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FBI Releases Photo Asking For Help Identifying "Person Of Interest" In Connection With Charlie Kirk Shooting; America On Edge Amid Rising Political Violence; Trump Quickly Blames "Radical Left" For Charlie Kirk's Killing; U.S. Marks 24 Years Since September 11 Terror Attacks. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 11, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R), OKLAHOMA: -- they're shooting up schools and churches. We weren't the ones that have taken assassination attempts on political leaders. That's only came from one side.

And so you do have to look at it and go, hold on a second. We're not the ones that have shut down campuses. We're not the ones that try to drown out --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

MULLIN: -- guest speakers when they come to our --

BASH: Yes.

MULLIN: -- come to the -- to your auditoriums or to our campuses, that's not happening by -- from the Republicans. That's been coming from one side, and that's the extreme side. The parties can need to find out how to work together again. And that's where Josh and I can work together, because the extreme wings of our party doesn't represent the heart of our body -- party.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D), NEW JERSEY: Agree. And I get -- just so you know, I go home, I get the extreme right comes after me all the time, and will disrupt things and does the same thing. And I think none of it's acceptable, whether that's on the right or the left.

That's just not what -- and when you have a member of Congress come up to me yesterday, a Republican member of Congress and say, I think I -- you know, I've talked to my wife and I -- she really wants me to start wearing a bulletproof vest when I go to events, right? And that's -- in our great country, that's not the way it should be.

And we should be able to have these political debates and have these discussions and these disagreements without people being afraid that someone's going to show up at their house like they're doing now. People are going to people's homes. They've been to my house. I know I'm sure they do it to Markwayne.

BASH: Yes. And --

MULLIN: We've had ATF at our house multiple times because of bombings -- bombs.

BASH: And that actually happened in Minnesota.

MULLIN: Yes.

BASH: A Democratic lawmaker was murdered. I don't know -- and her husband. I don't know if the person who did that is Christian or not. Did --

GOTTHEIMER: Right, it doesn't matter.

BASH: I don't know that it really matters.

MULLIN: Right, it doesn't matter.

BASH: I want to go back to what you said when you started one of your answers. You said, we are gaslighting our base.

MULLIN: Yes.

BASH: What does that mean? And when you say we --

MULLIN: Well, because people want you to fight, right? They expect you to be, to fight for them. And they want you to just get in there and stir it up. I hear it from my base. I know you hear it from your base.

And so we feed them words. And we even actually draw expectations that aren't even practical. And I mean that sincerely.

BASH: Yes.

MULLIN: Anybody that tells their base, they're going to get up there and go do this. And they've already been elected to office? They're lying because they know they can't deliver on that. They can't deliver on what they just promised.

BASH: And how do you -- but how do you deliver on that? Like, how do you, both of you?

MULLIN: Well, because you get a coalition of people like us. You've got to work in the middle and you got to work together.

BASH: Can you do that and then still not, to use your words, gaslight or feed your base? And it absolutely happens on the left and the right.

GOTTHEIMER: We have to. I mean, we have no other choice. We're either going to take this back or it's just going to keep getting worse. And you listen, you're going to do things. When we work together, I'm sure being on here together today will mean when we walk out of here on social media, we'll both get lit up --

BASH: Yes. GOTTHEIMER: -- by people on our bases. I guarantee --

MULLIN: They'll be telling people how much better I look than you.

GOTTHEIMER: But that's definitely true. That's not the first time that that will happen. I mean, I can lift more but, you know, we don't like to talk about that.

MULLIN: That's not true. See, he's lying. He's gaslighting his base right there.

GOTTHEIMER: But listen, it's not popular these days to work together --

BASH: No?

GOTTHEIMER: -- and to get things done. What's popular and gets the attention --

MULLIN: This is true.

GOTTHEIMER: -- is the screaming --

MULLIN: Yes.

GOTTHEIMER: -- it's the yelling, it's the gaslighting. That makes you popular. And by the way, the people you bring -- not you, Dana --

BASH: Yes.

GOTTHEIMER: -- but others who bring onto the --

BASH: Yes.

GOTTHEIMER: -- who do they bring onto the shows? The people who are going to say the most incendiary thing possible, because it gets better ratings.

