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Manhunt for Shooter Who Killed Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk; Charlie Kirk Killed Amid Escalating Political Violence; Former Presidents Call for End to Political Violence; National Marks 24 Years Since September 11 Terror Attacks. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 11, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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AARON DAVID MILLER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: ... we've now watched, and it's hard to believe that we're within weeks of the second, marking the second year of October 7, Israel's treaty partners and its Arab-Abraham Accord partners and its future partners, let's say Saudi Arabia, over the course of the last two years have watched the exponential rise of Palestinian deaths, a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is virtually unparalleled and unprecedented. And yet, none of them, even now, none of them have chosen to impose a single cost or consequence on Israel, let alone the Trump administration.

And it is remarkable to me that the Qataris are still talking about mediation and that no steps have been taken collectively. I think their options are very bad, but I think it reflects the reality that these countries and the Israelis have a functional relationship, and the Arabs are either scared of Donald Trump or they're obligated to him in some way, and they don't want to respond. I just find it remarkable, given what we've witnessed, that you haven't seen a more decisive response either against Israel or the United States by any of these countries.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron David Miller, Sabrina Singh, thank you both very much for being here.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking this morning, the urgent national manhunt, the race to find the person who assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk. We have an update 18 hours into the search.

Also breaking, the British ambassador to the United States fired over his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. Newly released e-mails showing he called the convicted sex offender his quote best pal.

And we are standing by for a new inflation report, crucial economic data after all the disappointing jobs numbers.

Sara is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, an urgent manhunt still happening at this hour for the shooter who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk. I'm going to show you Kirk just moments before that fatal shot was fired. This is as he's beginning this event, throwing hats into the crowd at Utah Valley University.

And then this came immediately after chaos and confusion as the crowd ran for cover with that single shot that was fired. There are so many images and videos from the scene. Just look at how many people were there.

The FBI pouring over really as many as they can get their hands on now, including this video will show you that appears to show and capture a figure ducking while running across a rooftop directly opposite the event where Kirk was hit. As of now, no suspect has been publicly identified. Two people were taken into custody but then released yesterday after police determined they had no ties to the shooting.

This morning, we are hearing from some of the students who witnessed the shooting, including two reporters for a campus newspaper who spoke with us last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOGAN TOPHAM, STUDENT, UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY: We all need to learn to love and support one another better, especially with those who disagree with us. And I think that we all need to learn to recognize one another as members of the same human family and just learn to work together even through our differences and learn to find unity, even if we don't agree on everything.

CHASE HUGHES, STUDENT, UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY: We need people who are willing to speak about what they believe in on campus. And I want them to know that if they want to come, we want to have them and I will greet them at the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Kirk, a 31-year-old husband and father of two, was a major force among young conservatives and in the broader conservative movement. Leaders and figures from both sides of the aisle speaking out very quickly condemning the violence, condemning his killing in this tragedy. Kirk also was very close with President Trump, who called his death a dark moment for America and vowed to bring his killer to justice.

Let's talk more about the manhunt for that very person. Joining us right now is Donell Harvin, a Homeland Security analyst. Thank you so much for being here.

You know, I think we can say 18 hours now into this manhunt. When you think of time, as time ticks on and they're still searching for this person who's very clearly on the run, what does that mean for this investigation?

DONELL HARVIN, HOMELAND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first of all, I'm very confident they'll catch this individual. And so that said, whoever perpetrated this attack clearly had made plans to make good their escape.

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And so I think that this is going to be a very complex investigation. The manhunt is going to be protracted. But I think at the end, they'll catch this individual.

BOLDUAN: The police say that Kirk was shot from some 200 yards away. We know we've heard that single shot. And I'm just wondering, someone who can pull that off, someone with that -- you would assume that level of training, how does that and what do you need to take into account when you're looking for someone? How much more dangerous does that person become?

HARVIN: Certainly. And if you remember the Butler attempt on President Trump's life, that was from about 150 yards. And so that, you know, that person wasn't military trained or law enforcement trained, but that was the first one, that initial reaction.

