallum standing by. She will be joining us coming up in the next segment. Just terrible, terrible gut-wrenching news out of Utah where Charlie Kirk has been shot in the neck. And we will continue our coverage after this break.

Guy Benson, sponsored by Previgin. Previgin, made for your brain. We are halfway through a very, very difficult edition of Guy Benson on this Wednesday. As we've been reporting from the moment we came on the air, Charlie Kirk, who is the founder of Turning Point USA, a man in his 30s, a young husband and father of two has been shot in the neck. at an event in Utah, Utah Valley University. Witnesses, including our colleague Jason Chaffet, saying that it was one shot, appears to be a sniper situation and at least an attempted assassination. That's what this looks like. Now, we had reported several times that there is a suspect in custody, and we even described him because there were images of this person and the school, the university, had put out an official statement saying that the suspect was in custody. Then minutes ago, that all changed. Apparently, those were incorrect reports, and the school had put out a statement that was not confirmed, and now officials are saying the suspect is not in custody. So whoever shot Charlie Kirk earlier this afternoon is evidently still at large. Joining us now is Martha McCallum. She's the anchor of the story on Fox News channel. She just got off the air a few minutes ago, a co-anchor of Fox News politics. Martha, it's always good to have you here. These are extremely upsetting circumstances. We don't have a lot of reliable information. We have lots of rumors. We have lots of speculation. We even had an official... report now rescinded about the suspect and it's really difficult to find the words in moments like this. Yeah. Well, Guy, thank you for having me. It is a terrible, terrible afternoon and just an awful story to have to cover. And our understanding is that he is in critical condition. And I think that that is a moment for everyone to pray for him, regardless of your political backgrounds. This is a young man who has... really brought a lot of joy and a lot of insight to a lot of young people and has engaged them in the political process in a way that they were not engaged before. And I look at this video of him getting up to speak today at one of his Proves Me Wrong, which are always, you know, entertaining and interesting events.

on college campus is huge smile on his face. He's throwing hats to the crowd. He's a young father. He's someone that we all really need to pray for today and just hope for a miracle and hope for him to pull through. And I think that that's where we are. And as you mentioned, the suspect, and I'm, you know, I said on our program, the story just moments ago when we started, you know, they had a suspect in custody. And I think that. That's important to point out in these fast-moving stories. A suspect does not mean it is the person. And then it was interesting because we had a witness who was, you know, very emotionally talking to a local reporter on the ground and named the person and said, you know, he's a little, he's a little off, he's a little nutty, but it wasn't him. I don't think he did it. And lo and behold, you know, moments later, we heard that they, the report that they said that they do not have the suspect in custody. So he's still out there somewhere, as you said, Guy. Yeah, I'm kind of astonished that the school put that out there. And, of course, you know, suspect inherently is talking about as someone who is suspected of something, not confirmed. But evidently, they've now decided the person that they had put into custody. They've determined, and we don't know exactly how or why, did not pull the trigger here, which then, you know, Martha, it's another extremely concerning angle to this in terms of public safety right now. There's a very dangerous, would-be assassin or attempted murderer armed on the loose. in or around that campus area right now. I mean, that is, that is an active part of this story as well. Yeah, it sure is, Guy. And I'm looking at this live shot on one of the other networks of a bunch of SWAT team agents surrounding a building. It looks like it's a campus building. There's a tennis court right nearby. So these law enforcement in Orem, Utah, is dealing with an incredibly intense situation right now. They need to find out who the shooter was. The other thing that... It looked like the guy that they took down, it was hard to tell whether he was on the lower part of that area where Jason J. Fitz felt that the shock came from the front of where he was speaking, you know, lower and closer in. And then the university said that they...

