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CNN This Morning

Manhunt Underway After Assassination of Charlie Kirk; Trump Order Flags Lowered to Half-Staff to Honor Kirk; Lawmakers Condemn Political Violence. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 11, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

DR. STEPHANIE LEITE, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: Students are fragile now anyway. They lost a lot of social skills in COVID and the schools have to be careful to make sure to react to it in a way which is supportive of the students and also supportive of dialogue, to make sure they understand that universities are a place where engaging in intellectual discourse rather than emotional or reactive behavior is what's supported.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: I mentioned earlier there is this manhunt. Do you have any sense of the kinds of things that investigators are looking for as they try and understand the profile of this person?

DR. LEITE: Most investigators are going to follow up on the clues in general. What they're looking for is someone who had developed a grievance, either real or imagined and then fixated on it and then came up with the idea, I know what I'm going to do to solve this problem that I think I have. I'm going to kill Charlie Kirk. So, they're looking for leakage and clues that someone had the ideas and put themselves on that pathway to violence.

CORNISH: And you said leakage. I understand this term as I've studied more about this is saying something maybe to people in your life or on social media to give hints at what a suspect has planned.

DR. LEITE: Exactly. People do not live in vacuums. We all live with people around us. And as someone who does this work day in and day out, I know through the core of my soul that the more people that are aware that someone around them is hurting or coming up with bad ideas and seek to get them help, the safer we're going to be.

CORNISH: Dr. Stephanie Leite, thanks so much for speaking with us.

Straight ahead on CNN This Morning, the shooter escaped in the chaotic moments after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was gunned down. So, where does that manhunt stand now?

Plus, a young man who dropped out of college to become a political star. How Charlie Kirk made conservatism hit for so many young voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CORNISH: It is 6.36 a.m. here on the East Coast. I'm Audie Cornish, and this is CNN This Morning.

Our breaking news, the manhunt in Utah after the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk was gunned down during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Local officials released two people initially taken into custody. The FBI has a public request for any clues to nail down a suspect.

From Utah to Arizona, New York and D.C., mourners have been gathering at vigils. Kirk's assassination bringing people from both sides of the aisle to share one message. California Governor Gavin Newsom calling the attack disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. President Trump calls it a dark moment for America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: 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. Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: On the campus of Utah Valley University, chaos in the immediate aftermath of the gunfire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This situation, people definitely feared for their lives. I could see it in their eyes. I could hear it in their voices. People were crying. People were screaming. It was a nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We're joined now by CNN Correspondent Marybel Gonzalez, who is live from Orem, Utah. Marybel, can you tell us the latest on the ground?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Audie, good morning. Well, we can tell you that the search for the gunman responsible for this deadly attack is ongoing. That person remains at large. And I can tell you that that is just adding to the tension and the worry that is here in this community. A community that is known as Happy Valley by locals here. That is because they say this is an atmosphere where people are friendly, where people are nice to one another. So, you can imagine how an incident like this has shaken up this community, especially because we still do not know who is behind this deadly shooting.

Now, as you mentioned, two people were detained yesterday, but they were released after officials found they didn't have a connection to this shooting. But what we do know about the shooting itself is that it was one shot that killed Charlie Kirk, and it was believed to have been fired from a nearby roof.

The attack, officials say, was a targeted one. And we're also hearing because of that -- so, we're hearing so many politicians, as well as reactions on social media from both sides of the aisle condemning this event. The president himself is blaming rhetoric from the left, saying that this is the reason why Kirk was attacked in the first place. He says he is planning to crack down on political violence. He is alluding to some future action.

[06:40:00]

But what I can tell you is that people from all sides of the political spectrum are saying that it's not OK for people to be attacked for simply having views that are different from yours. They're also hoping that the person responsible for this event is caught soon.

All of this while the FBI is asking the public to submit any sort of photos or videos that may lead to more information about the suspect. Audie.

