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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Conservative Activist, Charlie Kirk, Shot and Killed at Age 31; Manhunt Still Underway for Suspect in Charlie Kirk Shooting; Charlie Kirk Leaves Behind His Wife and Two Young Children; Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Shot and Killed at Age 31; Manhunt Still Underway for Kirk Killer. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 10, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... and that could be a legacy that would go far beyond what he had done so far in his life.
ERIN BURNETTE, CNN HOST: Yes, absolutely right, Tom, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you for being with us for this breaking news. AC360 starts now.
[20:00:19]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening.
It is hard to imagine, but for the second time in just three months, the country is dealing with the killing of a political figure. And as we come to tonight, what officials are calling a person of interest is in custody.
In June, the Minnesota lawmaker was shot and killed at home. Today, it was an assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk in front of some 3,000 onlookers at the first stop of a speaking tour at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Kirk was hit in the neck by a single fatal shot just after this video was taken.
Authorities late today said it came from a distance, possibly from a rooftop. Cameras from several angles caught the moment. Some in blood soaked detail too horrible to show.
In the second leading up to it, Charlie Kirk was taking a question about transgender mass shooters in this country. We're going to play that footage and freeze it before you see him shot. But keeping the sound running throughout. Even so, it is still especially hard to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years?
CHARLIE KIRK, FOUNDER, TURNING POINT USA: Too many! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. It's five. Okay, now, five is a lot, right, I'm going to give you credit. Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years?
KIRK: Counting or not counting gang violence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.
(GUNSHOT)
(CROWD IN PANIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: You can hear the pandemonium that followed, with some in the crowd saying they feared a mass shooting was underway. One eyewitness told CNN what she saw the moment the Kirk was hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMA PITTS, DESERET NEWS REPORTER WHO WAS COVERING KIRK EVENT: The first thing I noticed was the amount of blood I saw. So much blood came out of his neck, and then I watched as his eyes closed and he went limp.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Another witness, who was close to the front of the crowd, who you'll hear from in a moment, said to me that when he heard the shot, he thought it sounded to him like a 22. He captured what happened almost immediately after. You can see video of Charlie Kirk's security team carrying him mortally wounded from the scene into an SUV.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SECURITY: Stop, stop, folks. Back off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Charlie Kirk died a short time later. He was 31. He was a husband and a father of two young children. The President announced his death online. He wrote sorry: "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's no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you."
Before we go on, I just want to turn to John Miller.
John, you just pointed out something to me.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So FBI director Kash Patel is out on X saying that the subject in custody, the person who was suspected of possibly being the shooter has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigations continue, and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency. So, this is a development.
COOPER: This is the same person that Kash Patel had said was the shooter.
MILLER: It was the subject that was in custody. Officials in Utah referred to him as a person of interest.
COOPER: But Kash Patel, I think in his first tweet, had referred to him as --
MILLER: Well, he called him a subject in the shooting.
COOPER: Okay, I also should point out that the President ordered flags flown at half-staff until Sunday evening in honor. And by and large, despite the partisan nature of Kirk's movement and some of the contentious views, he held condemnation of his murder today came from across the political spectrum. From former President Biden: "There is no place in our country," he said, "For this kind of violence, it must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk's family and loved ones."
Former President Obama posted this: "We don't yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie's family tonight, especially his wife Erika, and their two young children."
Former President Bush, in a statement said: "Members of other political parties are not our enemies. They are our fellow citizens."
And Utah's Republican Senator John Curtis asked for Americans to reassess how we approach politics, along just those lines.
SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If we are honest, were having conversations within families that are too heated, we are having conversations among friends that are too heated, and then that obviously escalates as it gets to a broader conversation. It's not healthy. It's not who we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Also, late today, Utah's Governor made an emotional appeal for an end to political violence.
GOV. SPENCER COX (R-UT): Nothing i say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk.
We desperately need leaders in our country, but more than the leaders, we just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:31]
COOPER: There is a lot to get to in this hour, but I want to quickly turn again to John Miller.
So, this is just been posted this -- we're just finding out about this. This is significant because clearly there had been a lot of focus on this person of interest who was in custody.
MILLER: Exactly, so, there has been confusion throughout this case. It's been fast paced and some of that is, in part because we have all been demanding information and they've been doing their best to tell us what they have when they have it.
But as we started out after the shooting, it was the university that announced a suspect was in custody. It turns out that individual was arrested at the scene, but is believed not to be the shooter, and is charged with obstruction of justice for something else. We don't know what. Then, they announced that there was a person of interest in the shooting in custody, and that they were continuing their investigation.