believed it was coming from a couple hundred yards away. Right, 200 yards away at a building. I mean, it's such a close area. And he was down low and under a tent. It's a very, you know, I'm not someone who's very familiar with guns, but Jason Chaffetz is. And he said it's just a very difficult. to imagine that someone high up could have gotten that shot from where they were, given that this is an amphitheater situation. It goes down into a central point, and he was under a tent. But anyway, the most important thing is that we're just praying that he can recover and go home to his wife and his children. You mentioned that there are these overhead images where it looks like at least staging of law enforcement at or near a building. And you just have no idea. Could there be intelligent that there's a suspect hold up somewhere and they have to go sweep or clear a building? Or are they just guessing and going building to building? Could this person be in a getaway car somewhere? We have no idea. That's one angle to this. So the law enforcement side and the active public safety threat. seems to still be in place on this campus at Utah Valley University. And then you have the personal side of this, Martha. I think many, many, many of us here at Fox know Charlie to some extent. He's been on our air many times. He, I've known him going way back to the very beginning of both of our careers in Chicago. in 2009, 2010, I mean, way back. And you look at now he's a young man with a wife. He has two young kids. And you see the reports that he's been shot in the neck. And you just pray that the worst does not come to pass. And the people who are working to save his life are successful. And you have just, I can't imagine. what is happening in his household with his family, his extended family, his friends, all of that. And then you zoom out, you know, from the individual to the country, Martha. And I mean, I'm sure your phone's blowing up the way mine is. There's so many people just saying that there's something really wrong and broken in our country right now. And it's hard to argue with that. You know, the past two days we spent covering this brutal murder of this young woman from Ukraine on a light rail train on her way home from her job at a pizza place in Charlotte, North Carolina. And we watched the U.S. attorney. Hey, Martha. Yes. Martha, I just have to jump in here. We're now seeing a message from President Trump that Charlie is gone. That according to President Trump on truth social moments ago, I was just informed that the president put that out there. And we cannot independently confirm that. Let me just say that. But now the President of the United States has put that out there, Martha. So I just wanted to let our audience know that.

He says the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. That's the first sentence of this message on Truth Social moments ago from President Trump. Martha, that is brutal. It is absolutely, absolutely heartbreaking. And, yeah, President Trump. You know, we know that they have all been in the situation room. I was supposed to have vice president on my show tomorrow, and he canceled moments ago, and it may be because they were getting ready to report this. He's very close to Charlie Kirk. The Trump family is very close to Charlie Kirk. I'm looking at all the different screens and waiting for this to drop on our air as well. But as you say, this. From President Trump, the great and 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 is no longer with us, Melania. And my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica and family. Charlie, we love you, is the message from. President Trump, and now we see that it's crossing on a number of networks that Charlie Kirk did not survive this shooting today at Utah Valley University where he was speaking to students. He was jubilant. He was smiling as he took the stage, and this is just an absolute, absolute loss and tragedy. I mean, it's just you feel you feel. gutted, you feel sickened. We were praying for what felt like a miracle. And based on now the report from the President of the United States, Donald Trump announcing that Charlie Kirk, with whom he was quite close, they worked closely together, Trump announcing on truth social moments ago that Charlie Kirk succumbed to that gunshot wound, he was shot in the neck, which is...

terrible and according to the president of the united states he didn't make it and as we said this is this is not just you know some political commentator it's not some partisan partisan cartoon character this is a human being with a family and a wife and two young kids it's just it is Got wrenching. It truly is gut wrenching. I remember seeing him speaking at the Republican National Convention, and one of the things that always struck me about Charlie was his smile and his optimism. I think he was the epitome of the happy warrior. He loved being in the arena, and he loved encouraging young people to think he dropped out of college because he wanted to get an education. He educated himself in the arena, and these images of his beautiful children and his wife. We have an image on screen right now that looks like Jerusalem to me, and them on the beach. I mean, this is just a really, really, really tough day. Yeah, and it was terrible to bring the news to this audience that this had happened at all and then to get what we all feared and hoped would not be the case. And to have it relayed by the president of the United States, there's not much to say. And this story now becomes, this is an assassination. Charlie Kirk has been assassinated. He's been assassinated. And I don't think there's any way to look at it other than that. We have so little information about who might have done this. We can guess, you know, Martha, we can guess about why. I think the why. seems obvious, but we have to say, right, it's not confirmed. We don't know what we don't know. And we can make a very highly educated guess and think about probabilities and think about the state of play in this country and the climate in our politics. And I think it's, it all points very strongly in one direction. But it's hard and you don't want to make any overly declarative statements about things based on partial information. This now turns from a discussion of a very serious violent incident and a shooting to a murder and an assassination as Charlie Kirk, according to President Trump, has died after being shot in the neck earlier this afternoon at Utah Valley University during one of his signature events. He crisscrossed the country doing these events, speaking with people, debating people, arguing with people. And the founder of Turning Point USA, a young man in his 30s with a young family, is gone. Martha, I think we should probably take a break. Thank you for your time, Martha. Thank you. And God bless his family.

