Cenk Uygur Responds to the Assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University

[00:00] Charlie Kirk was shot and killed today.

[00:03] Uh I can't believe he's dead. I can't

[00:07] believe it. Um I saw the video. I don't

[00:10] want you to see the video. He got shot

[00:11] in the neck. Uh as we are taping this

[00:13] live, uh he we don't know who the

[00:16] perpetrator is yet. Uh we're going to

[00:18] give you uh a lot more details in a

[00:20] minute. Uh but I want to start out by

[00:24] saying my heart goes out to Charlie's

[00:27] family. He had a wife, Erica, uh, who I

[00:30] met, uh, in one of our appearances

[00:33] together. Uh, he has a three-year-old

[00:35] daughter or had and a one-year-old son.

[00:40] Uh, and violence is not the answer. It's

[00:43] never, ever, ever the answer. It is

[00:46] intellectual surrender. It's saying, "I

[00:48] don't know how to win with my mind and

[00:51] with my ideas. Instead, I'm going to

[00:53] resort to violence." And that is a form

[00:56] of intellectual defeat. It is obviously

[00:59] immoral. It is if you are in favor of

[01:03] violence, you are not on the left by

[01:04] definition. Uh ours is a peace movement.

[01:08] Ours is a movement of nonviolence. If

[01:11] you believe in violence, you are not on

[01:12] the left and you are not for peace. What

[01:15] happened here was an unmitigated

[01:17] tragedy. So we have a lot to discuss

[01:20] here, but let's give you uh the details

[01:22] of what happened first.

[01:25] Yeah, it's unfolding

[01:27] fast furious late breaking. Jenk John

[01:30] today Charlie Kirk assassinated happened

[01:33] at an event at Utah Valley University.

[01:37] As of uh bringing you this story at this

[01:39] hour, authorities do not have the

[01:42] suspect in custody. Images and videos of

[01:46] the attack are circulating online

[01:48] already. Um, we're not going to show you

[01:51] those images because they are extremely

[01:55] graphic. So, you can imagine what went

[01:58] down uh in Utah Valley University today.

[02:02] University has closed its campus,

[02:03] canceled all classes until further

[02:05] notice. They said Kirk was shot from a

[02:08] building about 200 yards away from where

[02:11] he was speaking. Here's exactly what

[02:14] happened just before Charlie Kirk was

[02:16] shot and killed. Video posted on social

[02:19] media shows the moment Charlie Kirk was

[02:21] shot, the seconds leading to the

[02:23] incident. Kirk was being asked questions

[02:26] about mass shootings in America. Do you

[02:29] know how many mass shooters there have

[02:31] been in America in the last 10 years? A

[02:33] person asks. Counting or not counting

[02:36] gang violence? Kirk responds right

[02:38] before he is shot. This account,

[02:41] according to the New York Times, witness

[02:43] named Tyler Mceddigan said he was

[02:46] surprised by the lack of security at

[02:50] this event. I was expecting when I got

[02:52] here that I'd have to pass through some

[02:54] kind of security, but that just wasn't a

[02:57] thing. No one checked the barcode or the

[02:59] QR code. There was no checkpoint to get

[03:02] in. It was literally anyone could walk

[03:05] in if they wanted. Not long ago, there

[03:08] was this from President Donald Trump on

[03:11] Truth Social.

[03:13] The great and even legendary Charlie

[03:16] Kirk is dead. No one understood or had

[03:19] the heart of the youth in the United

[03:21] States of America better than Charlie.

[03:26] He was loved, admired by all, especially

[03:29] me. And now he is no longer with us.

[03:32] Melania and my sympathies go out to his

[03:35] beautiful wife Erica and family.

[03:38] Charlie,

[03:40] we love you. President Donald Trump a

[03:42] short time ago uh perhaps announcing it

[03:45] Charlie Kirk's assassination um to the

[03:50] world. Uh I was watching monitoring

[03:53] online Jen and John and that was the

[03:56] first confirmation of his death. Um it's

[04:00] just I mean we're just talking about

[04:02] him. Of course he made headlines. Of

[04:04] course he made news. And of course he

[04:05] reached a lot of young people um and had

[04:08] enormous political power and reach. And

[04:11] to think that um here we are again.