Now, the FBI director tells us that that person has been interrogated and released, which is a setback in the investigation because it means they thought they had someone based on a description, based on the clothing he was wearing when he was arrested, based on his proximity and now they're back to -- we're back to zero.
COOPER: What do we know that they actually have? There was talk of some surveillance video?
MILLER: Right, so you have a suspected perch where the sniper behind this assassination operated from. They looked at video, which you can't really tell much from of a person on that roof at the time of the shooting and then running away. They did another video canvass where they apparently collected other images, which and this is a gap -- we don't know how that led to this individual being taken into custody. We've kind of dug into his background, doesn't particularly fit the profile when compared to other shooters we've seen and based on the interrogation, they've released him.
I do know that they are looking at other people as potentials. But again, this has gone from a case that could have wrapped up quickly to one that could take much longer.
COOPER: Yes. We're going to come back to John for a lot more information shortly, but we want to hear from two eyewitnesses. They saw the fatal shot. And as I mentioned, filmed the chaotic scene in the immediate aftermath. Their names are Jeremy and Amy King and I spoke to them just before air time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Jeremy and Amy, thank you for being with us. I understand, Jeremy, you were pretty close. You were about 15 feet away from Charlie Kirk. Can you just talk about what you what you saw? What you heard? JEREMY KING: WITNESSED CHARLIE KIRK'S ASSASSINATION: Yes. I mean, we arrived at the event a little late, actually, as Charlie was getting out of his vehicle. So, we were probably only about 40 feet, 50 feet away. And we kind of followed up their path where they entered. And, you know, we got down in there and it was full of people. We were able to make our way to the front.
So we were just to Charlie's right, 15 to 20 feet away. And you know, the event had been going on for about ten minutes. And, shortly into the second question, which we can get into in a minute, if you'd like, what I heard sounded like a 22. It didn't, you know, from where we were standing, it wasn't very loud. And so, it took me just a minute to realize what had happened. And, at that point, I saw Charlie immediately, eyes went shut. He fell back in his chair, and he was not moving.
COOPER: And Amy, you were standing next to Jeremy when the shot rang out. What did you see from your vantage point? What do you remember?
AMY KING, WITNESSED CHARLIE KIRK'S ASSASSINATION: Same thing, I heard the shot, and I immediately just saw him fall back, and I just kept saying, "Oh my gosh! They just shot him. They just shot him."
Everybody just got down and there was no other. shooting that we heard, so we weren't sure. Hey, do we get up and run at this point? We all just kind of you know, I was kind of at shock. He kind of shoved me down. He's like, get down. And he kind of looked and kind of scanned for the shooter. And once we knew there was no more shots, we kind of followed out the same direction that they had taken Charlie.
JEREMY KING: We saw him go out, but, I mean, we were at that point, we were just looking to get away and we had our phones just from recording earlier, and we started recording Charlie as he was put back in the vehicle that he arrived in.
COOPER: So you actually captured on video Mr. Kirk being rushed into an SUV. There wasn't an ambulance there. He was put into an SUV, right?
JEREMY KING: That's right, he was immediately put in by his security personnel.
COOPER: I see that, I see the video that was shown right there. Had you given any thought to the security there? I mean, he seems like he had a relatively big team if all those folks sort of dressed in dark clothing were part of his team, did it cross your mind at all at an event like this?
AMY KING: I had just two minutes before he was shot. I said, where's all the security? You know.
COOPER: Really.
AMY KING: Literally, two minutes before I looked around and I had scanned with the thing my phone and there was no security, we were able to walk right in. I had a ticket. Nobody checked my ticket. We were able to go through the door and go through some students and go all the way down to the front row.
COOPER: Wow.
JEREMY KING: Now, I will say, Anderson. I looked over and I watched his security the whole time scanning the crowd. I know that the guys around him were doing their job.
AMY. KING: Yes, he had a lot of security.
JEREMY KING: It feels like other than his immediate security, it was wide open for anyone to go to that event.
COOPER: You know, you can have a close protection detail, but if you don't have people, you know, on a rooftop or outer perimeter, there's as good as close protection detail may be, there's, you know, it's a risk.
JEREMY KING: And it feels like it would have been impossible. I mean, it's at the center of a campus. I mean, there was lots of glass, lots of big buildings, lots of rooftops. I don't even know how they could camp the whole area. But I know his security was scanning the crowd.
