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New Video and Images Released of Suspect in Kirk Killing; Charlie Kirk's Body Flown to Arizona; Lawmakers Raise Safety Concerns After Kirk's assassination. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 12, 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]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's half past the hour. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN This Morning. Here's what's happening right now.

The hunt for Charlie Kirk's killer is stretching into a third day, and Utah officials hope these new images will lead to his capture. Kirk, a prominent conservative political activist, was gunned down during an event Wednesday at Utah Valley University. Utah's governor says the FBI has already received more than 7,000 tips.

Kirk's casket is now in Phoenix, where he lived. Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife acted as escorts for the body. Kirk's wife and their two children when they left Utah. In Phoenix, plans for Kirk's funeral are underway. It's expected to be held in the coming days with President Trump in attendance. And historically, black colleges and universities across the South on high alert. Yesterday, multiple HBCUs were on lockdown or canceled classes over potential threats. The lockdowns came one day after Kirk's death and on the heels of a wave of active shooter hoaxes at colleges across the country.

And mourners all over the nation are paying their respects to Charlie Kirk, that includes one Utah Valley University student who was the last person to speak with him. He was asking a question about mass shootings when Kirk was shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The point that I was trying to make is how peaceful the left was right before he got shot. That only makes sense if we stay peaceful. As much as I disagree with Charlie Kirk, I'm on the record for how much I disagree with Charlie Kirk. But like, man, dude, he is still a human being. Have we forgotten that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: CNN's Marybel Gonzalez is live for us from Orem, Utah. Marybel, can you give us the latest?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Audie. Well, I can tell you that the manhunt for the suspect -- the person suspected of shooting and killing Charlie Kirk is now entering its third day. But we still don't know who this person is. We don't know this person's name or their whereabouts. Utah law enforcement told media outlets yesterday that they don't even know if he's still in the state or if he has left state lines. In fact, the FBI is now offering a reward of up to one hundred thousand dollars for information that can lead to the suspect's ID and to the suspect's capture.

But we do have new videos of the suspect, one of them showing the suspect walking what appears to be through a residential neighborhood near the campus. Officials say they believe this is before he arrived on campus at around 11:52 a.m.

Now, yesterday we know that authorities were able to track his movements through the campus up a flight of stairs and onto a roof where they say he shot at Kirk. But now we have a second new video which appears to show a person lying prone on one of the campus buildings before getting up, running across the roof of the school building and eventually jumping off of it and going into a wooded area where authorities found a firearm, a rifle.

[06:35:00]

Now, aside from those new videos, Audie, we know that the authorities are also looking into other possible pieces of evidence, including engravings on that rifle and on a spent shell casing. And then, also, palm and shoe imprints recovered from the scene left behind by the suspect and any possible DNA that could be linked to that.

CORNISH: OK. Marybel, thanks so much for speaking with us. Marybel will be reporting the rest of the day from Orem, Utah.

Now, the graphic video of Kirk's death is difficult to avoid. This TikTok. for instance, was filmed seconds before he was shot in a sea of thousands of people, which means thousands of phones. A video of the shooting itself immediately went viral. The New York Times reports that the raw footage has been viewed on X alone 11 million times.

Now, when you search for those images on TikTok. Facebook. Instagram, this is what you should be seeing, a sensitive content warning. Some lawmakers are calling for social media companies also to place lifetime bans on users who celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

And to talk about this, we are bringing into the chat, Sara Fischer, our media reporter. Sara, thanks so much for being here.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST AND SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: Thank you.

CORNISH: So, I want to talk about how the companies are dealing with this. First, it's always been an issue of taking things down, free speech, this big conversation. But they have been in a very serious dialogue with this White House and with the right about censorship. So, talk about the dynamics at play.

FISCHER: Yes. So, following the 2020 election and following COVID, quite frankly, a lot of big tech platforms started to pull back on their content moderation efforts in order to avoid scrutiny around censorship. And one of the shifts that we've seen is that when it comes to graphic and violent content, there's sort of two buckets. There's something that is completely banned, which is things that are overtly gruesome for the point of instilling violence.