[04:16] >> Yeah. So I want to talk about what

[04:18] should be the left's reaction in a in a

[04:20] second. U but I to start with my

[04:23] reaction. I was on calls all day and so

[04:26] I actually had not seen it until I got

[04:29] on a call uh and somebody said, "Well,

[04:31] you know, we understand if you got to

[04:33] go." And I was like, "Why would I have

[04:34] to go?" And they said, "Charlie Kirk's

[04:36] been shot in the neck." And I was like,

[04:39] "No, no, I I didn't I kind of it didn't

[04:42] compute. It didn't couldn't believe it."

[04:46] And then, you know, I started looking at

[04:48] all the news and trying to figure out

[04:49] what happened. And then I got the notice

[04:51] that he had died. And

[04:55] I I I'm still stunned. I still can't

[04:57] believe it. Um so I think that this

[05:01] struck me more. One, obviously I knew

[05:03] him. So whenever you know a human being,

[05:06] uh it is way more personal to you, but I

[05:08] hope to God that we all have enough

[05:10] empathy that you didn't have to know him

[05:12] uh to know that this was uh a great

[05:15] tragedy and terrible. Uh and and of

[05:19] course guys, one of the ramifications of

[05:22] this is that we're now all in danger uh

[05:25] there. But for the grace of God go I uh

[05:27] I've been in that spot doing a speech

[05:30] like that, you know, dozens of times,

[05:32] hundreds of times? Uh so what are we

[05:35] going to do here? Is violence going to

[05:36] go break out in America and we just

[05:39] start killing each other? This is this

[05:41] is terrible. It doesn't get any worse

[05:44] than this. And I don't want to hear

[05:46] anything about Charlie Kirk's views

[05:47] today. That's not the point. And I think

[05:49] part of the reason why it struck me more

[05:51] is because of his age, how young he is.

[05:55] And so many people these days have like

[05:57] Trump survived the assassination

[05:59] attempt. And so I don't know, maybe we

[06:02] started thinking or I started thinking

[06:04] that it like that it wasn't going to

[06:06] happen, but it did happen and he's

[06:09] actually dead. And so I I just it's not

[06:14] just heartbreaking. It is a terrible

[06:16] development in American politics. John,

[06:19] what do you think?

[06:20] >> Yeah, I obviously have a lot of

[06:21] thoughts. I'm like you. I'm stunned. I

[06:23] mean, I I didn't know him. I never met

[06:24] him, but you know, like he's in a way he

[06:28] does something very similar to what we

[06:29] do every day. Comments on politics. You

[06:31] know, we've all had death threats. I'm

[06:34] sure we've all had stalkers. There's

[06:36] been events that have been disrupted.

[06:38] Scary stuff like that. So this is in a

[06:39] very real way like in terms of political

[06:41] violence when it comes to the media,

[06:43] this is like a a worst case scenario.

[06:44] It's the last thing you want to happen

[06:47] and it's a reminder of the dark place

[06:49] we're in in America. You know, like Jen,

[06:51] you've been covering the news a lot

[06:52] longer than I have, but we've had dark

[06:54] periods in the 12 or 13 years that I've

[06:57] been covering politics is by far the

[06:59] darkest uh time. And in particular, when

[07:01] it comes to to violence, to the

[07:03] normalization of just like like

[07:06] fantasizing about or making light of

[07:09] people you disagree with, being

[07:11] murdered, that weird blood lust that

[07:14] just feels like it's always out there,

[07:16] memes about invading Chicago, people, I

[07:20] want a migrant to be eaten by an

[07:21] alligator, or maybe they'll be eaten by

[07:24] sharks. It just feels like it's

[07:26] everything is just steeped in a desire

[07:28] for blood and it's become so normalized

[07:30] even with politicians and you know the

[07:33] country's dark in a lot of ways but

[07:34] there's just so much violence. I think

[07:36] that's the thing even today a lot of

[07:38] people are are talking about the fact

[07:39] that like there's other shootings

[07:41] happening as this one is being

[07:43] processed. So you don't even have time

[07:44] to focus on like this big story as more

[07:47] and more violence happens. And in the

[07:50] area of political violence, like these

[07:52] things happen that should be the biggest

[07:53] news story of the year and nobody even

[07:55] remembers it. Like a week later, the CDC

[07:57] was shot up. Nobody barely anyone even

[08:00] talked about that. It didn't even merit

[08:02] government discussion. A state

[08:04] representative in in Minnesota was

[08:06] assassinated. Her husband assassinated.