AMY KING: Right in front of us. Yes.
JEREMY KING: And they acted immediately. I mean, when he went down, they were they were on top of him immediately. That was the scariest part. I think in that moment of everyone's down on the ground, we heard a shot at that point, we knew a gun had been fired and we didn't know if there was going to be additional shots fired. And so, you know, do you stay put or do you run? And it is the most terrifying thing when you have to go through that.
COOPER: Listen, I'm so sorry, we're talking in these circumstances. And I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: The video image, by the way froze at the end of our interview, they wanted to also pass along their prayers for Charlie Kirk's family.
Back now with CNN chief law enforcement intelligence analyst John Miller. Also joining us, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe and former D.C. Chief of Homeland Security And Intelligence Donell Harvin.
So, okay, so the person of interest has been released, according to the latest X post from Kash Patel. Where does that leave things?
MILLER: Well, it leaves things back at the beginning, which is if this suspect is not viable, if they've determined that this is not the person and that he's not chargeable and more importantly, chargeable, otherwise, we have the wrong guy. I don't think they would have released him if they felt there was a possibility he was still in play. That means they have to go back to expand the video canvass. What images do we have of somebody who's coming from the direction of the building, where we feel the shots came from the roof? I don't know if the college runs license plate readers at the entrance, but then you would expand to which cars came and went at the time that you see the shooter fleeing and arriving. They're really going to have to go back and start to do the kind of work that they did in the Utah student murders, where they cast a wide net, and then they try to narrow.
COOPER: Who's in charge of this investigation at this stage?
MILLER: Well, the FBI is assisting, which is interesting because a lot of these key announcements are coming from the FBI director. But right now, it is a state homicide investigation with the FBI assisting. But until the FBI has a suspect and they can gear that to motive, it's hard to attach a specific federal charge to what, by any measure, would be a state murder, even though it clears -- it is clearly an assassination. They have to get to the motivation of that it was political and how and why.
COOPER: Andrew, so, at this point, this is still an active manhunt. And if that is the case, what are the steps and what is the FBI -- I mean, what are the things the FBI can do to help?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, so, you know, Anderson, they are, they're really back at square one with the release of the person of interest. So, they are back to assessing, first and foremost, what they believe the shooters perch or shooting position to have been, whether that's that space on the roof that we've seen kind of I have to say, not very elaborately roped off. We haven't seen a lot of -- I don't know how recent that video is, but we haven't seen a lot of action up there in terms of evidence collection and reviewing that surface.
But we should probably be seeing that now and if they are not absolutely confident that that was the place the shots were taken from, they should be looking for every other possible line of sight vantage point that could have been used.
What John said is absolutely right. You would use the broader community of video capture to identify vehicles that left the area in the time immediately after, and particularly from that one parking structure that seems to be very close to the Losse Center. Maybe accessible across that walkway that seems to connect, at least indirectly, to the roof. And, you know, beyond that, you're now they need to really be being very aggressive in terms of turning to the public and requesting the submission of videos and still photographs, particularly ones that would point away from the stage, which is not uncommon people in a large event will frequently, like, turn around and take pictures of the crowd and things like that.
You want every shred of that that you can possibly get. And so, putting out publicizing the FBI website and the places where you can submit video and of course, the phone number, those things are all incredibly important right now. The clock is ticking, and the opportunity to catch, you know, to get leads that will put you on to this person that gets colder by the minute and certainly by the hour. So they want to move quickly. COOPER: Yes and Donell, Charlie Kirk had private security as we mentioned. There were also six university police officers working with them according to the school. Clearly, that was not sufficient -- the venue was outdoors and as we heard from two eyewitnesses, they were able -- they had tickets, but no one really checked those tickets and they were able to get right up to the front.
Is there anything that can be done to fully secure an outdoor event of that size without, you know, metal detectors, counter snipers, you know, Presidential level security?
DONELL HARVIN, FACULTY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY EMERGENCY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT: The easy answer is no, Anderson and really, only high level politicians would have the ability to secure an area like this, particularly from an adversary that may be perched in a sniper position. And so, he has done multitudes of these type of events with no issues. Keep in mind, he's not a violent figure and so this is just public discourse. Sometimes it gets heated. I think he had the appropriate security posture. Clearly it had worked for him before, hind sight is 20/20. Unfortunately, it didn't work today.
COOPER: And I mean, obviously, John, given what happened in, you know, the Butler, Pennsylvania, last year are outdoor. I mean, it's a crazy question, I guess, are outdoor political events too dangerous? If you're not -- do not have presidential level security.
