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The Situation Room

FBI Says, Recovered DNA Evidence Matches Suspect in Kirk Killing; Rubio Affirms U.S. Support for Israel After Netanyahu Meeting; Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) Endorses Zohran Mamdani in Race for New York City Mayor. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 15, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, new details in the killing of Charlie Kirk. What officials are learning about the suspect's past and what they're revealing about DNA found on pieces of evidence.

Plus, the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show will join me live on Kirk's legacy and where his movement will go from here.

And President Trump's ultimatum, his message to NATO countries as he plans to slap Russia with additional sanctions.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Diplomacy may not work. Right now, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is in Israel and is warning a military operation may be the only way to defeat Hamas.

Plus, TikTok deal. President Trump suggests he's reached an agreement with China to keep the social media platform operating here in the United States.

And later, overtime thriller, the Cowboys take down the giants, and it all came down to the kicker.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening now, major new developments in the murder investigation of Charlie Kirk. This morning, the FBI confirms that it now has DNA evidence linking the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, to the murder weapon. This is what FBI Director Kash Patel said just a little while ago.

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KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: And I can report today that the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA on the screwdriver are positively processed for the suspect in custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Robinson is due to make his first court appearance tomorrow. We're told he is not cooperating with investigators, but that his roommate is cooperating and that investigators are focusing in on a note Robinson left behind.

Let's go live right now to CNN Correspondent Danny Freeman, who's joining us from St. George, Utah. That's where Robinson lived before Wednesday's shooting. Danny, what are you learning this morning?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. Two really large pieces of information about the suspect here, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, from FBI Director, Kash Patel. You mentioned it first, the DNA and then new information about that potential note. Let's start with the DNA.

So, the FBI director said that the FBI found two key pieces of evidence, one, a screwdriver that was on top of a roof at the university where Charlie Kirk was shot, and then, of course, the hunting rifle found in the woods nearby that was wrapped in a towel. Kash Patel said that they were able to extract DNA from both the towel and the screwdriver, and that both have been, quote, positively processed for the suspect in custody, meaning they've connected the DNA on those items to Tyler Robinson.

Though I'll note, Wolf, the FBI director said that the ATF is actually handling processing of the firearm itself, so no update at this point if they can connect the firearm directly through DNA at least to Robinson.

But then the other fascinating piece of information concerned the existence of this potential note. Wolf, you might remember yesterday on CNN, Governor Cox of Utah appeared to confirm that a note did exist that Robinson may have written prior to the shooting that might have shed light on why he might have actually gone and committed this act, at least he's accused of doing so.

Well, Kash Patel this morning on Fox and Friends said that a written note, we believe, did exist, but he now thinks that the note has been destroyed, adding that there's actually forensic evidence that note may have been destroyed. However, Wolf, the FBI director said that they have a good idea of what the note said, in part, I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to take it.

Now, Wolf, this just adds on to a lot of information that we got over the weekend, including details about Robinson's roommate here in St. George who was a, quote, romantic partner and a man transitioning to a female, and also more information about the conservative family that, excuse me, Robinson was a part of here in Utah, but he'd been transitioning really to the left over the past couple of years.

The last thing I'll note, Wolf, you mentioned it, is we're all looking towards tomorrow, Tuesday.

[10:05:03]

There's going to be the formal announcement of charges, and then we're expecting to see Robinson make his first court appearance here in Utah. Wolf? BLITZER: All right. Danny Freeman in Utah for us watching all of this unfold, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, Vice President Vance is getting ready to host The Charlie Kirk Show. Vance says, taking the lead of the podcast will allow him to pay tribute to his friend.

Let's go live now to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. Alayna, Vice President Vance was extremely close to Charlie Kirk and says the activist played a key role in his political ascent. What more can we expect from this really rare move today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It is. I would argue, Pamela, that rarely have we seen an administration respond in such a deeply personal way to an incident like this. And Vice President Vance is one of the key figures who has really been clear to show just how deep and personal that relationship was with Charlie Kirk. Not only is he going to be hosting this podcast today, kind of what, in his words saying, you know, trying to honor his friend, but we also saw him last week cancel his scheduled plans to go to New York City on 9/11 for a memorial service. Instead, he flew to Utah where you saw him in a somber way carrying the casket of Charlie Kirk onboard Air Force Two, flying it to Arizona, where Charlie Kirk was from.

And, of course, he's also seen the broader Trump administration respond in such a way with the president ordering flags here and across the country being ordered them to be lowered to half mast, also saying that he would award Charlie Kirk posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

But one key question, and I know in my conversations, Pamela, with people here at the White House has been, you know, they've kind of moved from the shock and disbelief and grief to real anger and wanting real action. And there's been questions of what will the Trump administration to do from a policy standpoint to try to change things.