Someone who can make a shot like that from that distance is probably someone who has training. Once again, the fact that they're still on the run, apprehended means they're armed and dangerous. And so law enforcement will take all of those into account.

They have technological tools that they can use. Be with drones, aerial surveillance, you know, license plate readers, perhaps in the area, cell phone towers. They're going through that data right now, but there clearly is still a threat to the public and that general community because this individual was clearly -- I'm not going to say he's a professional -- but he had some professional type tradecraft.

BOLDUAN: One thing that I was hearing John Miller, intelligence and security analyst, talking about yesterday was just when you take this in the context of just how political violence seems to -- the pace of it is getting so much quicker. There is so much more. It is not abating. It is becoming worse.

And he says that the question amongst law enforcement and in experts like yourself needs to be kind of a -- you start wondering, are they feeding on each other? Is it a contagion? Do they learn, do they -- not necessarily copycat, but we spend so much time trying to often not talk about the shooters in these tragedies to not give them attention or to glorify what they've done. But what do you make of kind of this, this question of, are they feeding off of each other? What is going on?

HARVIN: And so that's actually the question we were having in class when this broke. I was teaching about domestic extremism and terrorism, and we were posing the question, are we at the point now that this is a chain reaction that you almost can't stop? And so individually, we saw what happened on the floor of the house yesterday.

We saw the very fiery comments that President Trump made. No one's looking to ratchet down the temperature. And if you just look at the bare numbers, the secrets, the U.S. Capitol police put out a report last year in 2025, they had almost 9,500 threats against lawmakers, which is an almost all-time high.

And so our political rhetoric is really high, very high temperature, very few people looking to bring that rhetoric down. And there's individuals who are consuming that online in some of these dark, deep places in the internet that are willing to not just take these as words, but to use those words and mobilize some violence. And I believe that's what we saw yesterday.

BOLDUAN: It needs to be a lot more people rising above it, even though that sounds simple and quaint these days, but someone needs to. Donell Harvin, thank you very much for your expertise. I really appreciate it as this manhunt continues now into its 18th hour after this shooting -- John.

BERMAN: Right with us now is David Chalian, CNN Washington bureau chief and political director. David, I've been listening to your wisdom on TV since yesterday when this all unfolded before our eyes. If we can take a step back and just talk about Charlie Kirk, the man -- for the young man for a moment here in the central role that he played in the rise of the Republican Party, particularly among younger people.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, John, I mean, obviously no one thing or one person is responsible for Donald Trump's victory and return to office. But my goodness, Charlie Kirk played a hugely influential role in this because he had built a movement inside the conservative movement during the rise of Trump over the last 10 years by going to college campuses.

And as you know, I mean, you're such a student of politics, John. There was a time that Republicans had like largely written off young people or college students to the left in this country, to the to the Democrats. And Charlie Kirk was having none of that. He went out and and organized and took his commitment to his beliefs in American politics and his positions and was willing to debate them with people on campuses, willing to engage in that true art form of political debate and persuasion.

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And in so doing, also sort of created an army of young people, specifically young men who joined his cause across this country. And if you look at the '24 results and Donald Trump knows this better than anyone, you saw the payoff for that politically of all that organizing that Charlie did.

And he was in large part a real key component to the ground game of registering voters and turning out these young voters.

BERMAN: Very real impact he had, David. We did get some information just in that the FBI is going to hold a press conference at nine o'clock a.m. Eastern time. We don't know what information they have or what update they will bring, but obviously we will bring that to you live when it happens. So we're standing by for that.

We are quite obviously at this precarious political moment, maybe a decisive moment in our country's future. What will you be looking for?

We heard from the president last night who pointed the finger directly at the radical left. What will you be looking for today and tomorrow to see what direction this is headed?

CHALIAN: Yes, I hope for a little less of the finger pointing and a little more of what we saw from Speaker Johnson on our air talking to Kaitlan Collins last night, or what we heard from all of the living former presidents.