JD Vance, just posting moments ago, eternal rest, grant him, O Lord, grant unto him, O Lord, very close to him. And our thoughts and prayers are with his beautiful, young family, hard to believe. Guy. Thank you, Martha. We see the graphic up on Fox News Channel right now with Will Kane. Charlie Kirk, born 1993, dead today, 2025. Just unthinkable. Rest in peace, sir. We'll be back. Always fresh. Always fair. Guy Benson. We're back. It's Guy Benson. And we'll bring you a Fox News alert. As we've been reporting since we came on the air this afternoon, Charlie Kirk, who was the founder of Turning Point USA, conservative activists and media figure. He was doing an event today in Utah at Utah Valley University. He was, according to witnesses, including Jason Chaffetz, our colleague, he was in the Q&A portion of this event on campus when he was shot in the neck. The Associated Press for a while was reporting that he was in critical condition. Then moments ago, President Trump posted on Truth Social that Charlie Kirk is dead, murdered, assassinated at a public event about free speech and open debate. Political disagreement, even intense disagreement, is vital to a free society. to have in the span of just over one year a leading presidential candidate shot in the head while campaigning for that office in the United States, and thank God surviving, and then a major political commentary figure shot dead on a college campus at a political debate event. It is chilling. I have this deep sadness. Because I knew Charlie as a person. New. It's just past tense. But I'm also angry at whoever did this. I'm angry at an environment and culture that has led to something like this. I'm frightened about where we go from this.

And as someone who, you know, works in this industry, and as I've said a few times, I've known Charlie for many years when I was in my early 20s and he, I think, was in his teens. The fact that this has happened today is, that's just it's gut-wrenching. Seeing all these images of him splashed across our screens from various events and speeches and rallies and conventions. And then there are just the photos, the selfies, with his wife, with his babies. Lord have mercy. Charlie Kirk, dead at the age of 31. Raise your glass to Guy Benson happy hour. Brought to you by the Finnish long drink. Finland's most popular alcoholic beverage is taking America by storm. Visit the longdrink.com. And now, here's Guy Benson.

It's our final hour here on Guy Benson on this Wednesday. Guy Benson.com podcast always free. I'm scheduled to appear on special report on the news channel in the next hour as part of the panel on an extremely dark day. In the United States, it is a dark day for the country. It is a dark day here. So many people at Fox News who know, knew Charlie Kirk. The Dark Day in the Conservative Movement. Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA as a kid in Illinois, his home state. And today he was assassinated in Utah. Utah Valley University doing one of his events on campus, took a bullet to the neck. And in the last hour, President Trump, announcing on. Truth Social, quote, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood her had the heart of the American youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and family. Charlie, we love you. Charlie was 31.

Griff Jenkins is with us here in studio in Washington, D.C., Griffith, a mainstay, of course, here at Fox News for many years. It's hard to know how to have these conversations. We're human beings, too. You know, I knew Charlie. You've had multiple interactions with Charlie, interviews, et cetera. And it just feels so unnerving and disconcerting and not real to be sort of going into eulogy mode for this. this young father and husband, but it's where we are. He's gone. We can talk about the implications for the country. We can talk about the law enforcement side of this as well. But let's just start with the Charlie Kirk that you knew, the Charlie Kirk that you had spoken with and interviewed any number of times. You know, guy. It's a really difficult thing to process because for those of us like yourself, me, and so many of the great Fox folks, you're processing in real time with your listeners the strong, deep emotions of tremendous grief and sorrow and anger. I'm heartbroken and I'm pissed off at the same time that this happened. But just to talk, you know, in these moments when you have to react to such tragic news, it's just everybody handles it differently. My go-to is, you know, don't. forget to remind the world in that moment you have in reaction to tell the world for people that may not have known him who he was and by the way that this is coming across also from truth social president trump just moments ago putting out there publishing, in honor of Charlie Kirk, a truly great American patriot, I am ordering all American flags throughout the United States lowered to half-mast. I just wanted to bring that update. As they should. And so in remembering not how. Charlie died, which is such a tragic, and that's the part I'm angry about. But to remember how he lived his life and in President Trump having such a strong emotional outpouring, it takes me back to the first time I met Charlie guy was I was the reporter at CPAC here in Washington, the great conservative gathering every year in 2016 when Trump was running for the first time for president. And here's, I'm looking for anybody. You know, you're walking the halls, doing live interviews. I'm doing it for Fox and Friends. It's early in the morning, so there's not that many people yet in the hall. And here's this young kid who's tall and goofy looking wearing this bright red shirt with Turning Point USA on it. And that's on one side. On the other side, he's got a giant sticker that says, big government sucks. And I'm like, who are you? And he tells me, Charlie Kirk. And I'm like, what are you doing? So I put him on the air. And he said, I'm here.