[08:09] When when was the last time you heard

[08:10] them talk about that in the news? It's

[08:12] just the most normalized thing. Um, and

[08:16] yeah, so it's it's scary, you know, when

[08:18] you do something like this. And I'm sure

[08:19] obviously we're we already were worried

[08:21] about stuff like this happening. Like I

[08:22] said, I've been stalked or whatever, but

[08:24] now we have to be Jake, you do public

[08:25] events, you do uh events out in the

[08:27] open. You got to be worried about that

[08:29] stuff. And it's the last thing that you

[08:30] want, you know, anyone to to have to

[08:32] think about with with everything else

[08:34] going on.

[08:34] >> I never met him. And, you know, Jen's

[08:37] right. So is John. This is not about

[08:39] political views, but we were used to

[08:42] just discussing and opining. And when I

[08:47] first saw the news, I

[08:50] thought, well, he'll he'll be okay. And

[08:52] a Republican friend of mine who's pretty

[08:55] dialed in texted me that that he's dead.

[08:58] And I said, well, come on. That's not

[09:00] confirmed.

[09:02] But I feel this uh loss. couldn't have

[09:05] disagreed with him more. But it's it's

[09:09] so tragic how when this happens, the

[09:12] worst, all that went out the window. I'm

[09:15] thinking everything I have in common

[09:17] with this person who has a right to free

[09:19] speech, who has a daughter, some reports

[09:22] say may have been

[09:25] with him. I It just here's a fellow

[09:29] human being. And I kept looking at the

[09:31] screen saying this man should be here.

[09:34] This makes absolutely no sense. This man

[09:38] should be here. All of the discourse and

[09:40] the disagreement goes out the window.

[09:44] I just can't believe even in light of

[09:46] everything else that we've watched

[09:49] unfold, the violence on and on and on

[09:53] that this has actually happened on this

[09:56] day.

[09:57] >> Yeah. So, it's it's interesting you said

[09:59] that because one of our uh members on

[10:02] our website uh just wrote in. It's Teddy

[10:05] Lucy Linda. I don't like Charlie. I

[10:07] didn't like Charlie Kirk at all. Uh that

[10:10] said, it is truly shocking and

[10:12] truthfully I'm surprised by the sadness

[10:15] that I feel. My heart breaks for his

[10:17] wife and his two little ones who will

[10:19] never know their father.

[10:21] O at three and one, they're never going

[10:24] to know him.

[10:27] this is not the way. So, look, at first

[10:31] I

[10:33] uh saw a bunch of people on the right

[10:36] claiming that the left was celebrating.

[10:38] Uh I hope to God that that that's true

[10:42] for almost no one. And I am positive

[10:45] that it is not true for the overwhelming

[10:47] majority of the left that are

[10:48] good-hearted people and deeply moral

[10:51] decent people. That is why we fight for

[10:53] nonviolence and peace, etc. Um,

[10:57] but I'm here to shame the people who are

[11:03] uh

[11:05] celebrating this in any way, shape, or

[11:07] form, who are who are not uh, you know,

[11:10] who are taking it lightly, who are

[11:13] attacking uh, Charlie Kirk today. So, we

[11:16] didn't agree with them. So what that you

[11:20] fight that out, you win in the battle of

[11:22] ideas, not in the battle of guns and

[11:25] weapons and bullets and murder and

[11:27] death. If you think that's what the left

[11:29] is, you don't understand a single thing

[11:31] about the left. If you think that's what

[11:33] the peace movement is about, you're very

[11:35] very stupid. That that is the exact

[11:38] opposite of the peace movement. We try

[11:40] to minimize the damage done. And if

[11:42] you're going to what aboutisms Yeah, I

[11:44] know guys. I know. I know that Pelosy's

[11:47] husband was attacked with a hammer. I

[11:48] know Dylan Roof. I know the guy who

[11:51] attacked Latinos, the guy who attacked

[11:53] the synagogues, etc. I know their

[11:57] manifestos, but what about Charlie?