But then you also have things that are historical accounts of violence. I remember a few years ago on Meta, that famous photo in the Vietnam War of the Napalm Girl was a great example of where it's difficult to draw the line between inappropriate and gruesome content, but also between things that could be historical. And so, when there's breaking news like this, the implementation of how they're going to input some of those rules is very, very sticky. And their A.I. algorithms are not necessarily trained to distinguish between, is this a real-time historical event unfolding versus something gruesome, A.I. generated, fake that we need to be censoring right now?

CORNISH: The other thing is this push to -- or at least one lawmaker is saying, look, maybe there should be some sort of conversation about accountability in social media. I think we have some sound of that this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-WI): Every single one of you here, you're at fault. OK. You know what, knock it off. Knock it off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe Republicans have a problem at this point?

VAN ORDEN: You are responsible for that assassination yesterday. You should be ashamed of yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your message to your fellow Democrats in Congress?

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): Stop with the rhetoric. You're getting people killed. You're going to get one of us killed too while you continue doing it. And frankly --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The reason why I wanted to bring that to this group is because arguably the reason why Charlie Kirk was as powerful and famous as he was is because of his reach in social media. It almost felt a little strange to hear someone saying to reporters at news organizations with diminishing circulations, this is your fault. Is anyone -- Brad, you're nodding. Does that make sense?

BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND CO- FOUNDER, ONMESSAGE INC.: Well, I think the -- I think what Congressman Van Orden is talking about is sort of the encouragement of all the, this is the end history. This is the end of the constitution. You're Hitler. Like that's the sort of countenancing that sort of conviction of the indictment of the heart of people because of their political speech. I think that's where he -- that's what he's getting.

CORNISH: Yes. But the irony is that the most powerful voices we're talking about that to me are in an alternate media.

NOEL KING, CO-HOST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "TODAY, EXPLAINED" PODCAST: They're on TikTok. They're not beat reporters for ABC News. I mean, I get, I get the congressman's like immediate reaction, it's a reaction we've seen again and again over the last decade. It's the media's fault. The media did it. In this case, I think that is honestly nonsense. Like there is a lot of radicalization on -- in this new media and TikTok on -- you know, on YouTube, on Twitter, on X. I -- and that is the stew, unfortunately, that young people are swimming in.

CORNISH: Yes. Meaning you also wouldn't ever -- you could see everything you ever wanted to see about Charlie Kirk direct unfiltered from him. You actually wouldn't get it.

TODD: True point.

CORNISH: Yes. You wouldn't get it from Capitol Hill reporter.

[06:40:00]

TODD: I want to put ABC News though. There's a headline has really made the rounds in conservative circles. ABC News put a headline up that Trump didn't mention the more in her grief for the Minnesota legislators who were killed, when, in fact, that when that happened, he did issue a statement that they were -- that issuing grief and sorrow for their death and ABC News yet ran with that two days ago as a headline. And so, that's what Derek Van Orden is getting at is sort of that too many people in the legacy media have been too quick to convict the right on these sorts of things.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Can I just say that the media receives threats and are fearful of their well-being because members of Congress on the right will try to act as if they bear some responsibility for the actions of others within certain circles. So, I think full stop for members of Congress who want to put that type of pressure on the media and blame them. So, that's number one.

Number two, I'm old enough to remember that some of the leaders on the right who are saying these things now will tweet certain things like when Paul Pelosi was almost killed in his home. He had Donald Trump Jr. putting up a Halloween costume with underpants and a hammer. Like, so we have to hold folks accountable for their words and their deeds. At the same time, we have to push back on these things that we know will be problematic.

KING: And folks need to hold themselves accountable. I mean, quite honestly, like the risk we're running here is that everybody looks like a hypocrite all the time. It's like when your side takes the hit, you -- you know, you're grieving and you're blaming others. Every single one of these people, you're absolutely right, has looked very foolish over the past couple of days because you can point to something that they said six months ago or a year ago or 18 months ago that completely undermines what they're saying today.

