Trump calls Charlie Kirk ‘an advocate of nonviolence’ and says his supporters should respond that way
One day after his inflammatory address, blaming “the radical left” for the killing of Republican far-right activist Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump agreed with a suggestion from a conservative reporter that his supporters should not respond with violence.
The exchange came as the president left the White House for New York, where he will attend a game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx tonight.
RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann asked Trump: “How do you want your supporters to respond to this? Charlie Kirk was a big advocate of nonviolence and free speech on campus. How do you want your supporters to respond, sir?”
The president echoed the reporter’s words, saying: “I think that way. He was. He was an advocate of nonviolence. That’s the way I’d like to see people respond.”
The White House quickly posted the exchange on social media, perhaps hoping to tamp down anger that has already spilled into violence, with the beating of a critic of Kirk in Boise, Idaho, during a vigil on Wednesday night.
Earlier on Thursday, Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who is retiring after this term, told NBC News that he wished Trump would unite the country after the shooting, “but he’s a populist, and populists dwell on anger”.
“I have to remind people, we had Democrats killed in Minnesota too, right?” Bacon added, in reference to the murder of Minnesota’s former house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June by a gunman with a hitlist of 45 people, all Democrats.
Key events
Search update: no suspect in custody, officials say, but FBI is studying rifle and palm print
Police and the FBI confirmed that “no suspect is in custody”, in an update on the investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing political activist and commentator, sent to reporters on Thursday evening by Utah’s department of public safety.
The statement added that experts from the FBI are analyzing a “high-powered bolt-action rifle was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled.”
The officials also acknowledged that “photos of a weapon and various details about that firearm and ammunition, including inscriptions and symbols” are circulating online, but refused to confirm the authenticity of any of those photos.
The statement did, however, appear to indirectly confirm that the weapons had inscriptions of some kind since it added that “we are not able to provide further details on the content of those inscriptions.”
“Investigators have collected a footwear impression, a palm print, and forearm imprints,” the statement said.
Vance helps transfer Charlie Kirk’s casket to Air Force Two
The vice-president, JD Vance, helped transfer Charlie Kirk’s casket from a hearse to Air Force Two on Thursday in Utah, according to Tyler Bowyer, a Republican activist at Turning Point Action, the campaign group founded by Kirk, who posted video on social media.
“Charlie Kirk was a true friend,” Vance wrote in a tribute to Kirk posted on X late Wednesday night.
He added:
I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other’s chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life. These group chats include people at the very highest level of our government. They trusted him, loved him, and knew he’d always have their backs. And because he was a true friend ,you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to. So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump’s eldest son Don Jr was one of the people who informed the president about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, according to a radio show interview he gave on Thursday, in a measure of their close relationship and Kirk’s importance in the Trump family orbit.
“I found out that he had passed, and I think I was the one that broke the news to him, and it was a rough day,” Don Jr told Scott Jennings on Jennings’ eponymous show on Thursday.
Several people appear to have separately told Trump about Kirk after he was shot at an event at Utah Valley University, including Trump’s youngest son Barron, according to a person familiar with the matter.
But Don Jr’s call underscored the particularly close friendship he and his team forged with Kirk, starting from the early days of the Trump 2016 campaign, when Kirk scored a meeting at Trump Tower and offered advice on how to attract young voters.
That meeting got Kirk hired on the spot as Don Jr’s personal campaign assistant, but Kirk’s closeness with Trump grew in the wake of the 2020 election when he became a leading voice in pushing baseless claims that the election had been stolen.
Kirk was also one of the few political operatives who stuck by Trump when he was in exile at Mar-a-Lago after the January 6 Capitol riot, which Trump remembered as a notable display of personal loyalty at one of the lowest points for the president.
During the 2022 midterms cycle, Kirk encouraged Trump to endorse JD Vance’s Senate campaign – and then two years later urged Trump and Don Jr to select Vance as running mate before the 2024 Republican national convention.
Kirk played an outsize role in the 2024 Trump campaign, too, widely credited by Trump’s team with helping to deliver the battleground state of Arizona through his voter turnout group Turning Point Action after the campaign outsourced field operations.
Speaking on The Scott Jennings Show, Don Jr recounted Trump as being stunned by the news of Kirk’s death.
“I think he was shocked,” Don Jr said. “He got to know Charlie so well. I sort of created that relationship very early on in 16 and he saw that movement grow, and he saw, frankly, I don’t think there was anyone more effective than Charlie Kirk in moving the needle.
“And I think it was truly shocking to my father, because I think he really was amazed at Charlie’s talents, what he was able to accomplish between 20 and 31, the time that I knew him, most people couldn’t accomplish in multiple lifetimes,” he said.
Trump later personally announced the news of Kirk’s death in a social media post, in a rare sorrowful tribute for the president. And on Thursday, Vance cancelled his plans and flew to Salt Lake City to take Kirk’s body home to Phoenix on Air Force Two.
Trump calls Charlie Kirk ‘an advocate of nonviolence’ and says his supporters should respond that way
One day after his inflammatory address, blaming “the radical left” for the killing of Republican far-right activist Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump agreed with a suggestion from a conservative reporter that his supporters should not respond with violence.
The exchange came as the president left the White House for New York, where he will attend a game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx tonight.
RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann asked Trump: “How do you want your supporters to respond to this? Charlie Kirk was a big advocate of nonviolence and free speech on campus. How do you want your supporters to respond, sir?”