MILLER: You know, it's a dark question, but when you look at the environment were living in, where we leap from, you know, a couple attending an event at the Jewish Museum in Washington being gunned down by an individual who traveled from Chicago that day to do it to Molotov cocktails being thrown at people in Boulder, Colorado, to the political assassinations, which were fairly random in Minneapolis by a guy dressed as a police officer to 345 Park Avenue here in New York City. Do you see what I'm saying with the pacing, it seems to be every two to three weeks, we're seeing another one of these things where these grievance driven actors, not connected to any organization, are picking from a salad bar of different issues.
If you are a Charlie Kirk who is a controversial figure, you know, he's great on campuses. He draws big crowds. He was in Tampa on Monday saying it felt like 1776 in Tampa. You could feel it in the chants, the flags, the crackling through the room. You know, you knew our country wasn't lost. It was waking up. He really loved these outdoor events and dealing with the crowds and even taking on the tough questions. The whole thing was called Prove Me Wrong.
I think it would have been a hard sell to say to him, you can only do this indoors. And he did travel with his own very professional security, who didn't wait for an ambulance or anything. They took him right to the car and took him right to the hospital. They were very quick, but it's not like he hadn't thought of it. But as Donell framed it, as you framed it, there are limits to this outside of a world leader in terms of that package.
COOPER: John, thanks, Donell, Andrew as well, stay close because as Andrew McCabe just said, the headline for this hour, the manhunt is still on and they are back to square one.
When we come back, more on how this latest apparent act of political violence, this assassination, is resonating after one killing this summer and two attempts last year on then candidate Donald Trump.
Also, the considerable impact that Charlie Kirk had on the conservative movement in America.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:24:45]
COOPER: With federal flags at half-staff tonight for Charlie Kirk. The breaking news from FBI Director Kash Patel is that Kirk's killer is still out there. After posting earlier that a, "subject" was in custody, Director Patel just posted this: "The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues, and we will continue to release information in the interest of transparency."
CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins joins us now. What are you hearing tonight from the White House?
[20:25:12]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, as far as the investigation, obviously, those are the updates that we are getting directly from Kash Patel about where this investigation stands tonight. And obviously, one thing that the White House is very keen to do is to find the person who committed this horrific act today by assassinating Charlie Kirk, because this is someone who, yes, he was this preeminent political figure. He was someone who really reached out to the youth vote and played a key role in President Trump's reelection when it came to -- to getting young voters to the polls, but also, Anderson, to a lot of people in The White House tonight who were watching this news with the rest of us and seeing these videos in this event.
I mean, Charlie Kirk was their friend. He is someone who was, he was just 31-years-old. He was incredibly close with a lot of people who work inside the Trump administration, certainly, the West Wing. And I just have been hearing from people today about how shaken they are by what has happened and just how horrific this is. They not only know Charlie Kirk, they know his wife and his two young children, that he has. And, you know, one thing that I was thinking about today in terms of, you know, just how close he was to President Trump's team on the campaign and just how much they trusted him was not only how he how he helped run the on the ground operations during the campaign, especially in Arizona, but in other key states.
But when President Trump was elected in November and that transition period that is, is so crucial to any administrations success when it comes to hiring people. And for Trump, making sure there were people who were there who were loyal to him, Charlie Kirk had basically relocated to Palm Beach, Florida to help with that effort and was there at Mar-a-Lago day in and day out on a lot of days and helping with staffing the administration.
And so, that is something that that people were just talking about today in terms of not just what this means for the MAGA movement, for the Republican Party from a political perspective and a voter perspective, but also just how horrified they are by this news of the assassination of their friend, Charlie Kirk.
COOPER: Yes, Kaitlan Collins. Thank you. We'll see you at the top of the hour for "The Source."
Joining us right now, CNN senior political commentator, former Trump campaign adviser David Urban, also CNN senior political commentator, former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger and CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg, co-founder of "The Dispatch."
David, you saw the scope of Charlie Kirk activism up close over the years. Can you just kind of talk to people about how big his impact was, which Kaitlan touched on, and certainly what's going through your mind on a personal level tonight?
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, you know, Anderson, it's gut wrenching, what occurred today. You know, Governor Cox put it, you know, put it correctly, all the potential assassination attempts on my friend, Governor Shapiro, on the current President. And now what happened to Charlie today has got to stop. America is broken and no matter what the governor said, and I say, or you say, Americans have to look in their hearts and try to figure out what's going on and how do we how do we get out of this? You got to stop.