MULLIN: That is true.

BASH: We're almost out of time. But I just want to just put a dose of skepticism or maybe realism into this, which is that, unfortunately, I gave you that list. When these things happen, there are people like the two of you who have friends across the aisle who want to try to turn the temperature down. And it lasts like seconds --

GOTTHEIMER: Per day.

BASH: -- a day. How do you give this conversation staying power? And this -- make this the reality, not the gaslighting the base.

MULLIN: You want to --

GOTTHEIMER: Go ahead.

MULLIN: I would say, first of all, we've got to watch. You know, people say sticks and stones may not wear bronze, but words don't ever hurt me. Bull. That's not true, right? Because words are what lights people up.

The first thing both sides do by, say, is start claiming, that's unconstitutional. That's unconstitutional. And I would go back and I'd say, read the Constitution. A lot of times when they're claiming something's unconstitutional, it's like, no, actually, the Constitution is silent on that.

That's not accurate what you're saying. And when we say those words, you immediately get a reaction from people. And so what the staying power is, is for us to hit a reset button.

I said this last night, and I'll say it today, too. This country has faced difficult times, a lot of difficult times. We have not been a perfect nation. But every time we went through the most difficult times, we were able to hit a reset button and grow from it.

And if all of us political leaders, if the news outlets, if the leaders with a voice can stop and say, hold on a second, am I feeding the fire? Am I part of the problem? And take a self-evaluation of it --

BASH: Are you saying that to the President privately?

[12:35:03]

MULLIN: We're all looking at this now. Let me tell you, the President -- I haven't spoke to the President since this. But we will have a conversation. I know he's hurting because him and Charlie were very close.

BASH: Yes.

MULLIN: And I think we can all, when you go through a tragedy like this, there is a time of self-evaluation where you say, can we do it? But it takes both sides. Because if one side doesn't, the other one doesn't, it's going to elevate the other side.

BASH: We're almost out of time and you've got to catch a plane.

GOTTHEIMER: The answer can't be to point fingers, one. Two -- like, make sure the rhetoric doesn't do that, right? Two, we all have to make commitments. That means our leaders. And I'm going to ask our leadership.

I'm hoping that Markwayne talks to the President about this and say, actually, why don't you bring a bunch of us together? Let's talk about how we, from a leadership perspective, and I'm going to do it with our leadership, bring the temperature down.

And three, we actually -- and Markwayne and I know we're going to do this, bring more people in. Probably not just from the middle of both parties, but from the further out of both parties and say, come on, right? And I'll put that on us to say it's up to us to actually not just talk about it today, but next week and the week after. This is not easy.

BASH: I know. Well, forgive (ph) me, I know.

GOTTHEIMER: This is not easy. But you got to appeal to people's better angels on this one.

BASH: Thank you, Senator --

MULLIN: Thank you.

BASH: -- Congressman.

GOTTHEIMER: Thank you so much.

BASH: Appreciate it.

More on our breaking news, the FBI releases an image of a person of interest in the Charlie Kirk murder. We are going to bring you more on the manhunt as we learn it.

Plus, look at Charlie Kirk's enormous legacy in the conservative movement, how he built it, one argument at a time.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CHARLIE KIRK, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: These students are just begging to see a collision of ideas. They want to see what is a conservative versus a liberal. Have I not heard the other side? We believe that all ideas should be heard. And we believe because of that, our ideas will win.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:20]

BASH: And we are following breaking news. You see there, that is a photo the FBI released of a person of interest in the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. If you recognize this individual, please contact authorities immediately. Call 1-800, call FBI.

Now, there has been a lot of talk about Charlie Kirk's steadfast belief in debating people, openly discussing his conservative views and his Christian values. He made his name, gained a lot of influence by doing this on college campuses. Here's a taste.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

KIRK: Do you think men can give birth?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I think men can give birth? I think that --

KIRK: Yes or no question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that a person who was assigned male at birth, I don't think they can give birth.

KIRK: Assigned male at birth? So people are not male at birth?

Do you agree that the happiest women in the West are married with kids?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would have to look into it, but I think there are certain -- there are certain --

KIRK: And objectively, we know that, right? The women with kids are not the ones tearing down statues, right? They're the ones that actually have obligations --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is tearing down statues correspond to some kind of smiles per capita data set that I wasn't aware of.