The president echoed the reporter’s words, saying: “I think that way. He was. He was an advocate of nonviolence. That’s the way I’d like to see people respond.”
The White House quickly posted the exchange on social media, perhaps hoping to tamp down anger that has already spilled into violence, with the beating of a critic of Kirk in Boise, Idaho, during a vigil on Wednesday night.
Earlier on Thursday, Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who is retiring after this term, told NBC News that he wished Trump would unite the country after the shooting, “but he’s a populist, and populists dwell on anger”.
“I have to remind people, we had Democrats killed in Minnesota too, right?” Bacon added, in reference to the murder of Minnesota’s former house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June by a gunman with a hitlist of 45 people, all Democrats.
Person of interest in Kirk shooting wore shirt sent to supporters of Disabled Veterans National Foundation
The black T-shirt worn by the person of interest in the killing of Charlie Kirk, as seen in grainy surveillance-camera images distributed by the FBI on Thursday, appears to have come from a veterans charity, the Disabled Veterans National Foundation.
The foundation confirmed to the Guardian that the shirt, with an image of an eagle over the American flag, and the words “Land of the Free” and “Home of the Brave”, taken from the final line of the US national anthem, “was mailed as a gift to potential DVNF supporters over the past few years”.
The foundation adds that it “has never sold this shirt, and it is not currently available for distribution”.
The foundation’s website indicates that, until recently, the shirt was sent to donors.
The shirt is, however, available for purchase on eBay, with either long sleeves or short sleeves.
The person in the images appears to have been wearing a long-sleeved version of the shirt, but, because the images are grainy, it is possible that the person could have been wearing a short-sleeved version over another long-sleeved shirt.
On eBay, a removable sticker on a recently sold version of the shirt has the logo of the foundation and the words: “Show your patriotism and honor our heroes who sacrificed so much so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have today by wearing this T-shirt.”
The FBI director, Kash Patel, who is reportedly en route to Utah to oversee the investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing commentator and activist, just posted an update on the bureau’s investigation of a nearly simultaneous school shooting on Wednesday outside Denver.
The FBI’s Denver field office, Patel writes, “continues to work with our partners regarding the investigation of the shooting at Evergreen high school yesterday afternoon in Colorado.”
He adds:
We have deployed our evidence response team and other specialty resources as part of our response to this incident. The suspect is deceased from his self-inflicted injuries and has been identified as a student at the school, 16-year-old Desmond Holly. Most importantly, our thoughts continue to be with the two victims injured in the shooting and all those who have been impacted by this horrific attack. We will share more as we are able.
Patel, a Trump loyalist who had no law enforcement experience prior to being named FBI director, reportedly forced out the vastly experienced, Pakistani American, female head of the bureau’s Salt Lake City field office just more than a month ago without explanation.
Reuters has released a drone view of the reported location where the shooter fired from at Utah Valley University, killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The rooftop area has a view of the section on campus where Kirk had been sitting while speaking at an event.
Trump to have bolstered security following Kirk shooting – report
The president’s team will take additional security measures following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal cites a senior White House official, who said that Trump’s remarks at the Pentagon today were moved to “a more secure location”. And report also notes that when the president attends a Yankees game on Thursday, people in and around the stadium “can expect to see increased law enforcement presence”, according to the Secret Service.
Nicole Ludden in Phoenix, Arizona
Shortly after Turning Point USA shuttered its offices upon learning of Charlie Kirk’s death on Wednesday afternoon, the front doors of the political influence network’s headquarters became a memorial for its fallen founder.
A steady stream of mourners brought flowers and handheld American flags to the office building in Phoenix, Arizona, and placed them in front of a large, black-and-white photo of Kirk.
While a white van and a police patrol vehicle blocked off the main parking lot, employees instructed approaching men, women and children to take about 10 minutes to pay their respects.
Jacob Kaufman, found out about Kirk’s death while working a shift at a nearby In-N-Out Burger. The 24-year-old said he immediately clocked out to buy flowers – he’s been following Kirk since the 2020 election, and follows his college campus debate videos.
“I saw the video of it, it was horrifying,” Kaufman said. “I’m praying for his family, because at the end of the day, two young kids are gonna grow up without a father. He’s not gonna teach his son how to ride a bike. He’s not gonna walk his daughter down the aisle.”
Kaufman stayed at the Turning Point offices for several hours after dropping off flowers and joining a prayer circle with fellow mourners.
Sean Fowler, 41, said he also put work on hold after hearing Kirk was shot, and spent two agonizing hours of uncertainty before Donald Trump announced Kirk died from his injuries.
Fowler’s been following Kirk’s work for more than eight years. He drew parallels to the assassination of President John F Kennedy, which Fowler said demonstrates how “unpopular opinion will be oppressed”.
Hakeem Jeffries says threats to HBCUs are ‘despicable’, urges justice department to investigate
Per my earlier post, that several historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have received threats, forcing their campuses to close and classes to be cancelled, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has issued a statement calling the threats “despicable”.
He added that these were “another indication that the explosion of hateful extremism is out of control”, and urged the justice department and FBI to investigate the threats.
“These attempts to intimidate everyday Americans will not stand. We need leadership at this moment that brings the country together,” Jeffries said.
Florida US representative says TikTok agrees to remove video of Kirk’s shooting
Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna has said that TikTok has agreed to remove the video of Charlie Kirk’s shooting from their platform. She shared a statement from the social media app:
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.
Luna added that TikTok have, allegedly, confirmed they will remove all videos of anyone using Kirk’s murder to “threaten others and/or incite violence”.