here to mobilize young students. I want to, you know, recruit warriors for freedom and liberty. And I want them to go back to their campuses. And in my, you know, newly created group is going to try and do this and talk about conservative values and freedom and patriots on college campuses. And. Later in that day, this is back in the days when President Trump was on Twitter and had a big voice, he tweeted out. He had seen Charlie Kirk that I interviewed and said, I love my man Charlie Kirk and gave him a shoutout. I went back to him the next day when I saw him. I said, do you see this, President Trump? You know, he said, yeah, yeah, he's my buddy. He really likes me and all that. Now you look at their relationship. And President Trump, just an outpouring of emotion and support for him. And the reality that, let's be honest, there's a possibility President Trump. Trump might not have won the second term without Charlie Kirk, turning out young voters. And that's the legacy of just what an amazing guy that we're losing today. And Trump, of course, almost met this exact same fate last year. You had someone who tried very hard to assassinate him and shot him in the ear, shot him in the head. And he turned his head famously and survived.

awfully, unspeakably, Charlie Kirk today, A, didn't have anywhere that level of protection, although there were all sorts of failures that day with Trump in that field in Pennsylvania. Charlie was struck somewhere that's very vulnerable and so vital and lost a lot of blood and has died. And I'm sure Trump having known Charlie. for so long and having worked together in a number of major ways and having gone through Trump himself a scare like this, it's got to be really tough for the president. I think it's really tough for a lot of people. And, you know, Griff, you cover a lot of crime on this network for us. And We will have probably hours and days to pour over what happened here and how this happened and who did it right now. We have no idea. There was someone described as a suspect in custody, and we were all told officially that was happening. So we were reporting on the air. And they said, actually, never mind, it's not him. And then the question quickly becomes, well, okay, who on earth did this? And how are they not in custody? This is a packed public. event and this this assassination occurred and apparently at this hour at 5.14 p.m. Eastern time and now hours after this shooting the person responsible is in the wind right now, not in custody. No, in the wind. And that's, so now we get to the part why I'm so upset about this. And, you know, listen, I am the first to defend law enforcement, the great local and federal law enforcement across this country. I literally just landed at midnight last night, being back from Chicago, spending the last three days riding around with ice, breaking down, cracking down on criminal aliens in Chicago. But, you know, you're exactly right. We were told it was this guy. There was videos everywhere. A spokesman for the university out there said, wait, actually, that's not the guy. And the actual shooter is on the loose. And right now, we understand that the FBI and ATF are partially unseen and surging resources to go after this guy. There's actually, at this very moment that we speak, there's a shelter in place on the university. It is another example, as you mentioned, the failures in the assassination attempt on President Trump. It's a failure of law enforcement. I don't know if there's not coordination. We'll have plenty of time to Monday morning quarterback this incident. But the fact that conservative speakers like Charlie Kirk go on to these college campuses to express their First Amendment right and to engage in. dialogue, not in riling up some sort of violent, you know, scenario, it ends up being shot and killed, is every American, regardless of her political stripes, has to come to the conclusion, this is unacceptable. It cannot stop. And the law enforcement response is going to have to do some deep diving into what is it they can do to protect these college campuses.

