Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Source: Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Shot During Event in Utah. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 10, 2025 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: ... Governor Gavin Newsom now who interviewed Kirk on his podcast back in March of this year. He says, "The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in every form." Let's go back to the White House now and Kristen Holmes because it's notable as we just said, you know, he's been interviewed by Democrats and Republicans the weight that he carries and his voice within the conservative movement especially among young people, he's someone who at times has had the President's ear as well.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not just had the President's ear at times, I mean he is incredibly close with President Trump. They speak directly. He also was close with members - high- level members of the administration. You see the Vice President tweeting there. He knows and speaks to Charlie Kirk.

If they're - if you're talking to people within the administration, they will tell you that Kirk is somebody who has the finger on the pulse of the MAGA movement in a way that sometimes even the people in Washington do not. He has been such a force for President Trump, somebody that they relied on. At times, they - it was even floated that he might join the administration.

And I was told during the transition that they actually believed that he was more powerful not being part of the administration because of the following that he has, because of this unique ability he has to reach these specific young voters. And one of the stories we did on the campaign was how exactly they were doing this, and this was by reaching out to people who hadn't voted before, bringing them into the MAGA movement, and getting them to vote for President Trump.

So, it is not just as though this is an ally of the President's, it is somebody who, again, has this enormous following and that the President pays attention to, who is close to - who he listens to. We can recall that there have been issues that Charlie Kirk has brought to the President's attention that people in the base were upset about. This is something we've reported on extensively.

So, it's a - this is, again, I just think it's really important to note here, while he is not a government official, while he is not a member of the administration, he's essentially the closest thing you could get to that position without actually being in the government. He's influential in Washington. He is influential in the Republican Party. And he is certainly influential with President Trump and influential in the election in 2024 that brought President Trump to the White House.

KEILAR: Yes, influential enough. We'll remember that Gavin Newsom himself interviewed Kirk in March, right? So, as we have seen, especially young men going over to the ranks of Republicans. You even see efforts of Democrats trying to perhaps reach out to them. They do that by talking, at times as we saw with Newsom, to Charlie Kirk.

I want to bring in Brian Stelter.

And Brian, this was an event that was widely attended, so that means a lot of cameras and a lot of phones and a lot of witnesses and accounts. What are you seeing?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: And from every indication we have so far, this was an appalling act of political violence, something very specifically targeting Kirk, who was underneath a small tent in the middle of a college campus, a quad sort of environment, surrounded by hundreds of his fans and supporters, college students, maybe other people from around the community who wanted to see him up close because he is such a celebrity.

Look, I know Charlie personally. He is one of the most prominent, I would say the most successful MAGA media personality of his generation. He is just 31 years old. 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 as David Chalian have mentioned on here in the last few minutes.

One of the appeals of Charlie Kirk is his accessibility, that he is on the road, that he is on campus, that he holds these events and that he also debates strangers and opponents. Now, at this particular event, there were hundreds of his fans gathered around, and then there were also some protesters who were holding up signs against fascism that were much further away.

So, in these online videos what we've seen so far, a beautiful day is suddenly shattered by a single gunshot, and that is about all we know so far.

SANCHEZ: David, dovetailing off Brian's point about Kirk being something like a modern-day Rush Limbaugh, he is not without controversy. He's taken a lot of controversial positions when it comes to the culture war. It is part of his brand.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. In fact, that's why Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is thinking about running for president in 2028 and governor of California, wanted him on his podcast, because when Gavin Newsom launched that, he was talking to some conservative movement activists and leaders to try to explore, in the aftermath of the 2024 election, what Democrats missed here.

[15:05:04]

And to push back, like it was also to, like, bring attention to some of the controversies that you described. I believe - I might be wrong, but I believe when Gavin Newsom also sort of came out against trans women playing in men's sports, something that, you know, is a political issue that has been driven into politics, and he got a lot of backlash from his party. I believe he was discussing that with Charlie Kirk on the podcast.

I do want to just say one other thing that Brian said and what you said about his love of debate. I mean, that's also what Charlie said on the Newsom podcast about, like, why he was willing to accept that invitation and eager to do. Charlie Kirk could debate endlessly. He mastered his brief. Again, obviously not everyone agreed with him, he's a conservative media star here, but he would debate for hours on end with people in the belief of his argument. And he even said on the video from this event at Utah Valley University, at the start of the event, he sits in the chair in that tent, and he says, I'm going to be here for a couple of hours now.