Charlie Kirk was he was a force of nature, a happy warrior, Anderson. When I first met him in the 2016 campaign, you know, young guy, Eagle Scout, bright eyed, you know, really wanted to attack the world and take people on. But in a marketplace of ideas kind of way, right. Prove me wrong, Charlie said, you know, when people stop talking to each other, whether they agree or disagree, when you stop talking to each other, you lose your humanity to one another. You lose the notion that someone's human, you become subhuman somehow. And that's when violence occurs and it's so sad to see Charlie out there today on a college campus, challenging people's ideas. Look, come forward, challenge the guy, prove him wrong. And he was stricken down because of those beliefs and it's incredibly sad.
He was -- had a huge impact. You know, Anderson, in, in the early days of the campaign, but moreover, in this 2024 election you know, Donald Trump acknowledged that Charlie Kirk was a huge part of getting the young people out to vote. It was never cool to be a Republican, ever.
When do you think on college campuses, it was cool. Charlie Kirk made it cool to be a Republican. He's going to be sorely missed and his wife, Erika, and his two children are going to miss him, but he's had an incredible impact in the body politic. And he will for some time moving forward. COOPER: Congressman, what do you think his assassination means for political speech in this country? Because David's point, you know, he was about debating ideas and challenging people's ideas, whether you agree with him or love him or loathe him he was in the arena face to face with people across this country.
ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and that's the point is what is democracy? Actually, what is politics? Politics is a thing that humans invented to prevent violence, right. Because it used to be the caveman, whoever had the biggest stick or whoever had the most friends. That's how you solved arguments. And we as humanity basically decided we need to put something in place so that we can do battle, but battle in the arena of ideas.
And so, you know, Charlie was an expert at that, at going forward and convincing people or not convincing them, being challenged by them or challenging them. But whether you liked him or you didn't like him politically, this is exactly what our country should be doing right now. And instead, when you see violence, whether it's in Charlie Kirk or whether its, you know, the politicians in Minnesota, whatever it is, it means that democracy is failing and it means that democracy is broken and we need to be very concerned about that.
And I think this has to be a moment where everybody takes a deep breath and just says, we are better than this as a country, because this does not end well.
[20:30:55]
COOPER: Jonah, what's your reaction?
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, I was just -- I was heartbroken and disgusted by all this. I had my disagreements with Charlie Kirk, but none of that stuff matters. Right? This is just so completely unacceptable. I agree about the point about politics. Look, democracy itself is about disagreement and this is something that a lot of political rhetoric from both sides of the aisle misses all the time. Our entire system is designed to have people disagree productively.
What elections are, are simply arguments between two sides about the direction of the country. The whole reason why you have checks and balances and divided government and federalism and all these things is to allow the country to have arguments. And we get a lot of rhetoric about how, no, we all have to be unified. No, Spencer Cox, who was really wonderful today, he's a friend. He had this whole program in Utah about disagreeing better.
And the whole idea being that you're not going to get everybody to agree with each other, but if you can get people to disagree in productive ways rather than demonizing people, you might actually get better politics. And that's why I was so grossed out to hear Steve Bannon and those guys talking about how this is all proof of a war --
COOPER: Right. GOLDBERG: -- on MAGA. There are body -- there's a body count across the ideological spectrum out there. And when you talk about there being a war, there's a real danger of activating a tiny subsection of the population who are going to believe that garbage and they're going to act on it. And we need a lot less of that kind of rhetoric right now.
COOPER: Yeah. It certainly pours gasoline on what is already an incendiary moment. David, the President Trump obviously expressed his sadness over Charlie Kirk's murder and the assassination. What -- can you talk a little bit about the, the personal relationship between the two of them?
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. Charlie was beloved. He's a part of the family like -- Trump has three sons. Well, Charlie Kirk is the adopted son. The president really liked Charlie, Don Jr., Eric, the family -- Charlie was a welcome addition everywhere he went. To Jonah's point, disagreements, this is what politics is about.
Look, I don't agree with Gavin Newsom. I don't think Charlie Kirk agrees with Gavin Newsom, but it was refreshing to see Gavin Newsom and Charlie Kirk sitting down and sparring, right? Having a debate, a marketplace of ideas is what it's about. And when people are brave enough to do that, they should be rewarded, not assassinated. We need more Charlie Kirks in America, not less.
COOPER: Congressman, to people considering -- sorry, go ahead, Jonah.
