Charlie Kirk Shot Dead: The CEO and co-founder Turning Point USA (TPUSA) was shot and killed at Utah Valley University yesterday. His last debate was captured on video.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” a person in the crowd asked.
“Too many,” Kirk said.
Five, the person said. He then asked Kirk how many mass shooters there’d been in the last 10 years.
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk said.
“Great,” someone said, just before the crack of a gunshot. Kirk slumped right, blood spouting from his neck. His white shirt said “FREEDOM.”
Who Was Charlie Kirk? It’s not hard to understand a man who extensively documented his life and views. Kirk was 18 when he founded TPUSA, a profoundly influential far-right student organization that has more than 800 chapters across the country. Kirk had close ties to Trump and the Trump family. He was key to Trump’s 2024 ground game in battleground states. After the presidential election, Trump leaned on Kirk to vet candidates for the top jobs in his administration.
What Did He Stand For? Kirk believed Christians should run American society. He promoted the racist great replacement theory, promising Trump would “liberate” the country from immigrants, or as he put it, “the enemy occupation of the foreigner hordes.” He accused Democrats of purposely “diminishing and decreasing white demographics in America.” He said transgender people were “against the natural law,” that birth control “screws up female brains,” and that the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was a mistake. At a rally just before the January 6th insurrection, Kirk bragged about sending “80-plus buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president.” He pleaded the 5th when questioned by Congress. In 2023, Kirk said that the Second Amendment was “worth” some gun deaths; in 2022, he said empathy was a “made-up, new-age term that—it does a lot of damage.”
We Don’t Know Who Killed Him or Why: But it appears they took the shot from a rooftop about 430 feet away. After shooting
Kirk, they fled through a wooded area and left behind a bolt-action rifle, according to the FBI. In addition to the rifle, authorities have retrieved imprints of the shooter’s palm, forearm and footwear—but no shooter has been found. Two people have been detained and released.
What We May Know About the Gun: Three anonymous law enforcement officials told The New York Times said the gun was an “older-model Mauser,” the same rifle Nazi German troops used during World War II, which was imported in “large numbers after the war.” The Wall Street Journal reports investigators found bullets engraved with messages related to antifascism and transgender people. The conservative New York Post reported those details came from an “alleged ATF memo.” A source familiar with the investigation told the Post the Justice Department is investigating “descriptions alleged” in the memo, but couldn’t confirm the “description matched the evidence recovered at the scene.” A “senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation” told the New York Times the alleged memo had not been verified by AFT analysts and “did not match other summaries of the evidence.”
Update: As of about 9 a.m., the FBI in Salt Lake City asked for the public’s help identifying a person of interest. The photo shows a person in jeans, a black shirt with an American flag with what looks to be an eagle at the center, black sunglasses and a grey baseball cap.
Without Evidence, Right-Wing Called for “War,” Vengeance: “For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” President Donald Trump said in a taped address. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in the country today.” “This is war, this is war,” said Infowars’ Alex Jones. Oath Keeper founder Stuart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for January 6th (a sentence Trump later commuted), announced on Infowars that he was rebuilding his militia group to protect figures like Kirk. He called on Trump to “invoke the Insurrection Act” and “declare the left in this country is in obvious open rebellion against the law of the United States.” Elon Musk called the Left (not a party) “the party of murder.” Influencer and (unofficial) Trump advisor Laura Loomer said on X that “the Left are terrorists” and a “security threat.” She implied a mysterious “they” had sent the “trained sniper.” “More people will be murdered if the Left isn’t crushed with the power of the state,” she wrote. Christopher Rufo, a right-wing influencer who lives in Gig Harbor and popularized the false right-wing interpretation of critical race theory, suggested on X that the “radical left” was responsible for the shooting.
Hm: South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace told reporters that Democrats “own what happened today.” Asked, if by that logic, Republicans owned the assassination of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, Mace balked. “Are you kidding me? … We’re talking about Charlie Kirk right now.”
Another School Shooting: Two Colorado teens are in critical condition after another teen shot them at Evergreen High School less than one hour after Kirk was shot. The shooter shot himself and died. It’s the 47th school shooting this year, CNN reports.