The idea that we should need a bunch of heavily armed security at campus events with political speakers should be foreign to America. That is not something that we should be doing or have to do in this country. We disagree. We have our debates. It gets heated. That's what occurs in a thriving free society. This does not feel like a thriving free society right now when you have political figures being shot at and in this case shot and killed. You know, if you're a former president or a president, you've got all this protection, someone like Charlie Kirk really shouldn't need protection like that. You know, maybe someone up there to prevent someone from bullrushing the stage or whatever, getting too rowdy, but not some sniper, right? unforeseeable in some ways and yet it kind of feels like that's the moment that we're in I'm less critical in terms of law enforcement preventing something like this I just don't know how you can especially at this university put out the information that the person's in custody when in fact there's a very armed and dangerous person still out there And with presumably a high-powered rifle, which is the latest details we're getting. Right. And you're so right. I mean, look, I, you are among the company of the Charlie Kirk's who are the brightest, most intelligent, conservative voices. You make speeches. You go out and do public events. Every single person like yourself and others have got to be thinking, what do I have on my calendar? Because you're exactly right. Charlie Kirk has security because the college campus protesters can sometimes throw bottles and it gets a little nasty, particularly if you're out west, not in Utah, but in places like Portland and elsewhere, that, you know, you have this, you know, rowdy crowd. So you're worried about that. You're not worried about a sniper with high-powered rifle killing you. And so it's unacceptable that. you know, every conservative voice like Charlie Kirk now needs to reassess what their security plan is on anything they're about to do out there. And the fear is that an incident, a horrific, disgusting, despicable act like this will in some way chill free speech, chill conservative speakers. Which cannot happen. That cannot be allowed to happen. Yeah. I mean, it's... It's just so sick. I keep coming back to that word. There's a sick feeling that I have. Of course, for Charlie's family, I just can't. I just can't imagine. And his many friends and his organization. So many people are reeling right now. And then even if you've never met Charlie Kirk or don't really care for Charlie Kirk or disagree. Like that shouldn't matter. At all, we don't go around killing each other because of political disagreements in this country. That cannot be something that is normalized in any way, shape, or form in the United States of America. But it kind of feels not normal. This feels deeply abnormal, of course, but it feels like we were sort of building or, frankly, descending to a moment like this.

It just shocks the conscience. And I'm sort of stammering a little bit, trying to voice how I'm feeling because it is this combination griff of grief and anger and fear for a number of reasons. There's different facets to each of those emotions. And that's, I was like super close with Charlie. I wasn't, but I knew him like he's in my phone, you know, text occasionally, that sort of thing. And, you know, we work in this industry. And if, you know, you start getting to a point where it's like, oh, you know, if you really think someone is doing violence through their words, maybe you stop them. with violence and there's there's been that seed planted and we've seen it now happen a number of times and it's important to note that we don't have any information about the shooter who is apparently still on on the loose at this hour we don't know for certain that this was politically motivated but how could it not how could it not be right that that would be an absolutely stunning turn to all of this it seems like this was a political assassination and based on the public statements of everyone across the spectrum, a handful of really psychotic evil people who are celebrating this, setting them to the side. Everyone is, I think, understandably and almost certainly rightly treating this as a political assassination. Last word to you. 100%. And, you know, I think at the end of the day, the part that when the mic turns off and when I'm lying in bed by myself tonight, the grief will hit because we knew this really genuinely great man. And as a parent myself, you, you know, you think of his poor wife and his children. And that's just the part of it that hits home. It stings. It hurts. And we will learn more about this. But I do think I'll end it with this. I think we've hit an inflection moment. in society, in this country right now, that is going to be something that is for years looked upon. And there's going to be a lot to come. But right now, what we need to do is pray and send love to Charlie Kirk and his wife and children. And also extend all of our thoughts and ongoing prayers, not just the people around Charlie, but law enforcement who are now... undertaking this manhunt of someone who's very dangerous. That's an ongoing active law enforcement angle to this story as well. Griff Jenkins, thank you. Thanks, Guy. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative media figure, has been shot and killed today, assassinated in Utah at a campus event at the age of 31. He leaves behind a wife and two children. We'll be right back. America is listening to Guy Benson. It's Guy Benson. It's Guy Benson. I'm Guy Benson. Some shows are hard to get through. This has been one of them. I see our friend and colleague Dana Perino just looks.