You know, the last line in George W. Bush's statement yesterday really struck out to me. May God bless Charlie Kirk and his family and may God guide America toward civility.

We heard it from leaders like Hakeem Jeffries or, as I mentioned, Barack Obama's statement as well. That kind -- I think we have to be on the lookout for, are we getting the political leadership across the spectrum in a place of unifying people around the notion of how unacceptable violence is? And that here's the problem if you start blaming left or right in these circumstances, John, we can show you a litany of this uptick in political violence and it knows no ideological bounds. I mean, it's not as if it is just relegated to one side of the political equation or another. It harms the entire political process.

So I'm on the lookout for leaders who are speaking about that rather than trying to finger point or inflame this in a more divided, partisan way.

BERMAN: You asked the question, can we get that? Right now the answer is I'm not sure, but we'll see.

CHALIAN: Yes.

BERMAN: We'll see over the next few days. David Challen, great to see you. Thank you very much.

As I just said, 9 a.m. press conference from the FBI. We will cover that live for you. Obviously, that will be an update on this urgent manhunt for the person who assassinated Charlie Kirk.

Britain's ambassador to the United States fired after stunning e-mails revealed his close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

And a shooter opens fire inside a high school, injuring two students before turning the gun on himself. We've got an update on that investigation.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: All right, the breaking news is that we are expecting an update from the FBI in less than an hour from now, as that urgent manhunt for the person who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk enters a second day. When that comes, we will be bringing it to you this morning.

And as that search continues, political leaders across the political spectrum have been speaking out, are speaking out. All living former presidents from Joe Biden to Bill Clinton released statements of condolences to Charlie Kirk's family, also calling for an end to political violence.

In a rare statement from former President George W. Bush, he wrote this, in part, Violence and vitriol must be purged from the public square. Members of our political parties are not our enemies. They are our fellow citizens.

Joining us right now, CNN's Brian Stelter for more on this. And Brian, Kirk's assassination is really shining a spotlight once again on the threat and how very real the threat is of political violence in America right now. You have that from President Bush, that statement.

You also have President Trump, who spoke out last night, grieving and angry, blaming what he called the radical left in the video that he put out. What have you seen in the responses so far that you've been tracking?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, as people grieve for Kirk and as they express fears about what his death might portend for America's political future, I'm seeing people use his own words, looking back at Kirk's own words, in some cases bringing comfort and also starting a lot of conversations, you know, from the front of The New York Post, the front cover this morning, quoting Kirk, talking in the past about having reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option.

There's also an old video clip of Kirk talking with a woman about why he shows up on college campuses and debates students who disagree with him. You know, that was the name of his tour, the Prove Me Wrong tour. And in that old video clip that has now gone viral with people sharing it, expressing thanks for what he was doing and sympathies for his loss. He said, when people stop talking, that's when you get violence. That's when civil war happens, quote, because you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity.

Now, of course, there are a lot of liberal critics of Kirk who believe he was part of the problem. But it is so notable that Kirk wanted to debate. He had that desire to debate. And there is nothing more democratic than that desire to get out there and talk with those who disagree. So it's notable to see his own words, his own videos now being shared in a new way.

Now, we are also seeing on social media some far right commentators saying this is war, calling for retribution.

But I'm also hearing a lot of mournful reactions. You know, it's important to note those who are lowering the temperature and not just those who are trying to raise it in a moment like this -- Kate.

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BOLDUAN: That's a very good point. Lifting up those who are trying to lower the temperature while there are --

STELTER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- as I guess as -- is become the only consistency, which is people who are raising the temperature. You mentioned social media, the graphic video of the shooting. It's spread like wildfire online, like seconds after it happened. What have events like this and what do events like this show about social media's impact? I mean, good, bad and the influence of it after these after gruesome tragedies like this.

STELTER: Well, there have always been some people who want to watch these snuff films. You know, if you wanted to find gory videos of people being slaughtered, you could find those on the internet 20 years ago. The difference now in the past few years is that these social media algorithms push it to all of us, even to most people who don't want to see this content.