FISCHER: Well, it begs the question, what role then do the platforms play in trying to keep these conversations civil? And when I think about what lawmakers are saying right now about how is this graphic content going so viral? We are in a position in the United States where we have a very strong law, Section 230, which empowers tech platforms to be able to distribute whatever content because they're not legally liable for it.

I do think that this going so viral and this conversation around this very, very gruesome rhetoric going so viral will force us to reckon with how we are regulating tech platforms, how we're thinking about monitoring those conversations. Because I think one thing everybody at this table can agree on, the entire environment is more radical than it ever has been, and there's no way that you can't look at tech media, social media, and say that that's not a part of that.

CORNISH: And I want to leave you guys with this TikTok, which of course is in the middle of trying not to get banned, right? They're constantly dialogue with the White House. They're saying, we remain committed to proactively enforcing our community guidelines and have implemented additional safeguards to prevent people from unexpectedly viewing footage that violates our rules.

FISCHER: Yes. And by the way, consumers actually really appreciate that. For as many people who are willingly sharing this type of content, there's a lot of people who are saying, oh, my gosh, I don't want to go on social media right now because I don't want to be exposed to this --

CORNISH: Or my children to be exposed.

FISCHER: Exactly.

CORNISH: Yes. OK. Sara, as always, thank you so much for being here. You can read Sara's writing at Axios, where she is a senior media reporter.

OK. Next on CNN This Morning, Kirk's killing raising fears of more political violence. HBCUs, the Naval Academy, the DNC, all becoming potential targets. Plus, rants about world leaders, questions about evolution, against the man accused of trying to kill President Trump. That trial is getting off to a wild start.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

CORNISH: The killing of Charlie Kirk is just the latest act of political violence to shake the nation in the last 14 months. And the threats, both online and real, are actually growing. In just the past day, we've seen bomb threats at historically black colleges and universities. A threat at the Naval Academy, put the campus on lockdown until an all clear was given. And a bomb threat was called into DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C. That was later ruled a hoax.

And Utah House Democrats say they've received this threatening voicemail just hours after Kirk was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should leave the -- state. You should find somewhere else to -- live. You murderous terrorist animals. You despicable -- subhuman, violent, disgusting -- animals. You murdered that man in front of his -- family. You evil -- pieces of -- subhuman -- garbage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Utah House leaders from both sides of the aisle are calling for more calm and for an end to the threats and violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA ROMERO, (D) UTAH HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: I think it's escalated, but I think we can tone it down if we all work together. But that means we all have to work together.

MIKE SCHULTZ, (R) UTAH HOUSE SPEAKER: I hope that it starts to tone down some of the rhetoric that's out there, some of the things that the hateful things that are being said on all sides, and that we're able to come together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. joining me now to discuss is Rachel Kleinfeld. She's a senior fellow in Carnegie's Democracy, Conflict, and Governance program. Rachel, thank you so much for being here.

RACHEL KLEINFELD, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE'S DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND GOVERNANCE PROGRAM: Thanks so much for having me.

CORNISH: So, at this point, I feel like a total cliche, saying turn down the rhetoric. Lawmakers are saying maybe they should do X, Y. Can you give me an idea, what would it even mean? Do we have a kind of historical sense of how to turn directions when things are moving to a point of escalation of violence?

KLEINFELD: We do. I mean, this is not the first time America's had a huge escalation of violence. In the '50s and early '60s, you had violence against civil rights workers. And then in the '60s, late '60s to early '70s, it flipped to the other side. And you had the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army. And then we had militias and skinheads in the '80s, and then anti-abortion activists. And then it again flipped to the other side, and we had environmental and animal rights killings in the '90s and 2000s. We have a history of this. We also do have a history of letting the fever break and bringing it down.

[06:50:00]

CORNISH: What would that mean in terms of lawmakers? I want to play for you Ronald Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis. She was on CNN last night, and she said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PATTI DAVIS, DAUGHTER OF FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: One of the things that I find not helpful is when elected officials go on air and say, well, this is not who we are. This is not what America is about. Really? Because from where I sit, this is exactly who we are right now. And I don't know how we change that or how we fix that, unless you look at it straight on and take ownership of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Rachel, again, what would that look like? Give me some of your context to what you're hearing there.