KIRK: I mean --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your thoughts about reparations for Black people specifically? And like Black Americans specifically, what is your --

KIRK: Very much against.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very much against. Can I ask why?

KIRK: Well, first and foremost, I don't believe that we should ever pay monetary damages to people where nothing bad happened to them --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

KIRK: -- just because --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

KIRK: -- they are related to a group of people where something bad happened to them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did state that you believe that the Holocaust was not as bad as abortion. So in other words, you believe that abortion is worse than the Holocaust.

KIRK: So, they're both distinct evils --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course.

KIRK: -- with some similarities. The Holocaust, in some ways, was far more evil.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

KIRK: But as far as magnitude, the abortion crime is more evil. And I can --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

KIRK: -- explain more if you'd like.

I can wear a black face. Do I become black?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, of course not.

KIRK: Oh, so wait, hold on. If a -- then a man dresses like a woman, why does he become a woman?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not that he becomes a woman. It's -- he's seen as a woman.

KIRK: But then why should he be recognized as something that he's not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not that he needs to -- it's not that they need to be recognized --

KIRK: Oh, no, that's what it's all about. It's about recognizing a delusion. You can dress however you wish, you can act however you wish, but I'm not going to recognize your lie.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here. David Chalian of CNN, Rachel Bade of Politico, Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times, and Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal.

David, I went to pick up my son at high school yesterday. And he said he'd already texted me about this. And he said, it's all anybody was talking about.

And I heard it with my own ears. People sort of screaming to each other about what had just happened. That gives you a sense of an impact that most political figures do not have with young people.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, because this was really a cultural moment that -- obviously, politics is at the heart of it because --

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- it's a political assassination. But it extends beyond politics into a cultural moment that I think broke through to even those not engaged in everyday, normal political news consumption.

BASH: But it's because young people know who he is.

CHALIAN: Without a doubt. I was about to say, your son also would reference Charlie Kirk in some things like that he would find in his feed throughout the course of the campaign, correct?

BASH: Correct.

CHALIAN: So like, this -- it wasn't like yesterday was your son's first time --

BASH: Right. CHALIAN: -- experiencing something about Charlie Kirk. There's no doubt. You -- Gavin Newsom talked about this when he had Charlie Kirk on the podcast. He said his son was so eager to meet Charlie Kirk. Gavin Newsom's son is so eager to meet Charlie Kirk.

His influence was real. And, Dana, that montage that you just played, I can imagine people -- some people at home may, like, scream into their television, disliking his views that he just said. But that was classic Charlie Kirk right there because he was engaging in that fundamental debate that is the heart of our democracy, which is to like stand for your steadfast beliefs and be willing to debate them with people with opposing views and not resorting to guns and bullets that way that somebody did yesterday horrifically.

[12:45:20]

So while you may hear that and some people may say, oh, my God, I couldn't disagree with him more. I think it's a perfect example of why Charlie Kirk was the influence that he was because he was so steadfastly committed to his beliefs and willing to stand up for them in the public square.

BASH: And Josh, I just want you and everybody to look at what we have seen with the youth vote. We hear President Trump say he won the youth vote. He didn't win the youth vote, but he didn't lose it by as much --

JOSH DAWSEY, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Right.

BASH: -- as other Republicans. And you can see we put up the numbers. John McCain lost by 34 percentage points. Mitt Romney, 23. Donald Trump the first time, 19. And then in 2024 -- excuse me, 2020 by 24 points. But look at that, the difference between 2020 and 2024.

There are lots of reasons for that. One of those reasons, a big reason is the kind of engagement that you saw from Charlie Kirk and others.

DAWSEY: Yes, I think President Trump gave Charlie Kirk a lot of credit for that. I think that's one of the reasons they were close and he talked to him frequently and gave him lots of influence and decisions he made, you know, in the White House and on the campaign trail.

He was close with the President's son. He was close with the Vice President, a lot of other folks in his orbit. I think one of the reasons he came into that orbit is he was so successful at energizing conservatives around college campuses, right?