And, you know, I do not know how long after that the shots rang out, but he was sort of setting up the framework of what the event would look like there. One other thing I would note about Charlie Kirk in recent weeks and months, Kristen was talking about how influential, how he has the ear of everyone from the President on down in that administration. There were two times this summer where he kind of broke with Trump and it was a big headline driving event just in that.

I mean, one was when the Iran strikes occurred, when the U.S. worked with Israel and was taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities or attempting to do so. He said this was creating a massive chasm in the MAGA movement. He identified that. He understood that. That's what it was, having the pulse on it.

And then with Epstein, he was at first quite wanting to spend time and exploring why there wasn't more focused on transparency. And after Donald Trump indicated, he was ready to move on, Charlie Kirk was like, I'm done talking about Epstein. He got some blowback from that. Again, getting the pulse of the movement, that there were folks he was following, so he actually did continue to talk about the Epstein affair even after that moment.

But you can see he - on a couple of high-profile occasions just this summer, where he wasn't completely singing from the songbook, what he was doing was, I think proving information that there were some rifts within the MAGA movement that Donald Trump should be aware of.

KEILAR: And just to note, President Trump on Truth Social has posted here: "We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM."

And I mean, listen, at the heart of this is a human being, a man who, by the way, has two small kids.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: We should just note, so his family is going through this as they are trying to figure out how he's doing, and we are trying to figure that out as well. Let's go to CNN Chief Law Enforcement Analyst John Miller. This is - we've seen - it feels, time and again here, John, this

violence and politics playing out. This feels different. This is a conservative activist, and I just wonder what you can tell us and what you're learning from your sources about this.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it's coming together a bit at a time. There is, obviously, been the shooting. It appears he was shot in the neck or near the neck. An individual is in custody. It appears that that person may have been grabbed by people in the crowd and held for police. We are still looking into an identity on that person and their background, and it's going to be a little bit through the fog of this event.

But, as was pointed out here, there are videos purported to be of the shooting on social media that we're working to verify, obviously. But a lot of witnesses, hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. There's a large crowd there when this shooting happens. Many of them are recording it. So, I think we're going to end up seeing a good deal of imagery about what happened in a relatively short time.

But, as has been discussed, we don't have a lot of information on his condition. But it does fit into this pattern of individuals with grievances, disagreements, showing up and taking this kind of violent action.

[15:09:56]

And you can pull out the file, whether it was Luigi Mangione stalking and killing the head of United Healthcare, or an individual creating a massive car bomb to blow himself up in a fertility clinic in California, or any of these other targeted acts of violence. We saw the individual with Molotov cocktails attacking protesters in - protesting in support of the Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, or the individual who showed up posing as a police officer to shoot elected officials in Minnesota.

And all of that, that we're talking about in these recent incidents, are now packed pretty tightly together, where we're seeing one of these things unfold literally every two weeks at this point. So, this is of really serious concern, and it obviously goes across the political spectrum.

SANCHEZ: And John, talk to us about the challenges of securing an event like the one that Kirk was hosting, in part because he's obviously a controversial figure and he has these debates where a large crowd is in close proximity. But there is a notable time and place that anyone out there who may have animosity and the twisted urge to do something like this, they would know exactly where he is. So that, that I imagine, for Kirk and his team, presents challenges.

MILLER: Well, it does, and we've seen this in the past with other controversial speakers, particularly on college campuses. And you know, most college campuses of this size have their own police departments and their own security. But what we're looking at in this case is you have a large open-air outdoor event. You know, it's an event that probably has little or no screening. And, you know, when you go from one state to another, the laws and the

rules - rules by venue, laws by state - about who can carry a weapon, in what circumstances, in what kind of places, get more open or looser, you know, as you go west. So, it is possible, and we'll dive into this in a couple of minutes and get the solid answers, but it's possible that anybody could have shown up for the event. I don't know if it was ticketed or not, but it appears to be a large open outdoor area, and that, absent any screening, might have been able to show up with a weapon.

These are obviously not answers I'm giving you. What I'm doing is framing the questions we're going to have to go through.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: And we are joined - actually, we have some new videos, so we are going to watch that now. Here it is.