KLEINFELD: Sure. So, the research is really clear that leaders are followed by their followers. And so, if political leaders, but also influencers, also the media, also the social media influencers, anyone who has a following start saying, this is not OK. This is not the norm. That's a really important statement.

And here's why. Most political violence is not carried out by mainstream people, it's usually carried out by disturbed individuals, people who are isolated, having mental breaks, having real problems with aggression and impulse control. They don't stand for anyone, the left, the right, no one. They usually commit violence against people close to them, their family, neighbors. They turn to political figures when they start hearing a lot in the news about political figures and they think, oh, my life could be more important. I could have significance if I targeted someone else. The more they hear that, the more disturbed people turn to political violence. And that's sort of the first step in a society moving toward greater levels of violence. So, toning down the rhetoric really does make a difference.

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

KLEINFELD: Thank you.

CORNISH: OK. In the meantime, an alleged would-be assassin is standing trial and representing himself in court. Ryan Routh is charged with stalking and carrying out an attempt on the president's life last September at a Florida golf course. His rambling opening statement on Thursday had to be cut off by the judge, and he began by asking what happened to Homo erectus. Then he went on a rant about Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu. Hitler came up. Routh then starts crying as he's speaking about the contributions of inventors like the Wright Brothers. So, this trial resumes in just two hours with FBI agents and a sheriff's deputy actually expected to take the stand.

And so, we're bringing in CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams. You always help us with the legal conversation.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR AND FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS: Thank you very much.

CORNISH: Thanks for being here. So, in any other scenario, a person who made an attempt on the president's life standing trial would be headline news.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

CORNISH: What are we looking at now with how he is performing in court?

WILLIAMS: How he's performing in court is not very well. But I think, broadly speaking, Audie, the Constitution guarantees anybody the right to an attorney in court. That also extends to the right to represent oneself if someone so chooses. And that opens the door to people behaving in court in a manner that really doesn't help their defense, but he's still allowed to do. And the standard is actually quite high for taking away the right to represent himself and appoint an attorney for him.

CORNISH: In the meantime, I'm thinking about what Rachel just said, Kleinfeld, and she said, you know, people who are fringe, people who want attention and to suddenly be significant. And now, this person has a platform to spout just all manner of ideas. And I just want your point of view on that, because, again, it's the incentivizing, whether it's a manifesto or attention, are we giving these people what they want?

WILLIAMS: I think in many ways you are. And until he demonstrates that, number one, he does not understand the charges against him, that, number two, he is mentally incompetent or unfit to stand trial, that can keep happening. Now, the judge can redirect him anytime he spouts off with a lot of this nonsense about the Wright Brothers and whatever else. But yes, absolutely, this individual has a platform.

Now, is that why he chose to represent himself? I don't know. A lot of people think that it's an extension of their ability to defend themselves and speak up for themselves. But again, what you end up doing is opening the door to someone coming in court and really spouting nonsense.

CORNISH: Can you tell me a little bit about him? What is known in his background? Because now, at this point, every shooter is subject to our investigation into their political beliefs as the clue somehow to understanding it.

WILLIAMS: Right. Now, there's certainly criticism of both Democrats and Republicans in his background. But to be clear, this individual was obsessed with Donald Trump, had even, after the shooting, written a letter saying, I'm sorry, I didn't finish the job and I'll pay a bunch of money to somebody else who doesn't. So, the idea that this wasn't an anti-Trump wacko is sort of nonsense.

[06:55:00]

But he was all over the place. Number one, obsessed with Ukraine and had, I believe, gone over there to volunteer and even raised flags among people there just in terms of his quirky or odd behavior. He also, and this is not going to serve him well later on in the trial, he's got a felony conviction for a prior gun possession and running from the cops and barricading himself in a house. So, the guy's all over the place, you know, far be it from me to say he's not well, but certainly not someone who ought to be representing himself in court.