I want you to listen to how President Donald Trump referred to all of this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The problem is on the left, if you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It's not on the right, like some people like to say on the right. The problem we have is on the left. And when you look at the agitators the, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place, that's the left. That's not the right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, as you could hear there, Pamela, him not really using unifying language, putting all of the blame on people on the far left. And, again, in my conversations with people here at the White House, they're not really sure what policy -- you know, we've heard the president argue that he wants to investigate some far left organizations, what that could look like. We heard Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, argue that potentially it could be all baked into a broader anti-crime push, but, again, something we'll be paying close attention to in the coming days.

BROWN: Yes. And really important to note that political violence, as we've seen, Alayna, knows no bounds. It's across the political spectrum.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

And coming up, I'll be speaking to the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, Andrew Kolvet. Wolf?

BLITZER: Looking forward to that interview, Pamela. Also happening right now, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is in Israel and just wrapped up meetings with both the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.

There are new tensions between the two allies after Israel strikes on Hamas leaders in Qatar last week. After the meeting, Rubio reaffirmed the U.S. support for Israel and the common goal of the elimination of Hamas.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten the peace and security of the region. And the people of Gaza deserve a better future, but that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated. That better future and that kind of peace is not even possible until the hostel are released, all of them, every single one.

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BLITZER: All right. Let's go live right now to CNN Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, even as Rubio and Netanyahu meet today, Arab leaders are also gathering to discuss the Israeli strikes in Qatar. What can you tell us about that?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio very much in the midst of all of this diplomatic fallout, following those Israeli strikes in Qatar against Hamas leaders. The secretary of state will be doing a bit of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East here, spending time in Israel today, and then heading to Doha tomorrow. But the question is, what will he actually be able to bring to the leaders in Doha who today are convening alongside the leaders of Arab and Muslim countries to determine a kind of joint response to those Israeli strikes last week.

Publicly, the secretary of state hasn't really shown his hand. He largely avoided discussing and certainly avoided condemning the Israeli strikes in Qatar last week. The Israeli prime minister, for his part, was fairly unapologetic, comparing Israel's targeting of Hamas leaders in Qatar to the Afghanistan hosting and harboring Al- Qaeda terrorists in the wake of 9/11.

[10:10:06] The very big difference here, though, is that both the United States and Israel tacitly signed off on Qatar hosting Hamas' leaders several years ago in order to facilitate the kind of backchannel diplomacy that we've been seeing for several years.

In addition to that, the secretary of state is clearly also discussing what's happening in Gaza right now and Israel's plans to move in with ground troops into Gaza City in the coming days. The secretary of state saying that he agrees with Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas, and he suggested today quite pessimistically that he believes that a diplomatic solution is unlikely instead talking about military options with the Israeli prime minister. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem for us, thank you very much, Jeremy. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is backing Democratic Mayoral Nominee Zohran Mamdani. Hochul's endorsement published on yesterday's New York Times makes her the latest high profile Democrat to support his campaign. The 33-year-old frontrunner and Democratic socialist is competing with current New York Mayor Eric Adams, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, both running as independents, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

For more, we are joined by CNN's Gloria Pazmino in New York. So, Gloria, Governor Hochul is the highest ranking New York Democrat to support Mamdani so far.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And she is doing this, Pam, after nearly two months of refusing to back Mamdani shortly after he won the Democratic primary here in New York City back in June. And she had been facing some pressure especially from the Democratic Party's left wing here in this state, noting that she had not yet to give her endorsement.

So, while this op-ed is not a full embrace of Mamdani, in fact, Hochul goes on to say that she has specific priorities and concerns that she talked to Mamdani about, it is certainly sure to increase pressure on some Democrats, namely Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer, both who are from here, from New York City, who have also yet to endorse Mamdani.

We're also getting some reaction from President Trump who took to social media to comment on the Hochul endorsement just a short while ago, referring to Zohran Mamdani as a, quote, little communist and threatening to hold back federal funding from the city if he is elected mayor.

Now, Zohran Mamdani and Kathy Hochul don't have a whole lot in common, but Kathy Hochul wrote about the fact that Mamdani's focus on affordability was something that was important to her and the one thing that they agreed on. Part of what she said was that his focus on affordability and reaching families in New York to make sure that they could raise children in safe neighborhoods was a key focus for her. She said that the two had frank conversations over the last few weeks and ultimately that she had decided to back him. So, we'll see if there are any other Democrats who perhaps follow in line following this endorsement. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Gloria, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And still ahead, there's new evidence emerging right now after officials started digging into the suspect's past and his friendships as they ramp up their investigation, that investigation ongoing. We'll discuss all of this and more with the former FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe, who's standing by live.

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BLITZER: Happening now, authorities are investigating the killing of the conservative political activist, Charlie Kirk. The 22-year-old suspect in the case, Tyler Robinson, is scheduled to appear in a Utah courtroom tomorrow. The FBI revealing that the suspect wrote a note before the shooting saying he had the opportunity to take out Kirk and planned to act.