broken on on the five and it's it's hard when you know someone and and out of nowhere they've they've been murdered in public it's it's hard to to grasp that and to react to that i see on a split screen that at the white house the flags are now down at half mass for charlie kirk charlie kirk founded this enormously influential organization of young people, started small and grew to terrific heights. It really soared under the leadership of Charlie Kirk who was in the arena and relished the fight and seemed to have decades of political relevance ahead of him. And he was cut down by an assassin today in Utah at the age of 31. Continuing coverage on Guy Benson, straight ahead. A fresh perspective on the topics of the day. It's Guy Benson. We're back. It's Guy Benson as we are covering the appalling news. that Charlie Kirk has been assassinated today in the state of Utah at Utah Valley University during a public appearance. He was shot in the neck, and he died shortly thereafter. He was 31. As a wife, he has two kids. I've been texting with a lot of people, as you might imagine, during breaks, people checking in on me, people reacting. Everyone is stunned, upset, very concerned. Some of it is personal concern. Some of it is concern for the country. You cannot have a free society where participation and speech of a political nature in that society can get you shot and killed. Political violence is a contagion. It has gotten worse. It is undeniably gotten worse. in recent years. There will be a lot of time to talk about the politics at play here. I have many thoughts and I'm just holding them in for now. I was texting with my friend Ben Shapiro, who does a lot of events like this. And I won't mention anything that Ben and I were talking about or texting about privately, but I will read what Ben posted on Twitter or X. This is just a few minutes ago. Like all of you, I'm utterly stunned and heartbroken and sick to my soul today. It is unimaginable to write these words. I met Charlie Kirk when he was 18 years old, a young man so eager and determined that I immediately turned to a friend and said, that kid is going to be the head of the RNC one day. Charlie became even bigger and more important than that. It was a privilege to watch this principled man stand up for his beliefs and create the single most important conservative organization in America. But more importantly, Charlie was a good man, a man who believed in right and wrong, who stood by his biblical values. All of us will miss him. And I can't imagine the path, the pain of his young, beautiful family. We must all pray for them.

And we must pick up the baton where Charlie left it, fighting for the things he believed so passionately. And we must fight for a better America, an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. I weep for Charlie's family, and I weep for my country today. Most of all, I weep for Charlie. That was Ben Shapiro. One thing I would add, we must fight for a better America. Ben wrote in America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. I would expand that. We must have an America where even bad people can speak, perhaps even untruth, and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. This hits home, hits in the gut because we know Charlie and we like Charlie and we agree overwhelmingly with Charlie. But if this were the Charlie Kirk equivalent on the left and this had happened. And people might be saying, well, it seems like a lot of the violence is really going in one direction these days. I don't. disagree with that. I'm just trying to keep this somewhat apolitical for the moment. The principle is we do not have a free society and a robust republic and real freedom of speech and assembly, et cetera, if we have people involved in the political process anywhere on the spectrum. who fear that by going out and saying what they believe, saying it in public, might get them shot. We cannot have this. Down this path of political violence, which is almost guaranteed to be what this is, down this path of political violence, lies madness and chaos and evil. It cannot stand. Paul Morrow is a former NYPD inspector and a Fox News contributor. He's kind enough to join us now. Paul, I know you were just on the five. We're grateful for your time. So many thoughts about this. I want to focus just for a moment, if you don't mind, on law enforcement. And how. Law enforcement agencies might respond to something like this. Obviously, everyone is just so, so sad and upset that this was not prevented and that this assassination has succeeded against Charlie Kirk. But right now, whoever the assassin is is unidentified and on the loose. What's happening right now with law enforcement? Who's running this show? It sounds to me like it's likely the FBI because they're on scene. And until we know definitively that this is just state-based, so to speak, and the FBI does not have any jurisdiction, they're almost certainly going to be calling the shots because they've already made noises about this being domestic terrorism, and that's going to give them the hook on that. And realistically, nobody's going to oppose that. The Bureau here has tremendous resources. They have the ability to marshal a lot of those resources, a lot of them technical.