If you look at what Turning Point USA did, their large conferences, his appearances, giving conservatives energy on the right and actually making the Trump supporters more, you know, willing to go out and, you know, proselytize to others and campaign for others and to like actually spread sort of a grassroots movement.

I think he did that. There was a great story that Robert Draper wrote in the New York Times a while back who just chronicled how he built that operation from like a few million dollars to $90 million to chapters, hundreds and hundreds of chapters all over the country. All of the volunteers he had.

I mean, whether you liked him, whether you disliked him, he was a force in American politics.

BASH: And he started at age 18.

DAWSEY: And he started at age 18. And he accomplished a lot on -- if you're a conservative, he accomplished a lot for the Republican Party, for the President, for his side in a short period of time and really probably had more of an influence and impact than a lot of elected representatives.

I mean, if you saw the inauguration where he was sitting, where he was at all of the events, where he was, you know, it was clear he really, really mattered in Trump and the President's orbit, President Trump's orbit and the Republican Party.

RACHAEL BADE, CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF AND SENIOR WASHINGTON COLUMNIST, POLITICO: Just think about what kind of person it takes to go into college campuses, which we all know are sort of, you know, a breeding ground of progressive thinking, liberal thinking, to be a conservative, somebody who's very out there, evangelical Christian, and to proclaim the types of things that he is saying on college campuses that are not popular with a lot of young people.

And he did that. He did it successfully. And he was able to garner a movement. Look, I agree with you, David. I mean, he was, whether you like him, agree with him or not, very much the perfect example of what we need in American civil discourse, right? Somebody who's willing to go out and debate with people.

And not only that, but invite people who disagree with him to the front of the line and say, come talk to me. I'm going to tell you why I disagree with you. And that's why he was so successful.

BASH: I want you to listen to some of what President Trump said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the most hateful and despicable way possible, for years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today. And it must stop right now.

From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives. (END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: He's right about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

TRUMP: In the most hateful and despicable way possible.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: But there's also other information. And that is in other events. And that is events that happened to Democrats. And we went through this with the lawmakers. Minnesota House Democratic leader was assassinated in her home as part of a politically motivated murder.

Nancy Pelosi's husband was gravely injured in their house. There was arson at the Democratic Pennsylvania governor's residence called domestic terrorism. And then, of course, the 13 charged and applied to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Those were not in the President's remarks.

[12:50:08]

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. That's right. And, look, I've been -- I used to cover the Homeland Security Department. I've been talking to many of those current and former officials this morning. And just, you know, across the broad spectrum of politics right now, law -- national security officials and law enforcement officials are so concerned about the state of political violence in this country.

And politicians across the board, including the President, making remarks that could add fuel to that, the current climate we have right now. There are scholars at the University of Chicago right now that have been tracking the state of political violence over the last four years.

And they've found that Americans across the country, that tolerance right now for political violence is at its height in the past four years. There's just been growing concern over this climate that the rhetoric we see from public officials could contribute to political violence.

And that we're at really a height of that right now. And we've seen numerous examples really targeting people across both parties in recent years. And we're seeing those concerns really at a heightened point.

BASH: Wow, I did not see that. I'm going to look that up.

Sorry, we have to leave it there. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate it.

Don't go anywhere, because coming up next, it is September 11th. And in -- on September 11th, 2001, 24 years ago, we remember what we were and who we were as a nation on September 12th, 2001. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:10]

BASH: Today we remember the September 11th terror attacks. But as the years pass, 24 years, the way we all felt after that tragedy is sadly becoming a distant memory. The way our leaders and most Americans came together instead of owning political opponents or denigrating differences and ideas.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: I saw what you're looking at with my own eyes on the east front steps of the U.S. Capitol. Dozens of Republican and Democratic lawmakers spontaneously bursting into a rendition of God Bless, America.

There was also a commander-in-chief whose instinct was to bring the country together.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down any enemies before, and we will do so this time.

None of us will ever forget this day. Yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Remember that? Well, if you're too young, go on YouTube and watch clips from leaders back then. America was not utopia, but it was different than it is now. To be sure, political violence is a sad through line of American history, but so is airing and debating differences with words and ideas. That is literally what democracy is.

I hope we can all remember that as we remember that shared purpose and connection we all felt as part of our deep sorrow 24 years ago today.

Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)