And that's what I fear about the last 24 hours. One of the things I fear is a lot of people who don't want to see that gory video are actually being seen when they log on to their social media feeds.

You know, Thomas Chatterton Williams, the author, waited on this overnight. He said it cannot be healthy individually or societally to be exposed to endless footage of people being gruesomely murdered in graphic detail on our phones. He cited the video out of Charlotte and the video of Kirk. And he said, this is not healthy to watch. We should not all be seeing this. It is warping us.

And I share that concern, Kate, that it is numbing us as a society to the true toll of violence.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, look as reporters, it's something that you take on as a responsibility. We do see these videos and we do see this in the course of reporting. And it is the conversation always has been for years of becoming numb to it, right. And just thinking of people who don't take this on as a profession to report it out. It's just being inundated with it is something else altogether.

Brian, thank you very much.

So on this breaking news, we are standing by very soon. FBI officials have announced that they will be holding a news conference this morning as the shooter responsible for the killing of Charlie Kirk remains at large this morning. They do not have someone in custody or publicly identified anyone. As of yet, we will stand by to hear from the FBI. And we're going to bring that to you live when it begins.

Also, this morning, we are learning new details about the man accused of stabbing and killing a woman on that North Carolina train. There's a federal investigation now underway there.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: All right. those are live pictures from the White House right now. President Trump expected to leave shortly for the Pentagon for the September 11th memorial there.

We're also monitoring this to see if by chance he speaks again on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Obviously, so many developments this morning, including a news conference from the FBI scheduled about 30 minutes from now. So stand by for that.

In the meantime, as I said, this morning marks 24 years since the September 11th attack. Families are gathering at the site of the World Trade Center Memorial in Manhattan for the tradition of reading the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed. At 8:46 a.m. Eastern, there will be the first of six moments of silence happening throughout the morning in New York, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. As we said, President Trump will be heading there any minute now.

Let's get right to CNN's Jason Carroll at the memorial in Lower Manhattan. Good morning to you, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, John. You know, behind me, for those who have never been to this site in Lower Manhattan, you can see the reflecting pools. And I don't know if you can catch it on camera, but everywhere where you see one of those flags, that represents one of the people who died back on 9-11, some 3,000 people who lost their lives on that day, their names inscribed here at the site of the reflecting pools.

Though it has been 24 years, I mean, when you live in New York, John, as you know, it is very common to come across people who lost someone on that day, people who were here on that day and saw the towers fall.

Just a short while ago, I spoke to Cait Leavey. Her father was a firefighter here in New York City. He was one of those people, one of those heroes who rushed to the South Tower, did his best to save as many people as he could. I spoke to her just a few moments ago about what this day means for her and her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAIT LEAVEY, DAUGHTER OF NEW YORK FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH LEAVEY WHO DIED ON 9/11: 9-11 for me specifically is just a remembrance of not only remembering my dad and all the men and women who passed that day and have passed since, but just also as a way of remembering for me and how I want to continue on his legacy of the sense of unity and kindness and community. I think that the days after 9-11 were really an embodiment of what it meant for someone to lend a small act of kindness and to just hug the people close to see you a little bit harder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: The Leavey family was here putting a flag by her father's name, Joseph Leavey. A number of dignitaries will be here as well for the reading of the names. The mayor will be here. Governor, former governor will be here as well. The program is set to get underway just a few moments from now at 8:40 a.m. -- John.

BERMAN: Watching the children who lost parents, watching them grow up every year has been this remarkable thing. It takes my breath away every year to hear from those children. Jason Carroll, thank you so much for being there. We're going to monitor this throughout the morning.

All right, a parliament building up in flames, deadly protests and an ousted leader. Now a foreign capital under military curfew.

And we're minutes away from a new inflation report. Actually, we're at 30 seconds away from a new inflation report. What it can mean after the disappointing jobs ...

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