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: (Inaudible) because the conspiracy theories are going to explode if they don't find this guy quick and it's going to feed an even nastier environment. So, Gods speed to the FBI and to law enforcement in Utah. They need to find this guy.
COOPER: Congressman, I mean, to people considering getting into public service or political activism, and I mean, tonight, certainly having second thoughts, or even having debates with people and not just sort of staying in your silo and arguing with your friends about who the enemy -- what would you say to somebody tonight?
KINZINGER: Like it's a real concern of mine, because after I heard this news, I remember just feeling for about 10 seconds, like, I'm done with politics. Like, I just like -- this isn't worth it. And then, I thought better about it. But that's what a lot of people get. They're feeling exhausted, or they see violence and they check out. And so whether it's somebody running or even somebody just staying involved, this has a tendency to discourage that.
But this is exactly the moment where people need to double down in how we do politics, in showing America and showing the world that we don't do this with violence. We do this by stepping up and stepping into the arena. So if you're thinking about running, and you're thinking about not running because of this, you're probably the exact kind of person we need to run, somebody who's doing it for the right reason, so we can show the world and show ourselves, more importantly than the world, that this works, we work and we're going to succeed despite this really low moment.
COOPER: Yeah. David, Adam, Jonah, thank you.
Coming up, we're going to get reaction from Capitol Hill where lawmakers, we've said from both sides of the aisle have been condemning the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I'll speak with New York Congressman Dan Goldman. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:39:39]
COOPER: This was about 39 minutes ago that we learned that the assassination of Charlie Kirk has become once again a manhunt for the second time in a little more than an hour. FBI Director Kash Patel posted online, this time saying that the person in custody whom he called a subject had been released. Meantime, members of Congress in both the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike, were visibly shaken by the assassination today.
[20:40:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON, (R-LA) HOUSE SPEAKER: This is detestable, what's happened. Political violence has become all too common in American society. And this is not who we are. It violates the core principles of our country.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D-MA): Violence is never the answer. This is just wrong. And my heart goes out to his family, to his friends. But we just cannot be a country that turns to violence when we disagree with people.
REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): I think it is unfortunately emblematic of how our politics is being conducted today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, joining me now is Congressman Dan Goldman, Democrat of New York. He's a former federal prosecutor. I'm wondering, Congressman, your reaction to what happened today.
REP. DAN GOLDMAN, (D-NY): Yeah, I share those sentiments. There was a real appall over the House floor this afternoon when we learned that Charlie Kirk had passed away and it didn't really matter, whether you were Republican or Democrat. I didn't know Charlie Kirk personally. I followed some of what he said. I disagreed with almost everything he said, but he was exactly what our politics is all about, which is an exchange of ideas. The desire to convince others, to persuade others that your view of whatever a situation is, whatever a policy is, is the right one.
And this is heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking. And I think that not only was -- were all of the members of Congress very upset and saddened, but to some degree, I think we're all scared. This is escalating. This is not going the other direction. We saw the shootings in Minnesota not too long ago. The political violence is going in the opposite direction of where it needs to go. And I think we can all, and should all agree that we should work out our differences in the public square, and that's how our system should work.
But the idea that you would disagree with someone to such a degree that you would commit violence against them is just beyond the pale. And I don't have a solution for how it will stop or should stop, but it really has to stop.
COOPER: That's certainly not the message we're hearing from some in the sort of far-right podcasting sphere, who make money off of this, but off this kind of rhetoric. I mean, they're talking about war, that there's a war targeting conservatives.
GOLDMAN: Yeah. Look, it's -- that is incredibly dangerous. I am really, really disappointed. And what I would urge, I would really urge the president of the United States to speak out against that. I don't view this as an issue of the right or the left. I think we've seen political violence on both sides of the spectrum and it's not that one is worse than the other. Obviously, the efforts to assassinate the president were horrific and were absolutely unacceptable -- should have been unacceptable.
But we can't get in a tit for tat here where we're just going one after the other, after the other because our system will completely break down. This is already a breakdown of our democracy. I think Congressman Kinzinger said it right. But our entire system of government will break down, and you will have certainly nobody who wants to do this job. It's already ill-advised for many given the vitriol, the discourse that you see. But when violence gets involved, then it's just a totally different animal.
And I hope these far right podcasters come to their senses and recognize that this is not war. We are Americans at bottom, and we may be Republicans, we may be Democrats, but we don't -- we do not divide this entire country based on political ideology. And we can't do that. And we have to come back and remember that we are all Americans in the greatest country on earth, and that we may disagree on how we move forward, but we all want our country to move forward.
