Trump Kirk Shooter COVERUP Exposed As LEAKED CALL Goes PUBLIC! Jack Cocchiarella Sep 13, 2025 Jack Cocchiarella Show
Political commentator Jack Cocchiarella reacts to the latest news around Donald Trump's cover-up of the Charlie Kirk shooting.
Transcript
Cover up. That is the only word I can use to describe what we've seen in the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting. A coverup of the policy failure that is the gun violence epidemic in America, which the right refuses to talk about. Instead, attempts to distract from with culture wars. And it is those same culture wars that the right is using to cover up the real political ideology of the alleged shooter as they try to blame trans people so they can carry out their bigoted agenda. And the clearest example of a cover up in this entire saga can be seen in the call that Donald Trump made to the governor of Utah after the first press conference that he held about the Charlie Kirk shooter. It gives away the game and we are going to get into it. But before we do, if I could quickly ask you to leave a like on this video and if you haven't already and you enjoy our channel to hit that subscribe button because it goes a long way in supporting our work. Now, before we get into what Donald Trump said on that leaked phone call and why it should disturb you and shows you what they're doing, I want to start with Trump essentially admitting it all on Fox just yesterday and what he had to say about right-wing radicals. Radicals on the right as well. We have radicals on the left. people have gotten are watching all of these videos and cheering. Some people are cheering that Charlie was was killed. How do we fix this country? How do we come back together? I'll tell you something that's going to get me in trouble, but I couldn't care less. The radicals on the right often times are radical because they don't want to see crime. They don't want to see crime. Worried about the border. They're saying, "We don't want these people coming in. We don't want you burning our shopping centers. We don't want you shooting our people in the middle of the street. The radicals on the left are the problem and they're vicious and they're horrible and they're politically savvy. Although they want men and women sports. They want transgender for everyone. They want open borders. The worst thing that happened, two very obvious things are happening right now in the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting. And both of them are the right trying to exploit this event. The first is them saying, "You cannot call us fascists anymore. Even though we're engaging in fascistic activities, even though Donald Trump is expanding his authoritarian project, his police state that he is stripping you of your civil rights and your civil liberties, you can't call us bad names and point out how we're trying to break this country." And once they've said that, once they demand that you condemn this action, that you apologize for something you're not responsible for, once they silence you, they continue to expand the authoritarian project. That's what's happening right now. And they justify any radical action they take and say that it's fine. That is Donald Trump's plan. It's why we see Pete Haggath and Cash Patel firing employees at the Pentagon, at the FBI, who mocked Charlie Kirk, who even just posted his own words. They want loyalty and they want to be able to carry out their project. And they made it very clear how far they'll go to silence us when Don Jr. said this right here, which is such important context for what Donald Trump said on that leaked call. I mean, I do find uh and I know Charlie and I spoke about this frequently, sort of the irony of the anti-fascists these days, they seem to be taking a lot of playbooks out of the fascists, out of the brown coats. I mean, uh if you don't agree with someone, kill them. I mean, that seems quite fascist to me. So, you know, I wish we would stop calling them Antifa because there's nothing anti about their fascist tendencies. It it's absolutely disgusting. But there is something very odd that someone could get that radicalized with none of those footprints. So, you know, I don't want to speculate. I don't have any additional information about what these things are. Uh, but I will say watching the left turn this violent when they don't get their way, it's it's almost as though Martha, they know they've lost the plot. They I know these aren't smart people, but it really confirms my theory that most of them were hit on the head at some point in their lives when they continue to play selective memory. The left wants to kill people that they disagree with. Hm. Which vice president did a violent mob threatened to hang because he disagreed with their false narrative around the most secure election in history? Oh, that was Mike Pence. That that was your guys. That was your disagreement on the basics of facts. It wasn't a disagreement about Charlie Kirk saying that black women aren't smart enough to have jobs. First of all, that's not an opinion. That's bigotry. That is a vile bile that he spilled every day for a profit, mind you. Not because