And this thing, I think, is going to come down to videotape. I think that's where, if I had to take a guess right now, it's going to come down to an assessment of the bullets. because that's a hard thing that we know we have. We physically have a bullet, right? So I think that they will assess the bullet. They'll know what kind of a rifle was used. That'll give them a good clue as to where the shot came from. Because if it were a long gun, which it almost certainly was, because that's a high-powered round, you can see it. That'll give them an idea of where the shot came from, and then they're going to start scraping video. And as you and I have said so many times on the air. Video these days is ubiquitous. Everybody is videotaped 20 times a day. Schools often have all kinds of security cameras. And right now, I'm sure they're dealt hard into that and into any other video that people who are at the scene were taking because as a public event, I'm sure a lot of people had their phones out. And as I just said on the five, I just hope that anybody who has anything relevant takes the step and gets it up to the police because I think videotape is going to be really important here. I've seen the term manhunt thrown around. We've used it here today as well as they're trying to find whoever did this. And sometimes I would imagine, Paul, and you can shed more light on this given your background, there are different types of manhunts. There's a manhunt where you know who you're looking for. You know exactly who you're looking for and you're trying to find him or her. Then there are other manhunts where it's just like we don't know who we're up against or who this is, but we've got to figure out who that person is and then find them. Based on at least the information we have right now, and we're of course not privy to anything that's happening behind the scenes, as of right now, this is an unidentified suspect who could be barricaded on campus somewhere or could be in a car miles away. I mean, this is an enormous... challenge, I would imagine, for law enforcement, especially given the fact that for a while, I think a lot of people maybe let their guard down a little bit because the school announced officially that they had a suspect in custody. It's like, okay, well, they got the guy, they found out who it is, you know, the public safety threat is at least over for now. And then that turned out not to be true. So there was this window. of time that was probably very helpful to whoever did this to at least try to make an escape. This seems like a complex law enforcement challenge on top of everything else. Yeah, I mean, it really is when you don't have to. any identifiers and you look at that needle in a haystack it comes down to a winnowing process and they're going to do everything they can to start to pare it down I can tell you that terms of organization there is almost certainly a command center set up by now you have multiple agencies and they're going to be pressing on multiple nodes there's going to be people in taking video there's going to be people in taking statements there's going to be people scouring the surrounding buildings that have a purview into where Charlie was where a long-range shooter could have perched

him or herself. He's also going to be people scrubbing the digital world, and they're going to be taking a look at Charlie's life. Has he had any interactions lately that were particularly volatile? Has he had any threats? The other thing, too, is not only the bullet, but there's also this announcement, as you say, of somebody who was apprehended that was near the stage, reportedly, and that the school said, okay, he's apprehended. My understanding, and this is according to the reporting now. I'm not saying any names or anything, but it bounced around, and as I said, the school said it, that this person is apprehended who was near the stage, and we saw the images online, and reportedly that person said I did it. I don't know if any of that's true, but what I would say is that almost certainly is not the perpetrator. And it hit me that way pretty quickly because that's a high-powered round. And you can see it in that horrific video. That's a long-gun bullet. And somebody near the stage pulls out a long gun, you're going to see it. The gun would have been there as they apprehended that guy. And so that just argues. For the more, we've all seen, you know, think of Lee Harvey Oswald. being shot, a shooting rather, excuse me, Jack, getting shot, excuse me, by Jack Ruby. That was a handgun. You know, it doesn't do the kind of damage. We've all seen that video when Ruby shoots Oswald, and I'm just using that as a cultural touchstone that we've all seen. A handgun doesn't get the response that is in that awful video. And all I can say is, look, you know, I'm down in Florida here. I just got off the plane to cover the Ryan Ruth. trial, and it makes me think of, A, how close Donald Trump got not only on that golf course, but in Butler, and how horrific the video in Butler would have been under similar circumstances. This is not who we are as a country. And right now, we are in a season of what seems to be forgivable leftist violence and violent rhetoric. The right as they're nuts, too. There's no denying that. But we're in a season right now where even some of the guiding lights on the left, people like Tim Walz, who say things that I think are over the top. And they better dial it back because, you know what, I don't know that the Secret Service is going to be up to. From what I'm hearing, I've done it on my blog, the ops desk, and I had Rich Tarapoli from Secret Service on the other day, he's telling me unequivocally that the Secret Service is not where they need to be. They're down a thousand agents. They're going to try to get Donald Trump. I don't think I'm telling your audience anything they haven't heard. And I'm just to try to advance the story forward. We've got to be really vigilant here because we're up against some really violent people who are not used to hearing no. Oh, I mean, it's very upsetting to hear you say that. But of course, you know, you've had two assassination attempts against Donald Trump. during the campaign last year. And then this is a close ally and friend and supporter of President Trump now assassinated in public. And, you know, you're talking about the Secret Service and how that pertains to, you know, the President of United States or elected officials, Paul.