[12:00] Charlie's dead now. And so, we don't

[12:03] know who did it yet, but it would be

[12:06] surprising if it wasn't someone who

[12:08] disagreed with him politically. Uh

[12:10] because that's what he's mainly known

[12:11] for. Uh so, or the only thing he's known

[12:14] for. So

[12:17] [Music]

[12:18] I

[12:20] you it is deeply immoral deeply immoral

[12:23] to not be outraged by this. And I hope

[12:26] to God none of us make that mistake. And

[12:29] and by the way now we get to way lower

[12:33] on the priority list once you get past

[12:35] the the immorality of it etc to how

[12:39] stupid it is. So now, not only will you

[12:43] have greatly increased the amount of

[12:45] violence in the country, again, if

[12:46] you're on the left, that's the most

[12:48] counterproductive thing you could do.

[12:50] Number two, you now have millions of

[12:53] folks on the right who almost all have

[12:55] guns who are in a blind rage today.

[13:00] Okay? So, you've now endangered all of

[13:02] us. Okay? Third, and and John is right,

[13:05] guys. I mean, we just last week we did a

[13:08] or just a couple of days ago, we did a

[13:09] story about all these people who were

[13:12] sending Anna death threats. So, these

[13:14] death threats, so if you're not uh in

[13:17] the media or political world these days,

[13:19] and you might not realize this because

[13:20] it doesn't actually happen that often to

[13:22] the super powerful, to the CNN's, to the

[13:26] politicians. So, every once in a while

[13:27] when it does, it'll become like a major

[13:29] news event and they'll all get uh, you

[13:31] know, go nuts over it, etc. But for the

[13:34] us in the trenches on the left and the

[13:37] right, it's so common. It's so

[13:41] heartbreakingly common that we get death

[13:43] threats and and threats on our life and

[13:46] health and etc. So now this person who

[13:49] shot and killed Charlie Kirk has

[13:50] amplified that massively for everyone.

[13:55] So it it can't be any dumber. It can't

[13:57] be any worse. And if you care about the

[14:00] politics of it, you've now made Charlie

[14:01] Kirk a martyr.

[14:03] And so

[14:06] it just couldn't be more wrong in every

[14:09] imaginable way. So if anyone on the left

[14:12] is is heartless and disgusting enough to

[14:16] not realize the tragedy of this, I'm

[14:19] here to fight them. Uh and and through

[14:22] obviously words, rhetoric, politics,

[14:24] whatever you need. But I'm not gonna let

[14:26] people go around saying uh inhumane

[14:29] inhuman things and pretending that

[14:31] they're on the left.

[14:34] >> Yeah. I I think thank granted I I'm not

[14:36] as online, but I thankfully I haven't

[14:38] seen anyone with like a prominent

[14:40] platform that said anything like that.

[14:42] I've seen comments definitely, but not

[14:43] from people with a prominent platform.

[14:45] I have like it's it's one of the things

[14:47] that I think is most shocking about this

[14:48] is that there's the the tragedy that

[14:49] happened and then there's the fear and

[14:51] anxiety of what could potentially come

[14:53] which can come in a number of different

[14:55] forms. So as you pointed out there's a

[14:58] lot of people who like Charlie Kirk that

[15:00] have guns some of whom are violent

[15:02] people and have obsessed about the

[15:04] possibility of violence. So they might

[15:05] be triggered to do something. By the way

[15:07] regardless of who it ends up that that

[15:10] did this and what their motivation was.