COOPER: Congressman Dan Goldman, thank you. Still ahead, we're going to look at the incredible rise of Charlie Kirk and the legacy he leaves behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE KIRK, AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST, CO-FOUNDER OF TURNING POINT USA: And as I travel the country, and I'm doing this on college campuses, I can feel a surge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:49:40]
COOPER: Just moments ago, we got an update from authorities at Utah Valley University. Their bulletin reads, UVU Campus is all clear. There is no ongoing threat to campus. We would remind you this is an ongoing investigation on campus and remains closed until Monday, September 15th. We should point out a manhunt is ongoing. That's their statement.
[20:50:00]
Charlie Kirk was only 31-years-old when he was murdered today. But for those who follow politics closely, he sort of seemed like a long time Washington veteran. And he co-founded the influential conservative group, Turning Point USA, 13 years ago when he was a teenager. Kirk was a telegenic political organizer who mastered the multimedia platforms of his generation and turned out young American conservatives for the benefit of candidates like President Trump. More tonight from CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIRK: That's a lot of people, Utah. Tell you what.
(CROWD CHEERING)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even in a MAGA ecosystem of fast moving, sharp talking media stars, Charlie Kirk stood out.
KIRK: We need more people in jail. We do not have enough people in prison in America.
TODD (voice-over): The 31-year-old father of two rose to fame at a young age, just 18 when he co-founded the group, Turning Point USA, which builds support for conservative politics at high schools and colleges.
KIRK: As I travel the country, and I'm doing this on college campuses, I can feel a surge.
TODD (voice-over): Turning Point USA now has chapters on more than 800 campuses. And on the eve of his second inauguration, President Trump credited Kirk with mobilizing the youth vote.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And a man who's got an army of young people, Charlie Kirk is here and I want to thank Charlie. Charlie is fantastic. I mean, this guy -- don't believe this stuff when you hear the kids are liberal, they're not liberal. Maybe they used to be, but they're not anymore.
TODD (voice-over): A college dropout, born in the suburbs of Chicago, Kirk became a millionaire from the books he wrote, speaking engagements, and his popular podcast, "The Charlie Kirk Show." On all media platforms, he was a strong voice for conservative causes, including the Second Amendment.
KIRK: You don't need all these gun laws if you -- you don't -- it's OK if everybody owns guns. If you don't have much of third-worlders coming into your nation, that don't abide them and then commit a lot of crimes.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: He is one of the most prominent, I would say, the most successful MAGA media personality of his generation. He's a little bit like a new era Rush Limbaugh of the digital age. But unlike someone like Rush who hosted a radio show at his home, Kirk is out and about. He's known for doing these public events.
TODD (voice-over): Analysts say Kirk's propensity for being able to take on anyone in a political argument at the drop of a hat propelled him in MAGA circles.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Charlie Kirk could debate endlessly. He mastered his brief. Again, obviously not everyone agreed with him. A conservative media star here, but he would debate for hours on end with people in the belief of his argument.
TODD (voice-over): As a result, Kirk had the ear of almost everyone in the White House from President Trump on down. When he broke with the administration twice this year over the bombing of Iran and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the stir in MAGA world was palpable. He later backed down from his call for more transparency in the Epstein case.
KIRK: I'm going to trust my friends in the administration. I'm going to trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, ball is in their hands.
TODD (voice-over): In October of last year, Kirk reflected on Trump's defiant gestures right after Trump was shot in an assassination attempt that summer in Pennsylvania.
KIRK: They say, well, is this someone that you want your kids to grow up and to look up to? I say, yes, I'm going to tell my son that in the line of fire, that if you ever think as if things could ever get dark and you rise and you say, fight, fight, fight. I want my son to be like that one day.
TODD (voice-over): And true to form, Charlie Kirk was engaging with an audience in that last appearance in Utah, answering questions from the audience about mass shooters in the U.S. just moments before he was shot. Anderson?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Brian Todd, thanks so much. I want to talk more about Charlie Kirk's impact on conservative politics. CNN Contributor, Kara Swisher host the podcast "On With Kara Swisher" and CNN Senior Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan. Donie, you've attended certainly a lot of -- or a number of Kirk events. What was it like? What stood out?