BROWN: Joining us now is CNN's Senior Law Enforcement Analyst and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

So, Andrew, I want to play some of what director Kash Patel said just this morning. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATEL: The suspect wrote a note saying, I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it. That note was written before the shooting. Evidence of its existence, we now have learned, existed before the shooting was in the location in the suspect and partner's home. But we have since learned that the note, even though it has been destroyed, we have found forensic evidence of the note and we have confirmed what that note says because of our aggressive interview posture at the FBI.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, help us understand what that means exactly.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I'm not sure what aggressive interview posture means. It's not something I'm familiar with. But what the director is basically saying is their investigation, which has spent a good deal of time apparently focusing on the shooter's residence, which he shared with the person who I think he's referred to as his partner, we're told, from Utah State officials that that person has been very cooperative, seems to be the only witness that they've identified as being continually cooperative. And that person, we know, has shared access to their computer and phone devices with the investigators. And I would suspect that that access led them to be able to recover messages that were exchanged between the two of them that had been deleted but not permanently removed from their devices. [10:20:03]

So, that's great evidence. But, you know, it is evidence of something that we already knew, right? We know this person, Tyler Robinson, shot Charlie Kirk. And this just goes to his planning, his premeditation of that act. It's good for the prosecution, for sure.

BROWN: Yes, based on the evidence that they've provided. Wolf?

BLITZER: Let me follow up on that, Andrew. The Utah governor, as you know, Spencer Cox, says the suspect in this case was radicalized in what he's describing as a fairly short amount of time. In your experience, what does that timeline look like and how does it happen?

MCCABE: So, Wolf, this is not a satisfying answer, I'm sorry, but it is different for every mass shooter, every school shooter, every terrorist, any individual who is compelled to engage in these radical acts of violence, for whatever reason. They go through their own personal radicalization period. Sometimes it's quick. Sometimes it takes place over years. Sometimes it's at the encouragement and with the direction of a mentor, a religious figure, someone who is like pushing them in that direction. And other times it's entirely solitary, people who spend a lot of time on the internet consuming radical propaganda, whether that's from a terrorist organization or just really extreme violence and points of view that they find on social media.

So, all these things have different impacts on who are -- on people who are pretty typically isolated, alienated, they have their own grievances that they bring to this radicalization process. And all that boils together in a very toxic mixture that leads us to a situation like we had last Wednesday.

BROWN: Right. And we're learning more about the allusions to memes and video games on the bullet casings left behind. Walk us through how the sort of dark internet culture radicalizes people.

MCCABE: Yes. So, I mean, there's been so much talk about this in an effort to try to understand this individual's political desires, preference, what have you. I think the messages on the bullet casings are really are significant when you look at them in this context.

So, initially, we -- most of us who are not spending all of our time in video games and video messaging applications and things like that, and like really trawling those areas of the very male, very violent, somewhat extreme kind of communities. We read some of these -- the messages on the bullets and they seem to indicate one thing to us. And then you hear well known in the context of this particular video game, Helldivers, it might mean the opposite.

At the end of the day, none of that is very helpful for investigators. Investigators depend on clear, persuasive unassailable evidence. And the unassailable evidence in this case is that this young man publicly murdered Charlie Kirk, who was a known -- a widely known conservative political figure. That is really all we -- that's the only thing we need to know at this point, and trying to decipher more detail about his motives from things like the bullet casing messages, I just find it not to be particularly persuasive.

We do know that the governor has said there is more information about his backgrounds and his political leanings that will be coming out tomorrow when he's charged in court. So, we'll likely learn some more that'll add to the picture.

BROWN: Right. And just to follow up, you know, he -- authorities are alleging he did kill Charlie Kirk. Of course, we will wait to see. The charges are accepted to be filed tomorrow and then he'll appear in court.

But I wanted to get your take on the roommate here. Because you heard the Governor of Utah, Governor Cox, say that the roommate was shocked about this. The roommate has been cooperating with authorities and didn't have any idea this was happening. What role do you see the roommate having in this investigation?

MCCABE: That's a really critical question. I was a bit surprised when in the initial press conference when they announced that they had this person in custody, they very quickly talked about not having a prosecutorial interest in the roommate, which I thought was a little bit odd at that early juncture in the investigation. The fact that person is continuing to cooperate is a good sign. The fact that they haven't been charged yet indicates that investigators haven't found a really clear kind of smoking gun piece of evidence that ties the roommate to the planning or the execution of the shooting.

And so, that person may very well stay in this status of cooperating witness. But as the investigation gets deeper and deeper, and they start, you know, like we've talked about earlier, recovering deleted messages off of devices, it's always possible that their view of this person could change.

[10:25:07]

And so I think we have to leave that possibility out there. Right now, they seem to be on a pretty clear path, helping the authorities, but you really never know where that's going to end up.

BROWN: All right. Andrew McCabe, thank you so much.

MCCABE: Thanks.

BLITZER: And coming up, diplomacy amid escalating tensions. Right now, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is in Israel. How he's threading the needle between support for Israel as Rubio touts America's strong relationship with the Gulf allies.

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BROWN: Happening now, let's make a deal. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Madrid for trade talks between the U.S. and China says the framework for an agreement to avoid a TikTok --