[15:12] I mean, I think everybody suspects, and

[15:14] I think there's good reason to suspect

[15:15] what the motivation would be, and that's

[15:17] most likely what caused it, but it's not

[15:20] always that way. I mean, the guy in

[15:22] Butler was a Republican. Like, sometimes

[15:24] people are crazy. Sometimes people are

[15:26] narcissistic and want to get in the

[15:27] news. That could end up being the case.

[15:29] I think it's most likely what people

[15:31] suspect. So, right-wingers could

[15:33] potentially want to lash out. You could

[15:35] potentially have a leftwinger who wants

[15:37] to do a copycat thing, which is another

[15:39] scary thing. again regardless of what

[15:41] whatever it ends up that the actual

[15:42] motivation was. And then in the

[15:44] meantime, I think we might have some

[15:47] graphics. So you you have some leftists

[15:50] who are making jokes. You also have some

[15:52] incredibly powerful right-wingers that

[15:54] are not interested in finding out what

[15:56] the motivation was or who it was. And

[15:58] they're calling for like like Chris

[16:00] Rufo, who is an incredibly powerful

[16:02] person. He's calling for an end to the

[16:04] left. Investigations of every left-wing

[16:06] NGO, every group, every donor. I mean,

[16:09] there's a lot of people that are jumping

[16:11] to wanting a war to come out of this.

[16:13] And Trump, of course, has shown a

[16:15] magnificent willingness to deploy the

[16:17] weight and power of the government

[16:18] against his political opponents. There's

[16:20] going to be a lot of pressure on him to

[16:21] do exactly that in this case,

[16:23] regardless, again, if we ever find out

[16:24] what the motivation was. And so, there's

[16:27] a lot of reason to worry about what

[16:28] might end up being done either to

[16:30] leftists generally or to the Democratic

[16:32] Party or to its donors or whatever as a

[16:35] result of this. and and there's a lot of

[16:37] people online right now that are not

[16:38] being at all like they're not keeping

[16:40] their cars close to the vest on what

[16:41] they'd like to see happen.

[16:44] >> I'm going to read two comments from our

[16:46] YouTube members. Mojo once said, "I'm a

[16:48] conservative Republican uh Charlie fan

[16:51] minus Israel." So, if you're wondering

[16:53] if they're why they're a YouTube member,

[16:55] uh because we do an uh open-minded,

[16:58] openhearted show and uh and people come

[17:01] to us from across the political

[17:03] spectrum. Uh and uh and we we try to be

[17:07] as honest as humanly possible. We try so

[17:10] hard to get to the truth and try to be

[17:12] decent, moral people for everyone

[17:14] involved. So, I appreciate you being

[17:16] here. Uh but he continues, "I don't know

[17:19] what to do. I have a growing vengeance

[17:21] in my heart trying not to feel radical.

[17:26] So guys, when people that they uh feel

[17:29] close to, you know, and if you're um on

[17:32] the right and you listen to Charlie, put

[17:34] aside our, you know, views and politics

[17:37] and policy, but they felt super close to

[17:40] him. And I get that. I 100% get that.

[17:43] Now they're so so angry. And can you

[17:47] understand that? Can you feel that? Can

[17:49] you understand if that happened to one

[17:50] of us how angry we would all feel? It is

[17:53] so important that in a moment like this

[17:56] that we double down on what the left is

[17:58] supposed to be good at, which is

[18:00] empathy.