CORNISH: OK. I want to talk to the rest of the group, and please stay with us, Elliot, because one of the things that's happening in the context of this, right, escalation of threats in general and hoaxes is that lawmakers and political activists, at least for the moment, both out of respect to Kirk and also because of these security concerns, they're scaling back on public appearances.

And you have New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying that she's postponing a planned rally this weekend. Popular conservative Ben Shapiro canceled two upcoming book signings. And so, far this year, U.S. Capitol Police tracked close to 14,000 threats, which is up from 9,000 last year. I want you to hear this from Republican Senator Kevin Cramer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): I was thinking yesterday, you know, trying to drive out of the Capitol, off the plaza. You know, you've got a thousand people working their way on foot and we're very, very accessible. I like being accessible, but being accessible is starting to look like being vulnerable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Maybe because you guys help people plan campaign events. You're out there speaking. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but help us put this in context, these fears.

TODD: Sure. If you do a political fundraiser now, you don't disclose the location of the event except to people who have confirmed they're going to come and that confirm that they're going to contribute. So, that kind of security measure is taking place. Town halls for members of Congress have gotten really to be no-win situations. You know, at best, you have people who are performing performative verbal violence, if not physical violence.

So, I think the fact that members of Congress are finding ways to insulate themselves from these potential threats, it's not healthy for us as a democracy.

CORNISH: Yes, because people want access, right, to those lawmakers.

WILLIAMS: And I think something that would boggle the minds of many people is that most members of Congress do not have 24-hour protection.

TODD: Almost none.

WILLIAMS: Almost none. It's really the speaker of the House, the Senate leader, the whip, and maybe one or two other folks. It's not -- even though these folks are out there, they're doing these public events, the handshakes, the kissing babies, and so on, they're widely exposed.

CORNISH: Yes, and the White House has yanked security from some figures as well.

SEAWRIGHT: I think it's bigger than just members of Congress. When you have children getting killed in a school by praying, it's a problem. You have nine worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina worshiping their God, it's a problem. The Denver shooting. So, I think we have to look at this from a wide-camera angle and not just isolate it to members of Congress.

CORNISH: You know, I think the reason why we're -- I'm talking about it this way and framing it this way, because I now am a person who sits in a pew at church and wonders if my back should be there or if I should sit somewhere else. So, I fully understand the thing you're talking about. I think the thing I'm wrestling with is sometimes politicized shootings, they are tipping points in history, right? Like they can -- it feels like they're fundamentally different.

SEAWRIGHT: I also think members of Congress have a responsibility to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do as model citizens. When a candidate for president retweets an image of the current president at that time, tied up in the back of a vehicle, I think that's where you draw the line and say there's some personal responsibility in all of this. So, the lawmakers have just as much of a role as everyday citizens to make certain that safety and all those things are a priority.

CORNISH: OK. We want to talk about what we're thinking going ahead in our group chat in these final moments. Mine, honestly, I'm just being bombarded with conflicting images and posts about this story. Noel, what about you?

KING: I am going to get out of the group chat for the weekend. I'm going to get offline, because it's the same thing with me. Everybody is talking about this news cycle.

CORNISH: Yes, which the Utah governor even suggested at the start of the show.

KING: And God bless him for doing so. I think that is the right move. I think everybody needs to spend the weekend going out to a game, seeing friends, go to the bar, go to church, do whatever. This is a time to pull back on the social media and just say, enough is enough.

WILLIAMS: I feel bad because mine is not a call to --

KING: Good for you.

WILLIAMS: No, but I've become obsessed with the FBI and the competence there. And I think the media needs to be asking more questions about why is the head of Utah fired a month before an incident like this? When you purge the leadership of law enforcement agencies, bad things happen, and we need to be able to trust law enforcement.

CORNISH: Right. And every day that he's still free, people have that question.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

TODD: I'm going to talk about college campuses. You know, Charlie Kirk's mission was going to college campuses and opening up dialogue. I think refocusing on the environment on college campuses where you can have an open dialogue, that is a very healthy.

[07:00:00]