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The Situation Room

Americans React to Murder of Charlie Kirk; Suspect Arrested in Charlie Kirk Shooting; Interview With Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT). Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 12, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: They keep asking, is it time for some serious, commonsense gun control here in the United States, similar to what's going on in other democracies in Europe or elsewhere?

REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MT): This weapon system was a bolt action. So that's the most common.

It wasn't an AR-15. It wasn't a -- quote -- "an assault rifle." It was just a rifle. You can go in as a citizen and buy a scope that is very sophisticated now. China sells them right online.

BLITZER: Which he had.

ZINKE: And these scopes don't take a lot of precision, a lot of time. Maybe a long afternoon, you will be proficient enough on these.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Are you comfortable with that?

ZINKE: I'm less concerned, quite frankly, of gun control. And there are limits. You know, obviously, if it's self-propelled or requires a trailer, we need to talk about these things.

But a lot of it is culturally we have just become an angry society. And I think that's the core of it, is that we need a discussion. We need the opposition. As a Republican, I think having a strong Democratic Party is healthy. I really do, I think, because you deliver a countermessage, but come in with better ideas, not just criticism, but criticism with a better idea.

I think that's a healthy democracy.

BROWN: So, obviously, you're not going to solve anger overnight, right? So what more needs to be done to keep weapons from people who do want to commit acts of violence, do you want to commit a political assassination?

ZINKE: Well, in the cases I have seen, these are common things. Like, I'm a SEAL. So I can tell you there's a lot of other things you can do that can inflict harm, and not just weapons, and not just a magazine that can hold eight or 12. We have drones. We have pressure cookers alongside the road. We have

trucks filled with explosives. There's a lot of ways that can -- and we have seen that in airplanes, that -- great harm. A lot of us just have to say, enough's enough. And those of us in a position of influence just ask, stop. Let's just take a deep breath, because, again, as a veteran, there's six SEALs in the House and one in the Senate, and all of us fought for this country for Americans.

BROWN: Yes.

ZINKE: We didn't fight against them.

BROWN: Right.

ZINKE: So I want to see, enough's enough. And maybe a veteran has a larger voice sometimes, because we have raised our hand and said, look, we're going to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. And, yes, that's the oath we're going to keep.

BLITZER: What worries me, Congressman, a lot of political divisions in other countries and democracies around the world, very serious political divisions, but people in those countries don't necessarily go out and get a weapon to shoot the political opposition, which is what we have seen now here in the United States.

It's so worrisome to me that this is unfolding. But let me get your quick reaction.

ZINKE: Well, I think it's a sad day again for America. Again, I don't think it's the access to weapons is the issue. I think it's the access to insanity, and for somehow an act of violence of this scope, no pun intended, would anywhere be acceptable any time.

And the reaction on some of the...

BROWN: But insanity isn't just unique to America. I mean, there's insane people all over the world.

ZINKE: Well, but some of the reaction was -- some of the reaction was, oh, another fascist gone.

We had people in influence...

BROWN: Which is sick and gross.

ZINKE: Absolutely.

BROWN: And those, to be clear, don't represent the majority.

(CROSSTALK)

ZINKE: And we should push back and say, enough's enough.

BROWN: Absolutely.

ZINKE: And to the degree we can, we should launch a campaign of dialogue. I think it is healthy to air it out, because we don't want to go into where we're -- where all of a sudden political assassinations or the censoring of...

BROWN: Or school shootings. There's been 47 school shootings just this year.

ZINKE: Absolutely.

BROWN: The one in Colorado didn't get as much attention. There were two students injured, but -- because it happened right around the political assassination.

ZINKE: Well, and you saw also the rhetoric about all these shootings came from one class of citizen, OK? They came from Americans. So let's start there, all right? We're all one country. We all should be equal under the eyes of the law.

And -- but, again, I think it would be well for us all to take, again, a deep breath, as a former commander of the SEALs, someone who's been -- I was in the top 10 as far as the secretary goes, and I have been in Congress. I think both sides just need to understand what's at risk...

BROWN: Yes.

ZINKE: ... and work on things that -- maybe they're super important, like the economy, like jobs, like prosperity.

[11:35:02]

BROWN: Well, listen, as a wife of a Navy SEAL veteran, I appreciate your service.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And I appreciate your service as well throughout all of these years, and I have known you for a long time.

Thank you so much for joining us.

BROWN: Thank you.

ZINKE: My pleasure. And I'm going to get better really soon.

BLITZER: I hope that hand feels better.

ZINKE: Absolutely.

BROWN: All right, Congressman Ryan Zinke, thank you.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We are following the breaking news.

