Winston Marshall on the Assassination of Charlie Kirk and What It Reveals About America

[00:00] Joining me now is the host of the

[00:02] Winston Marshall show, Winston Marshall

[00:04] himself. Hello, Winston. Welcome to the

[00:06] show. Thank you for joining us. You've

[00:08] just flown in from America. You've been

[00:11] there these last few days. What was the

[00:14] response when this tragedy happened?

[00:16] Well, perhaps we can just go straight to

[00:19] what I think the the significance of

[00:20] this heinous assassination is. Charlie's

[00:24] opinions were mainstream conservative

[00:27] thought in America. Not just of the

[00:29] boomer generation, but also of young

[00:32] conservatives in America. In fact, he

[00:33] was the figure head of the young

[00:35] conservative movement, of the young MAGA

[00:37] movement. It wasn't just the horrific

[00:40] assassination that we all saw on social

[00:43] media. It was the reaction to it. We saw

[00:47] how his detractors, those who have

[00:50] vilified him, reacted with glee, with

[00:53] happiness. And not only did we see it, a

[00:56] lot of normal people, a lot of normies,

[00:58] a lot of people who don't normally pay

[00:59] attention to politics didn't just see

[01:01] the murder, they also saw how their

[01:04] friends and neighbors were reacting to

[01:06] that ner murder. And it's and it

[01:08] horrified them. It made them understand

[01:11] exactly what was going on around them.

[01:13] And actually this is maybe the

[01:14] significance of free speech. One of the

[01:16] other important parts of free speech. We

[01:18] can see what other people are thinking.

[01:20] And and I think this is a similar

[01:22] moment. September 10th, 2025 is a

[01:24] similar moment to October 7th, 2023

[01:26] where here in London, I remember seeing

[01:28] as soon as October I think October 8th

[01:30] maybe. Celebrations. Israel had not

[01:33] responded. celebrations of what had

[01:35] happened on October 7th in Israel, that

[01:38] pogram, that horrible pogram of the the

[01:40] the heinous uh uh violence and and and

[01:44] murder we were seeing then. We saw who

[01:46] our neighbors were. And actually, it's

[01:49] helpful to see who your neighbors were

[01:50] cuz it helps us to understand how best

[01:52] to act next. And I think what will what

[01:56] would transpire is that we're at a point

[01:59] now and I I don't want to use the the

[02:02] term turning point because that was the

[02:04] name of his organization but it seems it

[02:06] is a turning point because when people

[02:08] act this way how exactly are we supposed

[02:10] to be reconciliatory with them if we

[02:12] know how gleeful they are in such times

[02:16] how exactly are we supposed to form any

[02:18] sort of alliance any sort of compromise

[02:21] to build they don't want the same future

[02:22] of us as They want to tear this all

[02:24] down. We saw this. In fact, this

[02:26] actually plays out in statistics because

[02:28] a lot of people are comparing right-wing

[02:30] violence with leftwing violence. And I

[02:32] think it's it's pretty clear that at

[02:34] both extremes, I hate to do what

[02:36] aboutism, but at both extremes, there is

[02:39] a lot of violence that that goes on. But

[02:41] what's the difference I think between

[02:42] the right and left? And and this is

[02:44] there's a recent poll that shows this in

[02:47] America. Those who identify as left of

[02:51] center in politics, this is a recent

[02:53] poll, 48%

[02:55] said they believed that murder of Elon

[02:58] Musk was somewhat justifiable. 55% said

[03:02] murder of Donald Trump is somewhat

[03:05] justifiable. That means the majority of

[03:07] those who are left or center in politics

[03:09] think in some circumstances murder is

[03:12] okay, that violence is okay. That's not

[03:14] that doesn't play out at all on the

[03:16] right. It's a completely different

[03:18] story. So, we're really now awake. And I

[03:22] I I sound awfully woke saying that,

[03:24] saying we're awake, but we're we now see

[03:26] because of free speech, we now see what

[03:29] we're facing. Yeah. I mean, those

[03:31] statistics, but also their gleefulness

[03:34] in that reaction. I guess it speaks to

[03:37] the most incredible thing here is how

[03:39] how proud they are with their opinion.

[03:43] How they're not ashamed by any means by

[03:45] by actually the fact that they think

[03:47] that they're going to be celebrated

[03:49] within their bubble for having these

[03:53] terrible reaction.

[03:54] It's I was two nights ago I was at a

[03:56] vigil for Charlie in Washington Square

[03:59] Park in New York City. There was

[04:01] probably about 30 of us. It was evening

[04:03] time. It was getting dark. There were

[04:05] some young students there. Some were

[04:07] crying. Some had candles. Uh there was a

[04:10] a little choir. There was a string

[04:11] section playing hymns and and singing

[04:14] hymns and mourning him. And and really

[04:17] there was a lot of grief for these these

[04:19] some of the kids were really upset. And

[04:21] about halfway through like demons,

[04:25] some some couple of guys blackclad came

[04:28] in smiling like this, coming up into our

[04:31] faces, filming us, going like this, and

[04:33] then started shouting. He was a fascist.