he was some free speech champion, but because he loved to hate. That was their project. But Don Jr. now wants to tell you, you have to be silent. You have to shut up. But we're not going to, especially as we just saw what I believe to be an unfounded report from the governor of Utah. But why he said it makes a lot of sense when we see what Donald Trump said to him on that call. Alleged killer of Charlie Kirk deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology. Utah governor says Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology. According to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, Cox said, "It's become very clear to us in investigators that Tyler Robinson, the suspected Kirk Shooter, was indoctrinated with leftist ideology. According to the Journal's report on Robinson, his parents are registered Republicans while he was in the past a registered nonpartisan." Now, Cox said that publicly after Trump called the Utah governor with a grim warning moments after he spoke at Charlie Kirk press conference. Moments after Utah Governor Spencer Cox received a phone call from none other than Donald Trump moments after the governor spoke to reporters about the arrest of a suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Speaking to the Atlantic's McKay CPP, Cox said Trump called him not long after he gave an impassion plea for peace in the wake of Kirk's death on Friday. "You know the type of person who would do something like that to Charlie Kirk would love to do it to us," Trump said, according to Cox. Trump then informed Cox that the president is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, rattling off stats that 15% of those who occupy the White House have been shot and 8% have died at the hands of an assassin. Cox has emerged as a voice of calm and civility in the aftermath of Kirk's death, urging Americans to embrace moral clarity instead of rage. So, Donald Trump calls the governor of Utah and tells him that the people, the they who did this to Charlie Kirk, those same they want to do it to you. Now, I don't know about you, but that seems like a threat to me. And it's interesting that the press has hailed Governor Cox as someone lowering the temperature only for him to then say speaking on information it seems from reporting by the Wall Street Journal in the Guardian which was ultimately retracted that there was left-wing ideology spewing from this young man. Wall Street Journal published that. The Guardian published that, they had to retract it because it was based on an anonymous quote from someone vaguely familiar with the alleged asalent who then retracted it. But Donald Trump says to the governor, you know, these people, they they don't like us too much. We're threatened by them. We should be afraid of them. we should intimidate them so they don't come after us. Now, that's a lot of subtext. It's a lot of subtext and it's not too subtle. This is what the right wants so desperately. They were, oh, on their hands and knees, please, please, please let this shooter in white as snow Utah, by the way, let it be a person of color. Let it be a trans person. Oh, please. But it wasn't. It was a 22-year-old white man. That is the alleged asalent. Now that is disproportionately the demographic of those who commit political violence in America. Yet the right was about that quick to declare a civil war on us. And who is feeding in to that fear? Donald Trump. Telling the governor of Utah that these people are coming after you. Hm. Why would Donald Trump want to communicate that message? Is it because he wants the governor to fall in line? Donald Trump is the one who has been saying this alleged asalent had a partner who was trans. Something that hasn't even remotely been confirmed, but would be so exciting to the right. What we do know is that one of the roommates of the alleged asalent, for which they had two, not one that they were living with full-time, as the right would have, have you believe, they're fully cooperating. So, the right is not only being antagonistic to the trans community for no reason. Actually, there is a reason. They're bigots. Period. Full stop. But because this potential partner who could potentially maybe allegedly according to some social media posts that don't really reveal anything could be trans because that person is cooperating with the feds. You want to go after them? Try to connect any of these dots. It doesn't make sense. They are foaming at the mouth to be bigots. They want to declare a civil war. It's what Nancy Mays called for the other day until we learned the alleged asalent was white. And then it was Jesus loves you. Kumbaya, let's sing a song. Bigots. That's what they are. So don't believe this. You know, the left, we really need to condemn the way that we speak. They don't care what we say. They don't care about the facts. They don't care about the truth. They're not honest brokers. They want any excuse to be bigots. And this isn't new. Jessica Tarlo made this point perfectly. But I really need everyone to spare me the faux outrage and the pearl clutching about this little collection of things that Donald Trump and high-ranking