SANCHEZ: This appears to be moments after shots rang out, and you can see a large crowd gathered there at this University in Utah, folks running away from the scene. This is one of many videos circulating online right now that we are working to confirm.

But, as John was saying, and - I mean, the challenge of securing a wide-open campus, what appears to be a courtyard there with a number of tents for officials, or rather for students and attendees to participate in the event, no shortage of issues trying to secure a place like that.

KEILAR: No, certainly not. And let's go to Donie O'Sullivan, who has been to a number of these events. He's joining us now on the phone.

Donie, we just saw some of the aftermath in that video, people running away, an incredibly scary situation for so many people there. Talk to us a little bit about these events, the kind of security they do or do not have, and what it's like to be there.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna, yes, I mean, I think what you're seeing on your screen now really normally sums up what these events look like - I mean minus the chaos, of course - but always very big turnout on college campuses.

Charlie Kirk has been doing this for a number of years. His organization, Turning Point USA, has been running these kind of events, hundreds of them, potentially thousands of them, across universities, really mobilizing the young conservative vote, and in recent years, of course, specifically the young MAGA vote. We were actually down a few weeks ago in Tampa, Florida, where Turning Point USA had their summit, and we spoke to some liberal groups, young Democrats, who are actually trying to emulate the work Charlie Kirk's organization is doing.

[15:14:57]

These Democrats were, of course, very critical of Kirk's policies and his views on politics, but spoke, you know, frankly very complimentary of his organizing tactics.

So, what you see at these events, these college campus events, has really been a successful model for mobilizing young voters. In fact, in just recent weeks, Kirk got the South Park treatment. The characters on South Park spoke about these events and mimicked Kirk's events where - at these events, I would say. It's basically - it's a chance for college campus students to directly debate Kirk, and so he will stand there and I think we see some videos coming from the scene today, where, you know, normally he is sat under a small tent, has a microphone, and there's a microphone set up elsewhere just a few feet away on the campus, where - and people come up to the mic, sort of like a hot mic situation, or an open mic situation, I should say, and they get to debate Kirk. And normally, massive crowds - as we saw massive crowds in really all of his events across the country.

SANCHEZ: Donie, please stand by. We do have some video we want to share with you of Kirk just before the events of this afternoon transpired and he was shot. You see him there inside the tent, a typical setup of these events where he debates members of the crowd as he makes remarks.

We're joined now by Emma Pitts and Eva Terry. They are reporters for Deseret News and they witnessed the shooting.

First, Emma, tell us what you saw.

EMMA PITTS, REPORTERS FOR DESERET NEWS: So, I mean, we were about 10 minutes into the interview and four people in front of us we just see, we hear the gunshot and then you see Charlie go limp and his neck kind of turned and then we saw blood immediately.

KEILAR: And could you get a sense, Emma, of his injuries and what happened after that.

PITTS: Both of our perspectives were that he was shot in the neck. To be perfectly more - like, it felt like so much blood came out of his neck immediately and then we all took to the ground. I can't tell you what happened immediately after.

SANCHEZ: Wow if you could, Eva, describe for us what the scene was like before all of that transpired. Who - what was the makeup of the crowd? What were folks there to see?

EVA TERRY, REPORTERS FOR DESERET NEWS: So, we had been there for about an hour before and we were just interviewing people on the ground. And it was a really happy excited atmosphere. We talked to some girls who were just - they're freshmen, they were excited to be around other conservatives. And then, the question leading up to it, a kid came up and he asked a question about how many transgender shooters there were and Charlie gave him another comment and then he asked one more question.

And so, the question was about shooters and before Charlie Kirk could put - pick up the mic again that's when the shot happened.

KEILAR: And Eva, could you see the shooter? Could you see where the shots were coming from? Can you describe for us what happened after if you could see the aid that was rendered to Charlie Kirk?

TERRY: So, Emma and I dropped to the ground, so we didn't see with our own eyes. Charlie hit the ground. We saw him fall, but it looks like the shot came and it hit, because he was facing us and it looks like it hit the left side of his neck and so where we were though it's interesting it's kind of like a stadium so it was ...

PITTS: It a big bowl.