[04:35] I mean, they were acting like demons and

[04:37] then they backed up and said free, free

[04:38] Palestine as if that had anything to do

[04:41] with what Charlie Kirk was about. What

[04:43] on earth? But then actually it makes

[04:44] sense because it's all part of the same

[04:46] ideology. This they say free Palestine.

[04:48] They don't say they don't want free

[04:49] Palestine from Hamas. They want free

[04:51] Palestine from Israel. They're not uh

[04:53] pro Palestine. They're they're pro-

[04:55] Hammad. That's exactly what's going on.

[04:56] It's part of the same ideology. It's

[04:58] anti-western. It's anti-British. It's

[05:00] anti-American. They wanted to tear down

[05:03] everything that Charlie was about. Not

[05:04] because he was pro- free speech. They

[05:06] didn't care about that. It's because of

[05:07] his ideas which are fundamentally pro-

[05:11] our civilization.

[05:13] Yes. But I guess that argues the

[05:15] opposite of what I was saying, which is

[05:16] that um that that what the one of the

[05:19] foundations of our civilization of

[05:21] course is this idea of free speech that

[05:23] he embodied so well. And when you watch

[05:26] these clips that have sort of they've

[05:29] they've been on social media for a long

[05:30] time now, but they've just absolutely

[05:32] been pushed out there these last few

[05:34] days, but how he was so willing to talk

[05:37] to everybody and how um how scared

[05:42] people must be that that he was willing

[05:44] to go out there and express these ideas.

[05:46] Do you think that the fact that they're

[05:48] so willing to go to murder and celebrate

[05:51] it just shows how they're just how

[05:53] afraid they are, how rubbish their ideas

[05:55] are, frankly.

[05:55] Yeah, clearly that's obviously the case.

[05:57] Look, I um had the at this privilege of

[06:01] going on Charlie's show a couple of

[06:03] times and we disagreed and and I'm going

[06:06] to have to dig up these old clips when

[06:07] we dis disagreed about a couple of

[06:09] things, but it was such a great

[06:12] conversation cuz we able to go deeper on

[06:14] the things. We we both chiseled each

[06:16] other in our ideas uh chiseled ideas

[06:18] rather and I even looked back at some of

[06:21] my messages with him again. We were

[06:23] disagreeing on stuff but he was so

[06:24] curious. He wanted to understand he

[06:26] pushed me why do you think that way?

[06:28] What is it? What am I missing? His he

[06:30] came at it with total humility. Now it

[06:33] might be the case that in some of those

[06:34] debates you see on college campuses that

[06:37] he was a little bit more pugilistic and

[06:38] that's the kind of nature of it. that if

[06:40] you see him on his show, if you see him

[06:42] in private, you see a different Charlie

[06:45] this the the his detractors only saw the

[06:48] very worst of him. And perhaps the most

[06:50] viral things they they might not even be

[06:53] true about him.

[06:53] Well, the lot of stuff I'm seeing on on

[06:55] on X that have been said about him, like

[06:58] what Alistister Campbell said, just was

[06:59] not true. And so they've they've

[07:01] misportray with Stephen King and they've

[07:03] had to backtrack because they've taken

[07:05] something out of context. Doesn't that

[07:07] also reveal how information has been

[07:10] absorbed by certain members of our kind

[07:12] of cultural media class where they just

[07:14] will take a snippet and if that

[07:16] seemingly fits with whatever they've

[07:18] been told this guy is a far-right white

[07:21] supremacist then that's what they're so

[07:23] willing to spread.

[07:24] As well as exposing our neighbors, it's

[07:27] also exposed the media classes. It's not

[07:29] just these these types who who have

[07:31] behaved this way jumped to conclusions

[07:33] but I note when there's let's say a

[07:36] incident of farright violence let's say

[07:40] Jan sik for example we don't hear

[07:42] Louisis good suddenly going what about

[07:44] the BLM riots what about all the

[07:45] far-left what about the the 25 people

[07:48] killed in the BLM right so they don't do

[07:49] any what abouty then but now they're

[07:51] doing it now that well there's left

[07:53] there's there's violence from the left

[07:55] as well you know it's not just from from

[07:57] one side we These are not journalists.

[07:59] They're political activists. And and

[08:01] this is another thing that this heinous

[08:04] assassination has has exposed to us.

[08:07] Yeah. Well, look, it's been a terrible

[08:09] week. I'm very grateful to you coming to

[08:11] join us and give us your perspective.

[08:12] Ladies and gentlemen, big round of

[08:13] applause, please, for Windsor Market.