Republicans call liberals on a daily basis. Anarchists, anti-American, deranged, communists, corrupt, compromised groomers and perverts, thugs and traitors. Now, she was explicit that she was talking about a subsection of the Republican party the same way that Joe Biden is when he talks about these MAGA extremism. But you tell me if the leader of the Democratic Party, so that would be Joe Biden was facing four indictments with 91 felony counts. He had been found liable of sexually assaulting a woman and defaming her. That's Eugene Carol. Guilty of fraud, sharing the nation's secrets. Not only in the Mara Lago indictment, but there was a report yesterday from ABC News that he had shared information about our nuclear submarine capacities with an Australian billionaire who's a member at Mara Lago who had then gone on and shared that with dozens of other people, ended up making a purchase, I think, of three subs and included specifics up to how many nuclear warheads they carry and how close they can get to Russian subs without being detected. And then I told you, so all of that is happening and he's shooting up in the polls. And when you see those interviews of Trump supporters outside of the rallies, they're like, "None of this is true. It's the big lie. He won the election, etc." And you wouldn't say to me, "You guys are in a cult." It's actually tame what Hillary Clinton was saying. Jess, this is who we're up against. And I I hate to, you know, frame it in that way. I do because I I don't want to do a they I don't want to do a the ominous them. I don't want to do the outgroup politics thing. Um, but I didn't storm the capital. Neither did you. Um, I didn't make any memes uh after Paul Pelosi was assaulted. I certainly didn't on my program say that some patriot, in the words of one Charlie Kirk should bail him out. So, it seems like he was fine with political violence. So, yeah, I'm going to be okay shooting straight here and pointing out what is very obvious that these people aren't honest brokers and we don't have to engage and mourn and fake weep with them like they are because what they'd want more than anything is to be more bigoted than ever. That is the setup. That is what Donald Trump is trying to do. And we are going to call that out every single day on this show. And if you want to support that, as always, you can hit that subscribe button, leave a like on this video, and if you stuck around to the end, drop a blue heart in the comments. Keep fighting. Don't let them silence you. And until next time, I'll see you
Netanyahu’s Crude Exploitation of Charlie Kirk’s Death by Glenn Greenwald Sept. 13, 2025
This is a clip from our show SYSTEM UPDATE, now airing every weeknight at 7pm ET on Rumble. You can watch the [u=You can watch the full episode for FREE here: ]full episode for FREE here[/u].
Transcript
[Music] It's been a frequent theme in my reporting over the years on this show over the last several years that emotions are often easily exploited when they're at their peak moment, their peak level of intensity and then they're misdirected opportunistically for all sorts of ends that people end up regretting. talked a lot about how that happened when Russia invaded Ukraine and the propaganda was so intense showing grandmothers in Ukraine who were dying and people got very emotionally invested in Ukraine and four years later now we're still funding it we're still arming it and a lot of people have come to regret that same thing happened after 911 of course where people ended up cheering for all sorts of things they've come to regret last night was September 11th 24th anniversary of that attack where we examined many of those lessons that I would hope people have learned about guarding against exploitation of their strong emotions after an event of a kind like that attack or the COVID attack uh the COVID uh pandemic or the assassination of Charlie Kirk, but one person who understands very well how to exploit the opinions and emotions of American citizens. That's not just my assessment. He's boasted openly about how adept he is at manipulating American public opinion for the interest of Israel is Benjamin Netanyahu. He really is talented at being able to deceitfully exploit emotions and attach himself to them and then redirect them towards Israel's interest. And I've never seen him do it quite as brazenly as he's been doing this week ever since the moment that Charlie Kirk was shot. Benjamin, who was all over Twitter, attaching himself to Charlie Kirk, depicting Charlie Kirk as some sort of ultimate and supreme supporter of and loyalist to the state of Israel. And therefore, if you're having a lot of emotions about Charlie Kirk, you're sad that he was so brutally assassinated. if you're angry about it, if you uh are remembering all the things to admire about Charlie Kirk, he's trying to take those emotions and get you to believe that the only adequate vehicle for expression of them is to believe everything that Charlie Kirk believed, and that includes, according to Netanyahu, that he was a one of the greatest and most stalwart defenders of the American financing of Israel and arming of Israel and