[11:40:00]

Twenty-two-year-old Tyler Robinson is in custody in Utah, the suspect in connection with the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. And according to officials, a family member says Robinson became more political in recent years and confessed to the killing with his father.

That's what sources are telling CNN.

I want to bring in Brigham Tomco, a reporter with the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. He covers Utah politics and the conservative movement.

And you actually sat down with Charlie Kirk for an exclusive interview just three weeks ago. I want to talk about that and your reaction to the suspect now in custody, who we're told spoke negatively about Charlie Kirk.

BRIGHAM TOMCO, DESERET NEWS: Three weeks ago, I sat down with Charlie, had his headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, to talk about the impact of Turning Point USA and his vision and really his objectives for the youth movement he built.

And it sounds like this suspect that is now in custody took issue with the way that Charlie approached debates on college campuses, saying that Charlie promulgated hate, which is obviously a description that Charlie pushed back against during our interview.

BROWN: Did Charlie ever talk about concerns about threats from people who disagreed with his political viewpoints to you when you sat down with him?

TOMCO: You know, multiple times during our conversation, he talked about his career or his vocation as warfare or combat. He talked about politics as being a blood sport and needing to have spiritual anchors to keep him moored in this difficult line of work he's in.

And what he said is that an inevitable consequence of what he called this Christian calling of speaking truth was division. And that now seems like a very foreboding conversation that we had.

BROWN: Yes.

Based on your reporting, what are young Americans telling you about why Charlie Kirk was succeeding in making -- quote -- "conservatism cool again"?

TOMCO: I think young people usually between ages 18 and 26, this college-age demographic, they saw Charlie Kirk as someone that was willing to not just break maybe liberal taboos or some of the political correctness on campus, but do so in a way that focused on ideas.

It wasn't ad hominem attacks, as much as it was maybe shutting down arguments. And I think that helped some young people feel like there was space to take conservative viewpoints seriously and, like you said, maybe make it trendy or cool again. BROWN: So, given the division that he talked to you about and the

risk that he was aware of, help us better understand why Charlie Kirk thought it was so important to go onto these college campuses in an open-air setting like he was when he was shot and killed to speak with students who disagreed with him.

TOMCO: Charlie Kirk believed fundamentally that politics was downstream from culture. He said that his day job was trying to stop a revolution.

And what he meant by that is, he saw his visits to college campuses and all his works with Turning Point events, his podcasts and his books as trying to turn young people to changed lifestyles. And that meant getting married, having kids, going to church, contributing to their community.

And that's the kind of bottom-up revolution that he saw, and his viral videos were just one step or a means to achieve that outcome.

BROWN: All right, Brigham Tomco, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your reporting and perspective, having just sat down with Charlie Kirk three weeks ago. We appreciate it.

TOMCO: Thank you.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: And, Pamela, we're going to have much more on the breaking news coming up, a suspect arrested in connection with the killing of Charlie Kirk.

We will have the latest on the investigation and new information that's still coming in. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:47:58]

BLITZER: Soon after Charlie Kirk's killing in front of thousands at Utah Valley University's campus in Orem, Utah, that graphic moment spread like wildfire across social media.

BROWN: And, today, Utah's governor is pleading with people not to view videos of the conservative activist's death, calling social media -- quote -- "a cancer on our society."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SPENCER COX (R-UT): This is not good for us. It is not good to consume. Social media is a cancer on our society right now. And I would encourage -- again, I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I want to bring in CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter.

Brian, I know a lot of us went on to X and saw the video, but didn't want to see the video, of Charlie Kirk's assassination. It was in your face. And I hate to think about children that were exposed to this, right? What are social media companies doing about this in the wake of it?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, the companies say that they are enforcing their policies, in some cases, removing content that is really graphic, like videos of the shooting up close, or content that glorifies the shooting.

There have been some very ugly comments coming from self-proclaimed leftists celebrating or at least not sympathizing with Kirk. And that is a real issue right now on these social media platforms. Another issue, as you said, is this video, some of the close-up views of the moment the shot was fired.

TikTok, for example, says it's removing those close-up videos. Meta says it's applying warning labels to footage, basically just enforcing the policies they already have. But the conversation that the governor has helped amplify, and I am so grateful he is doing it, is about something much bigger than whether a video stays online or offline.

It's about what social media is doing to our brains. And that's what the governor focused on. And I think we all sense it, right? These online screaming matches are severely distorting the political debate in this country. But I think we should be honest about it, Pamela. We put the social in social media.