Charlie Kirk is a private citizen, right? He's a public figure like we both are. He was a much more public figure and controversial and all of that. But he's a private citizen doing political events debating people, right? There shouldn't need to be high levels of security for events like this. And if you end up raising the cost of security for people like Charlie Kirk, you know, speech becomes less free. sort of theoretically and also less free literally with the cost of, you know, high, high level security for an event like this. It just feels like a very broken society where this type of thing is even being discussed where you and I are having this conversation. Yeah, of course it is. You know, Dennis Prager, I think it was, said that the right things the left is wrong. The left thinks the right is evil. And if you buy into that, and to some degree I do, at least an element of the left thinks that the right is evil. And as a result, that permits anything. That makes any action permissible if you're dealing with outright evil. And that's why you hear so often the fascist and Nazi comparisons that are thrown almost exclusively at the right. And it devolves in the ears of people who are susceptible to this stuff into the kinds of incidents that you and I are so tired of talking about. And that is the danger. And you're right. And what is so futile about it is that it's going to have the opposite effect. Because, you know, you and I are aware of Charlie Kirk. My nieces and nephews are aware of Charlie Kirk. He's popular on campus. He's even popular in high schools more than I realized. This guy was a seminal figure of the Andrew Breitbart level. And this is going to carry his message forward. More resoundingly, I hate to say it, but he is going to be perceived as a martyr. That is going to be the practical results of this. So whatever loser pulled that trigger, that person should know that they have just done more for Charlie Kirk's cause than almost anybody else but Charlie. Because this is going to redound because the sane person knows that this is not the answer. And this is revealing in terms of what Charlie was actually fighting against. Paul Morrow, NYPD inspector for a long time now, a Fox News colleague here reacting to this on a number of levels for us. Paul, thank you. Thank you, Gary. When we come back, the home stretch, a few final thoughts for me on this very difficult day. Please stay tuned. In the swamp, not of the swamp. Guy Benson.

Home Stretch on Guy Benson. If you're listening on the broadcast, that's five for fighting, 100 years. Charlie Kirk had 31. He was assassinated today in Utah. And it's hard to even say those words. It is real, but it doesn't feel real. I mentioned early in the show and I've repeated a few times that I've known Charlie for a very long time. He reached out to me when we were both much younger. I was in my early 20s. He was a teenager. He was starting this group, Turning Point. And he wanted to energize young Americans and teach them about conservative values and the country and all of that. And he asked if I would come speak in Illinois to a group of high school students. And I did and we got to know each other. And I did a number of events with him small and then bigger and bigger, of course, over the years. I remember when he was, gosh, 16, something like that. He was asking my advice about college and whether to go. And I had gotten my education and... I thought, of course, that he was a bright, young, promising man, and I thought that college was a good path for him. And I said, look, there'll always be activism in politics after college. You can do stuff in college. Why don't you go get that degree? That was my advice to him. And Charlie was smart enough to ignore that advice. He was cut out for something different. And he pursued that path with rigor. with energy, with passion, with commitment, and he built it into something massive and important. And I remember thinking many times, boy, aren't I glad that he ignored my advice? He has a legacy. A legacy of an organization, a legacy of legions of young fans and followers who will carry that torch for him moving forward. And he has the legacy of a husband and a father of two. And that family will never be the same. Charlie Kirk. was killed doing what he loved, doing what makes this country great. May he rest in peace. And we will talk to you tomorrow on The Guy Benson Show.

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