CORNISH: And CNN Correspondent Marybel Gonzalez, we'll hear more of her reporting today. Thank you. Now, Kirk's murder happened at the first stop for the latest campus tour of his political group, Turning Point USA. The conservative group has more than 800 college chapters, including one at the campus of Utah Valley State, where Kirk was speaking.

Now, his events would draw hundreds and sometimes thousands of students to either support him or debate him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE KIRK, AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Let's stop talking down to college kids. I'm talking to voters, right? This audience will determine the future of America. And as you can see with my first dialogue, I'm not here to be adversarial. We disagreed. I let him have his points in. And as far as the fair standpoint, I have no notes. You can go bring a professor. Why don't you go bring a professor and bring him up to the mic? I'm not sure what your point is here. This is a free speech event. You could bring whoever you want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: But Kirk also talked about how he and other conservative speakers required security at such events. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, also known as FIRE, monitors free speech, particularly on college campuses.

And joining me now to discuss is Nico Perrino, their executive vice president. Nico, thanks so much for being here.

NICO PERRINO, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION (FIRE): Yes, thanks for having me.

CORNISH: So, as I mentioned, people have talked about needing to secure events, right? PERRINO: Yes.

CORNISH: And you've heard conservatives over the last 24 hours talking about their concerns about being on campuses. Based on kind of the research in your organization. What were you seeing? Did it feel like things are more tense for people?

PERRINO: Yes. Well, we've long seen troubles for controversial speakers coming to college campuses. And often colleges and universities will cite security concerns to prevent those controversial speakers from coming to campus. We often find that when we do public records requests, there's no actual threat. There's no actual public safety concern. It's just used as a pretext to shut down a controversial speaker. But obviously with the tragic events yesterday, we saw something entirely different.

And it's particularly of concern because college and university campuses are unique places for us to seek out truth, to talk across lines of difference, to develop a deeper and fuller understanding of our neighbors and of our society. And that was ended yesterday with an assassin's bullet. Free speech is what we do instead of violence. I think we should all hope that we live in a society, an open society where we can have our debates and our disagreements out in the public and not from behind bulletproof vests and bulletproof glass.

CORNISH: One of the things that made him distinct, and we saw an image of it there, he always had a Q&A, right? He's not a guy who just went to a campus and did a speech. He was constantly inviting a steady stream of students to come and ask him questions. And liberal students frequently were coming to the podium trying to debate him. Can you talk about what was distinct about how he went about this conversation?

PERRINO: Well, I think the footage you just showed is emblematic of what we saw from Charlie Kirk. He would come to these college campuses invited by students and student groups, Turning Point USA primarily, and he would have debates with other students. He created platforms, not just for himself to express his political opinion, but for others to express theirs as well. And he paid for it yesterday with his life.

CORNISH: This week, your organization released its annual college free speech rankings. Inside the data, I actually saw this trend that you highlighted, that you found students across college campuses nationwide found one in three believe that, quote, "using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable," at least in rare cases. We know nothing about the shooter and the suspect, but I want to talk about this atmosphere. What surprised you about some of the data you were seeing?

PERRINO: Well, I mean, we hoped it wouldn't become as relevant as it has become. So, every year we survey 70,000 college students and we ask them their acceptance for using violence to stop a campus speech. And this year we found that 34 percent of college students support to some degree using violence to shut down a campus speech. That's up from 24 percent in 2021. That's showing a cancer in our body politic, in our public debate. I mean, again, free speech is what we do instead of violence. Sigmund Freud once said that civilization was started the day man first cast a word instead of a stone. It's a civilizational distinction, and I feel like we're losing sight of that distinction. And I think a lot is going to be lost from our public debate as a result.

[06:45:00]

CORNISH: Nico, before I let you go, we're seeing a lot of political commentary online where people might be using Kirk's own words against him, right? Taking maybe his views on gun rights or his past commentary. How should people respond in those moments? And I'm asking you because you're an advocate for free speech, but watching speech weaponized against each other in this way, even in a moment of mourning, what do you advise people to like how do you respond to that?