[18:01] You have to have empathy for him and his

[18:04] family. And if you don't, you've lost a

[18:07] piece of yourself. You've lost a piece

[18:09] of your ideology, too. Our side is

[18:12] supposed to be the side that has more

[18:15] empathy. And so I I get that feeling of

[18:18] rage, but we have got to get to a place

[18:21] where you do something productive with

[18:24] your with your emotions, your

[18:26] justifiable emotions over this instead

[18:29] of doing something stupid and adding to

[18:31] the problem. If we keep adding and

[18:33] adding and adding to the problem, we're

[18:34] never going to get to the answer. And

[18:36] Nerd Girl Dragon, another member on

[18:38] YouTube said, "I've been so sickened by

[18:40] the number of people in comments

[18:41] cheering his death. As always, TYT

[18:43] brings me comfort that not all of us

[18:45] have lost our humanity. Violence is

[18:47] never the answer is poor kids. Look, I I

[18:51] don't know. I've seen one or two

[18:52] comments. I haven't seen a lot. So, I I

[18:54] I don't want it the idea out there that

[18:58] there's a big contingent on the left

[18:59] that are celebrating this. I think it's

[19:02] got to be a tiny uh tiny tiny

[19:05] percentage. Okay. But unfortunately,

[19:08] that tiny percentage is loud and

[19:11] obnoxious and and they put our the very

[19:15] worst face for the left forward. I mean,

[19:18] when you celebrate violence, what does

[19:20] that do? Like, let's say that I don't

[19:22] know what the motivation of this guy

[19:23] was. We don't even know who the guy was

[19:25] who shot him, right? But if it's uh

[19:27] there's many issues that people discreet

[19:29] chart with Charlie on let but something

[19:31] that was in the news a lot lately was of

[19:32] course Israel, right? So, how does it

[19:36] help to have one more person dead?

[19:41] That doesn't help at all. That sets us

[19:43] back. That sets us back tremendously.

[19:47] We're the side for no violence. We

[19:49] didn't want anyone dead on October 7th.

[19:52] We if your heart didn't break for those

[19:53] 36 Israeli kids who died on that day.

[19:57] Again, there's something a little

[19:58] missing in you if you can't grieve for

[20:00] the children. And obviously we grieve

[20:02] for the 64,000 at a bare minimum dead in

[20:05] Gaza and the 20,000 children dead dead

[20:08] there. The answer to that is not more

[20:10] death and violence. Is not more pe uh

[20:12] people dead on the other side. The

[20:14] answer to that is peace.

[20:17] We all have to double down, triple down,

[20:19] do everything in our power right now to

[20:22] get to nonviolence and peace and to

[20:25] empathy. Empathy and love is what sol

[20:28] solves hatred and war. So, you know, I I

[20:32] love this quote. I've always loved this

[20:34] quote from Martin Luther King. Took me a

[20:36] long time and a lot of maturing to to

[20:38] understand it. But he said, "Hate cannot

[20:41] drive out hate. Only love can." Uh

[20:44] because it's true. Once you bring in

[20:46] extra hate, all it does is compound the

[20:49] hate that was already there. So, it

[20:51] literally can never hate cannot drive

[20:54] out hate. It could only multiply it. The

[20:56] only way you get past the hate is once

[20:59] you empathize with one another. And once

[21:02] you do, and yeah, to some degree,

[21:05] Charlie and us tried that. A lot of

[21:08] times we failed and we yelled at each

[21:10] other. Uh sometimes we succeeded and

[21:12] agreed and and and then we went back to

[21:16] to fighting and debating and etc. But

[21:19] that's supposed to be what we do. We're

[21:21] supposed to debate. We're supposed to

[21:23] disagree. We're not supposed to murder

[21:25] each other. And so now to the point that

[21:28] John made.

[21:31] Okay. Now, what's gonna happen to

[21:32] freedom of speech? Now, everybody's

[21:34] going to be afraid to speak out on

[21:36] whichever side, on any side, on any

[21:38] issue because if you speak out and you

[21:41] make someone else angry, maybe you're

[21:43] next.

[21:45] So this is and and when

[21:49] societies go more towards violence and

[21:52] less towards speech, I guarantee you

[21:55] that is not a good situation for the

[21:56] left. So let alone the whole country,

[22:00] let alone the as I've reemphasized now

[22:02] countless times, uh the deep immorality

[22:05] of the act itself,

[22:08] but this could lead to crackdowns. This

[22:10] could lead to taking away more rights,

[22:12] etc.

[22:13] So if you're on the left and you do

[22:16] violence, you're the most immoral,

[22:19] counterproductive

[22:20] person who does more damage to our cause

[22:24] and to the cause of humanity than you

[22:26] could possibly imagine. Every time you

[22:28] ring the bell below, an angel gets his

[22:30] wings. Totally not true, but it does

[22:32] keep you updated on our live shows.