TERRY: ... it was a big bowl, so it's - Charlie normally (INAUDIBLE) sitting on the side of like a pavement and everyone's at eye level with him but with this he was more down lower and then everyone was around him and like this whole --

PITTS: We saw videos of - from other people who saw the aftermath and didn't run immediately out because we ran straight away. But it looked like it was an older gentleman wearing a uniform who was taken away from - put in custody pretty much right afterwards.

TERRY: Yes, he was a man (INAUDIBLE) ...

SANCHEZ: And just to be clear, Emma, you're saying that you saw that through a video because you ran off from the scene. You didn't actually see the man being taken into custody yourself?

PITTS: We didn't - correct, we didn't actually see the man about 10 minutes ago (INAUDIBLE) we found the people that we had originally interviewed with are super happy to be here and excited and they had recorded it and so they were showing us from their phone.

TERRY: Right.

KEILAR: Okay, so you saw videos from people that you had actually talked to ahead of time who had recorded it themselves. What else did they tell you?

[15:20:02]

PITTS: I mean, nothing really from any of them. I think everyone's still here are in so much shock. The university has been completely evacuated, so the only people left in the building are people (INAUDIBLE).

TERRY: We have heard reports that Charlie Kirk is stable and breathing, that was a couple of - maybe 10-15 minutes ago.

PITTS: But, again, it's not confirmed.

TERRY: Yes, it's not concerned.

SANCHEZ: We are we are still working to determine how he is doing. I wonder what was security like when you were walking in, Emma? Did - were there metal detectors? Was there any kind of checkpoint that you had to come across where you had to sort of empty your pockets or anything like that? PITTS: No. Honestly not at all and I thought that was (INAUDIBLE) and

I thought, you know, (INAUDIBLE) and I think for everyone (INAUDIBLE) potentially happen. We had tickets, general admission tickets, but they weren't standard (INAUDIBLE) ...

TERRY: I didn't see a single person scanning tickets.

PITTS: (INAUDIBLE) and then honestly I didn't notice security until they (INAUDIBLE) paid there to be there for Charlie Kirk. I saw a few police officers behind (INAUDIBLE) but other than that, I didn't see (INAUDIBLE) ...

TERRY: I don't see any either.

PITTS: ... police officers.

TERRY: Yes.

KEILAR: Emma, how stunned are people that this happened there? I mean, there was controversy that he was coming for some people, but there were a ton of supporters there who were very excited that he was there as well. What are people saying about just how surprised they are about what's happened?

PITTS: Yes. I mean, beforehand people were so excited like I said that we spoke to so many (INAUDIBLE) who were just happy to (INAUDIBLE) come and have their political ideas (INAUDIBLE), but ...

TERRY: There were only a couple of protesters who were there and they were in balcony.

PITTS: Yes, and Charlie Kirk even made a point about it. He said, look up there, there's - there wasn't that many. There's probably about three or four (INAUDIBLE) spots, but other than that - and then there were few (INAUDIBLE) there were few protesters down around him. But, again, like I feel like it wasn't heavily protested.

TERRY: No, it wasn't.

SANCHEZ: Emma Pitts and Eva Terry, reporters for the Deseret News, thank you so much for sharing your stories with us. We appreciate your time.

TERRY: Thank you.

PITTS: Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Let's bring in Shermichael Singleton into the conversation now.

Shermichael, just your reaction to today's tragic events, Charlie Kirk being shot at this university in Utah.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean truly unbelievable, Boris. I met Charlie maybe six or seven years ago. It was Charlie, Candace Owens, and Brandon Tatum, and it was when Candace was trying to start the whole BLEXIT movement of targeting young African-Americans who might be conservative or at least conservative- curious.

And a mentor of mine at the time, the three of them came to meet with him to ask for support. They were just trying to raise money for the movement, and I thought he was a pretty impressive guy. When you think about it from an electoral perspective, what he's been able to do at Turning Point USA was something that Republicans have been trying to do for a long time, and that is to shift sort of the cultural conversation to the right in an effort to target and ultimately appease and convert younger voters to Republican voters.

And so, to see this guy who's dedicated to his wife, a very, very young father, man, this is tragic. I mean, I just couldn't believe what I saw, and whether you agree with his politics or not, one can't take away the uniqueness of his skills in the political context, and he certainly was one of the most skillful tacticians, politically speaking, that I certainly have ever seen and arguably that the Republican Party has ever seen as it pertains to his ability to mobilize younger people.