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, Anderson, we did a report for this show back in July, really just pointing out how there isn't an equivalent on the left, right? The Democrats don't have this massive get-out-to-vote juggernaut for young voters. And we were in Tampa in Florida at his Turning Point USA event in July. And one young conservative told us a little bit about what it all meant to her. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANI BERNECKER, TURNING POINT USA ATTENDEE: I'm here because I love Turning Point USA. I have a chapter where I'm from, and I just love Turning Point USA. I love everything about it. I love the energy that we bring. I love the fact that we are now becoming like -- we're becoming the cool kids now. Like for a very, very long time, especially during the Biden presidency, we were told that we aren't cool anymore. We were defeated and now, we're just -- to be at an event like this is just such a celebration of what we've overcome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: And so, this was something and we spoke to some Democrats, some of Kirk's most ardent critics who said we may disagree with basically most of his politics, all of his politics, but they really recognized that what he had built in Turning Point USA was something essentially that the Democrats need to do.
[20:55:00]
COOPER: Kara, I mean, Kirk was massively influential online. Can you --
KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely.
COOPER: -- really compare his rise and impact to anyone else's? Or was he kind of one of a kind?
SWISHER: Oh, no, there's a lot of people, especially on the right, just like they did with radio. Rush Limbaugh was sort of radio and terrestrial. He was sort of the equivalent for online, whether it was Instagram or Twitter or wherever he appeared, he was -- there's a lot of right-wing media stars in that way, and he was probably one of the top ones. And what he did is he combined offline and online, and kept moving them back and forth. He was very -- he was constantly online and always had a rejoinder thing. And he understood the need to reach young people that way.
He was a young person himself. And so he did -- he grew up in that era and understood that and was effective for what he was trying to do because he was pugnacious. He had all the qualities that tend to work online, a lot of which is around enragement to equal engagement, as I talk about a lot.
COOPER: I want to play, President Trump has made his first comments on video and I want to show you some of them right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's a long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.
My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Those comments just released by President Trump. They go on. Kara, certainly the president is not sort of calling for calm on all sides.
SWISHER: No. No, he's just saying we should all not do this, and then immediately did it. That's -- this is the problem here, is this rhetoric never stops and it never goes. There's never an opportunity not to have an opportunity to hate, you know? And so in that thing, I was sitting there, oh, phew. He is going to say something like let's not jump to conclusions. We don't know anything right now. Instead, he used it as a political opportunity, which is not a particular surprise to me, but I think it's problematic.
This is what happens. Enragement equals engagement, and it encourages more hate. It's a real weaponization of words, really.
COOPER: We're talking about enragement which equals engagement, I want to play some right-wing personalities, how they've reacted to the news today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX JONES, CONSERVATIVE MEDIA PERSONALITY: We are in a war. The left has been saying, put a bull's-eye on Trump, bull's-eye on his supporters.
STEVE BANNON, PODCAST HOST: Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We're in this country. We are.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEW HOST: They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Kara, what do you make of that rhetoric?
SWISHER: I'm not at war with Jesse Watters or Steve Bannon or anything else. I think it's dangerous. And I think what happens, it gets amplified and weaponized online. I've talked about this a lot. And then it just goes on and on, and it goes into the right wing conspiracy. We don't know anything right now, and so why don't we wait until we figure out what happened here. At the same time, lower the temperature, and it's very hard to do that online because it's so attractive to scream and yell and dunk. And sometimes it's funny, but much of the time like this, it's incredibly ugly.
COOPER: There's -- I mean, Donie, I mean, you've looked into this a lot. I mean, there's not only a whole ecosystem, but there's profit to be made in outrage on all sides of the political aisle.
O'SULLIVAN: Yeah, massively. And I mean, just saw those comments from the president right now on set. I was going to say, when it comes to the talking heads on MAGA media, you can understand, potentially, many of them were personal friends with Kirk. Maybe in the heat of the moment today, what I was going to say was hopefully, the president would maybe try and calm things a little bit, but clearly that doesn't seem to be the case.
And look, this is precisely what's, I guess, the mantra that many in the MAGA-sphere push every day that the country is at war, that the left is trying to violently attack you. And so I guess, it's unfortunately not surprising it's being pushed in this way.
COOPER: Yeah. Kara, we only have like 30 seconds left.
SWISHER: Yeah.
COOPER: But it's interesting to me that Charlie Kirk, and again, whatever you thought of what he was arguing, he was in the arena.
SWISHER: He was.
COOPER: He was traveling the country, debating people.
SWISHER: Right.
COOPER: And that's -- there's -- there's -- that's important.
SWISHER: That is important. I thought those events where he was killed at were really interesting, and an interesting way to engage and he did do that --