PERRINO: Well, I think you need to have the conversations. I would hate if the outcome of this tragedy is less speech, more censorship, and less public dialogue. I think we need to be talking across lines of difference and having the political debate that Charlie Kirk so often had when he was touring college campuses and meeting with people who he disagreed with.

We need to be able to move forward, and I hope that colleges and universities won't see this as an opportunity to shut down even caustic or controversial speech moving forward.

CORNISH: OK. Nico, thank you so much for speaking with us.

PERRINO: Thank you for having me.

CORNISH: OK. Next on CNN This Morning, a survivor of targeted violence. I'm going to speak with a man credited with helping save the life of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords when she was shot.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hearts of people are waxing cold. Their hard- heartedness and an unnatural approach to the world where people are callous and unwilling to engage with one another in a civil fashion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And deep political divisions, raw emotion. How can the U.S. turn down the heat? And right now, a live look at the September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City. Ceremonies will be held in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania as America marks 24 years since the 9/11 terror attacks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00] CORNISH: Investigators are still looking for the shooter of Charlie Kirk. We do not have details yet about that investigation. We do not know information about a potential motive. But what we do know is from where that attack was carried out. It's believed that the suspect fired from the roof of a building 200 yards from Kirk's position.

So, we're bringing in a guest, Daniel Hernandez, who is very familiar with political violence. He was an intern in 2011 when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in Arizona. He joins us now from Tucson. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ (D), ARIZONA STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND HELPED SAVE REP. GABBY GIFFORDS IN 2011 SHOOTING: Thanks for having me on, Audie.

CORNISH: One of the reasons why we wanted to talk to you today is because you actually posted asking people to refrain from sharing the video of this shooting. And I have to admit, it was striking to me. I almost watched it against my will as I was rolling through social media. Talk about why you think that's important.

HERNANDEZ: You know, I think one of the things that I've observed over the last 14 years of being faced with political violence is this necessity by folks on social media to want to get out information, even if it's not accurate. We saw photos and videos of the alleged shooter and then hours later, finding out it wasn't them. But more importantly, the showing of the actual video of the murder of Charlie Kirk. You know, Charlie and I disagreed on about 99.9 percent of things. But you should never be killed because of who you are, what you believe in. The First Amendment is a fundamental bedrock of our American democracy.

So, I think for me, as somebody who's been, you know, a victim of gun violence a couple months ago, my home was shot at when I was running for Congress here in Arizona, have been in the site of an attempted assassination where six other people were murdered. It's something that's really traumatizing.

But I have been talking to teachers, and I think that's the thing that really made me post this. It wasn't just people like you, Audie, that were seeing this video against their will, it was kids logging into social media and seeing somebody be murdered and having teachers calling me and saying, what can we do to protect these kids? They shouldn't have to be exposed to these things.

And it's similar to what we've seen over the years where we're trying not to, you know, popularize or give notoriety to shooters or the people who are the perpetrators of these gun violence, but also not the actual acts, especially in this 24/7 environment where people can get the video seconds after this was first posted. And I think that's something that's really traumatizing to those of us that have seen gun violence up -- first close, but also for people who are kids, who have now seen this video against their will and are now going to be traumatized, seeing somebody be murdered just because of what their beliefs were. And I think that's something that's really concerning to me as an advocate, not only for gun violence prevention, but for protecting our democracy and trying to lower the rhetoric in our political environment.

CORNISH: I wanted also to bring something to you as someone who's run for office, as someone who, as we said, was witness to an act of political violence. Leaders, political leaders online starting to bicker about the causes of this. And then there was shouting that erupted in the House floor when they were trying to hold a moment of silence for Kirk. And here's how that started to play out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: The chair would ask that all members present in the chamber and those in the gallery, please rise for a moment of prayer for Charlie Kirk. Let's -- wait a minute. Wait a minute. The House will be in order. The House will be in order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, even in that moment, you know, there was this crosstalk of, did you cause this with your rhetoric? And then someone else yelling back. If you all who are dealing with the threats react this way, what hope is there for turning down the volume?