One needs to look merely to the most recent presidential election to see how younger people slowly moved over to the right was something that was pretty unprecedented. So, this is an unfortunate event, but man, I'm really praying for his wife and this young child and his family and all the people there who had to see this in real time.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, he has two very small children, and at the heart of this, that is what - that is at the heart of this. It's - this is terrible. And as we just heard Shermichael from those two reporters who were there on the scene, there's a lot of reason to be concerned here, right? They saw what appeared to be some pretty serious injuries, and there's still a lot of questions, so we need to get those answered and see how he's doing.

I do want to bring in John Miller and see if he is learning anything else.

[15:25:01]

John, we heard from some of those reporters who were there on scene. They were able to talk to some people who had videos that they had shot themselves. What are you learning?

MILLER: We're still looking at various videos. What you get from the videos is what appears to be the sound of a single gunshot. What you can't tell from the videos that we've seen so far, and what we also don't have from either official statements or even law enforcement sources yet, is was this a gunman who was at close range or was this, as we saw in the Pennsylvania attempted assassination of President Trump, an individual who fired that single shot from a great distance.

Again, more questions than answers at this point, except that we do know that an individual believed to be that shooter, described as an older man, is in custody. And we're also working to find out what we can about that individual. SANCHEZ: The university has also now confirmed that the apparent -

alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.

We also have CNN Anchor, Laura Coates, with us.

Laura, John just mentioned the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last year, actually two attempted assassinations of Donald Trump. In just the last few months, we've seen a shooting at the CDC over vaccine policy. We've seen the assassination and attempted assassination of lawmakers in Minnesota. We've seen Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, his home, a man bursting in with a Molotov cocktail.

It seems like political violence is ticking upward more and more.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: This was precisely the threat that was described by the Department of Homeland Security just a few years ago, talking about this. You can add to that the Supreme Court Justice Roberts having someone outside of his home trying to essentially intimidate, threaten, possibly harm as well.

This umbrella of violence that might have an ideological spin is why you hear so many conversations about domestic terrorism, an act intended to try to influence a political action in some way, to threaten or intimidate a great community of people. It's the most dangerous as well because it is so particularly generalized in its application against people. It's very terrorizing, not - to use the term precisely, because it is not indicating one particular victim but also trying to influence a thought process here.

If this, in fact, is tied to his ideology, given the fact that he is quite the lightning rod in many communities and has been accessible and yet controversial, you've got a very terrifying prospect for so many people who share his similar qualities in the sense of a public figure who is unabashed about their views that alienates others, that could possibly be a target for somebody. It is horrific to think about this being a young father, a human being generally, being targeted in this way. But now the law enforcement community has to go into full effect, including prosecutors.

They work backwards very quickly. They try to essentially reconstruct what happened. It is more than reflexive. It is proactive, trying to figure out who else might know about what's going on, what information could have been on notice. Has this person written something to indicate a motive? The person is alive. A suspect at this point, who we know. Could they talk? Will they talk? Will they ask for their right of silence to be honored in some way?

And depending on what they do there, we'll get a lot more information. But ultimately speaking, you're going to think about, as John Miller indicate, the weapons that have been used, the motivation here, were there other targets, was there a particular verbal trigger that was coordinated in some way that law enforcement could have been made aware of. And, of course, this is on a college campus. And school shootings, as we know, is one of the most terrifying prospects for any student. Elementary school, and at the home state of Minnesota, the Annunciation School as well just most recently, the more than 40 this year alone in a brand-new school year.

The community there trying to figure out, the university police versus the greater law enforcement community. Has this person traveled from out of state, because if they have, you're talking about different federal triggers as well. A state-level attempted murder otherwise can be dealt with in a state-level prosecution, Utah having a death penalty available, the federal moratorium on death penalties, of course, has been lifted as well.

And so, you've got all sorts of the octopus of sorts is coming in, all hands on deck, to figure out is there a clear and present and prospective danger, or are we dealing with somebody who wants to use this platform, having targeted this person, to gain notoriety for a larger ideological end, and that would be under the umbrella of domestic terrorism.

KEILAR: All right, we are going to get in a quick break, but we are watching our breaking news here.

[15:30:00]

Charlie Kirk has been shot, conservative activist, during his event in Utah. We will be right back.