In Washington: Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silent prayer for Kirk on the floor. After 30 seconds of silence, chaos reigned. Lauren Boebert said “silent prayers get silent results” (classic Protestant behavior) and called for spoken prayer. Democrats shouted Republicans had ignored a school shooting in Colorado earlier that day. Johnson said they could pray when they concluded business for the day, which led to more shouting (“and he could barely be heard trying to quell the brouhaha,” writes the New York Times.)
In Our Washington: Politicians are condemning political violence, including Gov. Bob Ferguson (“Violence is never the answer”), State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh (it’s a “warning to everyone”), and Attorney General Nick Brown (“Political violence will consume us all if we let it fester.”)
So…. How About That Weather: It’s quite nice. Fog is covering the city now, but it’ll burn off, and the day will be mostly sunny with a high near 73. Tomorrow, the clouds roll in, but the sun will come out again on Saturday. Sunday, there’ll be a chance of showers.
ICYMI: City Council voted 7-2 to expand police surveillance in Seattle this week, despite clear risks of police abuse and federal overreach. I watched at City Hall, where public commenters pleaded for the Council to take their concerns seriously for more than two and a half hours. It was clear most of them came to the dais with their minds made up.
So Free in the USA: Washington Attorney General Nick Brown warned that a Supreme Court decision authorizing federal immigration agents to stop anyone they think looks like an undocumented immigrant could lead to “race-based policing across this country.” Brown called the decision “shameful,” reports the Seattle Times. “It basically says that people of color in the United States of America, regardless of their citizenship, are second-class citizens in the eyes of the law.”
Also Free in the USA: Trump’s Department of Justice is demanding Washington State turn over its voter rolls within two weeks. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he won’t do it.
Bellevue Arts Museum Won’t Reopen … at least not as it was. Shelly Crocker, the “independent custodian tasked with charting a path forward for the institution,” told the Seattle Times that “its failure was proof that the concept…was not the form that the community wanted.’”
The Sonics Are Not Happening (But Go Ahead, Keep Dribbling): The Seattle Times reports there’s “‘no new news’” about NBA expansion after an owners meeting wrapped up in New York on Wednesday.
Who’s Coming? The Who, the band, on the North American farewell tour at Climate Change arena. They’ll be here on September 25. Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) won’t be. The band fired him earlier this year. Candlebox is opening.
It’s A Universal Emotion: Americans hate being invaded by the US military as much as anybody else. According to internal National Guard documents obtained by the Washington Post, its occupation of Washington DC is “being perceived as ‘leveraging fear,’ driving a ‘wedge between citizens and the military,’ and promoting a sense of ‘shame among troops and veterans.’”
He Can’t Say ‘You’re Fired’ Because Woke (The Law): Trump’s administration appealed a federal court ruling blocking him from firing Lisa Cook, head of the Federal Reserve, the AP reports. He tried firing her over allegations of mortgage fraud, but really, he wanted an excuse to take control of the independent board.
New Worst Guy: After a surge in Oracle’s stock price, co-founder Larry Ellison has knocked Elon Musk to the lowly position of second richest living person on earth. (At least for now. Musk’s compensation package is still poised to turn him into the world’s first trillionaire.) “AI changes everything,” Ellison said in a statement about his company’s growth. Seems like the same old shit.
Mars Rover Finds Dead Microbes, Maybe: The rocks in a dry driver channel may contain the first evidence of ancient life on Mars. It’s inconclusive, but certainly something. With all the federal cuts, it’s incredible that we’re even learning about this. I hope the Mars Rover, Perseverance, keeps its job. Hard to pivot once you’re out there.
Bloquons Tout (“Block Everything”) Protests Sweep France: Some ideas are brilliantly simple. “Block everything” originated with the French right wing, but has been wholeheartedly embraced by the French left. French police arrested about 450 people for blocking everything yesterday. The French government collapsed Monday. Wednesday was the new Prime Minister’s first day. He’s already faced the threat of a no-confidence vote.
As I wrote this last blurb, a woman at this cafe asked her friend if he was moving to France. “Not now,” he said. “I’m busy.”