[06:55:00]

HERNANDEZ: This is one of the reasons why after I left office, I was in office for 11 and a half years here in Arizona at the state and local level. I joined something called the Democracy Defense Project for a couple of different reasons. One, to lower the temperature in our political dialogue, help restore confidence in the electoral process. I think far too often politics is seen as a zero-sum game. You either win a hundred percent or you lose a hundred percent. And that ratcheting up of the temperature has been really toxic. And that's where I think we are requiring better of our elected officials. And what we're seeing instead is elected officials behaving in these childish ways.

You know, there were plenty of times when I was on the Arizona State House floor where there would be a moment of silence for somebody that I wouldn't have agreed with a hundred percent of the time. But it's the thing about respect.

And in the moment, we have no idea what the motivation was for the shooter. But we shouldn't be trying to do the job of law enforcement and trying to determine why this happened when we don't know all the details. And I think this is the problem. People are trying to jump to conclusions and get to an answer before there has been a process. But in the meantime, what we can do as elected officials and as former elected officials is lead by example.

When I was a school board member, we always acted as if kids were watching. And what I heard from teachers yesterday is kids are watching. And it's really disappointing to me that elected officials would behave in this way, especially knowing how we are often targeted.

My home was shot at a few months ago. My sister yesterday, who's a state house member here in Arizona, got a threat on social media shortly after the shooting where they basically said, bad things happen to bad people. So, these are all too present in our political discourse and our dialogue. That's why I'm proud to be a part of the DDP, where we're trying to ratchet down that temperature and lead by example, because our elected officials right now are not quite where they need to be.

CORNISH: Daniel Hernandez, thank you so much for speaking with us.

HERNANDEZ: Thanks for having me, Audie.

CORNISH: All right. I want to bring you guys in on that same point, because I think part of our job here is to have political discussion. On this show, I'm probably a little bit more aggressive about not wanting argument and wanting conversation. But what did you make of that moment where even the moment of silence becomes a moment of fight?

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: It's really disconcerting. The stuff that's happening online is disconcerting, calling the Democrats a terrorist organization and saying that you have all these commentators saying we're at war, this is a civil war. That kind of language is really harmful and really scary for all of us who --

CORNISH: Right. Or using a phrase like avenge kind of language.

HAYS: Right. And it's -- for all of us who exist here and not on the fringes, that's extremely scary, because we just don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what person is going to be triggered. I don't know what the answer is, and I don't know how we tamp it down. But the way the president, sort of, was really good and really thoughtful and then turned it on the media and the liberal Democrats or extreme Democrats was also disheartening yesterday. So, it's like --

CORNISH: Let me play that for people, because we do have that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: The chair would ask that all members present in the chamber and those in the gallery, please rise for a moment of prayer for Charlie Kirk. Let's -- wait a minute. Wait a minute. The House will be in order. The House will be in order.

TRUMP: 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.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you say people who are saying the Democrats need to lower the temperature?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Oh, please. Right. Why don't you start with the president of the United States? (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Mike, because you were in communications for the White House. Can you talk about that that message?

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, listen, I think what's most disheartening here is that all of these comments were made within hours of the killing. And this wasn't something that happened a few days later after --

CORNISH: You want the president to speak in a moment like that.

DUBKE: Yes. But I watched the president's speech. And to Meghan's point, the first two and half minutes of that were, I thought, a unifying message. Now, then there was the turn towards the negativity of heated rhetoric of Democrats. The reference to -- of Republicans as being Nazis and all of that. Yes. I -- as a communicator, stop after the two and a half minutes. Because I think one of the -- maybe I'm old school in this, but one of the powers of the Oval Office is in times of strife to try to unify the country. And I think that is still an important role for the president.

For the congressional leaders, yes, they should show by example. You know, and I don't think it's on --

CORNISH: Yes.

HAYS: Both sides.

DUBKE: I hate I even hate using that rhetoric now because that's going to turn into something.

HAYS: It's like the extremes and it's like.

[07:00:00]