[11:50:01]

We are the ones choosing to log on. And when we log on, we sometimes act in antisocial ways. There's a growing awareness about how the algorithms and the incentives of social media bring out people's worst impulses and worst incentives, rather than their best selves. And, ultimately, we all play a part, because this is the attention economy.

So, I'm glad the governors speaking out about it and talking about how we're not wired as human beings to process this kind of material. And he gave some great advice. The offline debate that we're all having in this country is a lot healthier than the online debate right now.

BROWN: That's absolutely true. I mean, it concerns me because so many people, they also profit off of the outrage machine on social media.

STELTER: Yes.

BROWN: And all of it is really troubling, but I think it is important that the governor of Utah talked about this. It's an ongoing conversation, for sure.

Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

STELTER: Thanks.

BLITZER: Very important.

And just ahead: outrage and helplessness, what Americans from different sides of the political spectrum say they're feeling right now about the state of the country after the killing of the conservative activist, Charlie Kirk and the rise in political violence here in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:39]

BROWN: Turning now to "Your Voice."

A suspect is in custody in connection with the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. Here in THE SITUATION ROOM, we want to know how Americans across the country are feeling about the most important stories of the week, including this political assassination.

And joining us now to discuss our liberal radio host Zerlina Maxwell, host of SiriusXM's "Mornings With Zerlina," and conservative radio host Jeff Angelo, the host of "The WHO Morning Show with Jeff Angelo."

Thank you both for coming on.

I want to start by just showing what it looks like outside the headquarters for Turning Point USA, the conservative organization Charlie Kirk co-founded. Mourners have gathered near a growing memorial there. You see flowers. You see American flags, balloons, really an outpouring there.

Jeff, I want to start with you. Presumably, some of your listeners also listened to Charlie Kirk. What are they saying about this news related to his killing?

JEFF ANGELO, RADIO TALK SHOW SHOT: Well, they're very upset, but I think there's a common theme here that I hear among my listeners, which is that we are a country that enjoys free speech, and certainly I recognize that as a radio host.

But the word that I'm hearing now is boundaries. What is acceptable? What is not? What can we as a culture call out and say, this is not acceptable? And as Brian Stelter was just saying in the previous segment, being online and celebrating the murder of someone with whom you disagree politically is not acceptable.

And so even though this can be quite a divisive time in the country, I think there are certain concepts that I actually think that everyone can rally around at this point.

BROWN: And are you hearing that as well from your listeners, Zerlina?

ZERLINA MAXWELL, HOST, "MORNINGS WITH ZERLINA": Absolutely. The progressives that I speak to all over the country, every single one that I spoke to offered condolences to the family.

And I talked a lot this week with them about taking the temperature down. We are in a moment where not just political violence, but violence of all types, has become normalized in a way. And we can't become desensitized to that. And I think that the folks that I spoke to are feeling really anxious right now about the state of our country.

But, again, if folks we disagree with have the freedom of speech, that means that we do as well. And violence, it stamps out our freedoms and our ability to speak our minds.

BROWN: Jeff, are you sensing that anxiousness from your listeners as well about where we are in this country?

ANGELO: Yes, I think what Zerlina just said is a theme that I hear on my show. She said desensitized.

And I think that's going to come up over and over again, particularly given the Utah governor's comments this morning. How desensitized are we getting to this, the day-to-day violence? I know, here in Des Moines, police talk about young people are so eager these days to go to the gun -- that's the phrase they use -- when they have a disagreement.

So I think Zerlina is really raising an important point in general about how desensitized we are to violence in this country and how more and more people seem to think it's the answer to whatever there's conflict.

BROWN: Just finally to you, Zerlina, anything else that you want to say about this and what your listeners, how they have reacted to the news this week? Because there wasn't just the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. There was also another school shooting in Colorado, where two students were injured.

MAXWELL: We all need to...

BROWN: And I should note also the -- this was last week, but also should note the stabbing...

MAXWELL: Yes.

BROWN: ... on the bus of the Ukrainian woman...

MAXWELL: Right.

BROWN: ... right, that a lot of us saw too, which is really disturbing. Go ahead.

MAXWELL: As I mentioned, Pamela, we have been talking since last week about the normalization of violence of all kinds and the fact that we have to remember our shared humanity.

And I think, often when we're in this political debate, we put on our jerseys, our red jersey or our blue Jersey, and we point at the other side as if they are enemies, when the fact of the matter is that, we are all Americans and we all have to exist and live here together, people of all backgrounds, people of all faiths, people of all political persuasions.

And it's really, really important for us not to get into this back- and-forth, this yelling match. Why can't we have a calm and smart and intelligent discussion about policies?