support for Israel and subservience to Israel. And in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. You can for sure find a lot of statements from Charlie Kirk, particularly over the LA uh the many years where he absolutely expressed support for Israel. He talked about how his Christianity made him view Jerusalem in particular as a very holy place and what he called Judea and Samaria. He was definitely pro-Israel in a lot of statements. There's no doubt about that. But as the American right began to become more about America first, as they became more inter non-interventionist, as young people in particular began to turn against Israel and the war in Gaza, as all polling show they did, Charlie at being part of this youth movement, being part of the younger generation, began openly questioning Israel in a way that was very alarming to Israel, especially after Chuck Carlson had been doing that, after Candace Owens had been doing that, after a large part with the American right, especially younger people. We're starting to question the US's relationship. This has been a major major source of alarm on the part of Netanyahu and Israel and the US uh the Israel lobby in the US. And one of their main goals is to whip the American right back into line where they've always been when it comes to Israel. You've always had some prominent people on the American right like Pap Buchanan and Ron Paul be extremely critical of Israel, extremely opposed to US funding of Israel, but they were kind of dismissed and shunted to the side of the fringe in large part because of those views. But it was really only after the last 18 20 months, 21 months when we saw not just this intense Israeli bombing and killing and slaughter and ultimately genocide in in Gaza, but also the wars that the US got involved in in in Yemen and then bombing Iran with Israel and on behalf of Israel that the serious questioning of wait, why are we financing this country? Why are we always serving it? Why do our politicians just talk incessantly about the importance of it? And they don't care that that happens on the left. They kind of wrote the left off. That's why Netanyahu often demonizes the two groups Israel regards as most threatening to their to their hegemony in the United States, Muslims and leftist. And he always tries to fuse those together to make you believe that Israel's enemies is your are your enemies. That's been a tactic of Israel for as long as I can remember. That's why Ben Netanyahu was so excited about September September 11th. He understood that, oh, this can be an American war against Islam, against the Muslim world, which is what we want more than anything. And he came to the United States in 2002 when emotions about September 11th were still very high. And he sold the Iraq war. Not saying that's the reason the US did it, but he was a vocal advocate of the Iraq war, connecting it to 911, promising how it would transform the region. The Israelis openly wanted the US to go and engineer regime change in seven different countries, including most places where we've now done that, Libya and Syria and Iraq, and also in Iran. That still is their goal. So exploiting the emotions of the American people on behalf of Israel is something that Nahu indisputably is extremely good at. And he's been ubiquitous in the American media. I mean, he's presiding over a genocide. Every day Israel is slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza and destroying Gaza. But he believes, and he probably is right about this, that this is an extremely important opportunity for Israel to exploit the death of Charlie Kirk, to exploit his memory, to exploit the positive emotions toward him, the admiration for him being expressed on the right, to basically construct him as a martyr of Israel. So that any admiration you have for Charlie Kirk means that you are revering somebody who was one of Israel's closest friends. And that is simply false. You'll be surprised to learn that Netanyahu is not telling the truth about that. And there's a lot of other Israel supporters who are engaged in the same mission. Earlier today, Tucker Carlson, who is one of the main reasons that a lot of the American right has started to turn against Israel, was on with Megan Kelly and they were talking about Charlie Kirk and specifically this kind of anti-interventionist, especially anti-war when it came to the Middle East and questioning of Israel that he had been exhibiting over the past, at least since the beginning of the Trump administration in a way that has been deeply worrying to Israel. Here's what they had to say. He was one of the only people, I mean truly one of the only people to go to the president whom he loved. He loved Donald Trump like personally as well. And I and I think the president really loved him in a real way. Um, but he was one of the only people to go to the Oval Office and say, "Sir, I totally understand and think Iran's really bad, but a war with Iran is not, you know, is is is something that could really hurt our country." I mean, boy, that was an unpopular position. He didn't need to express it. Oh, of course. And he did it again. He didn't have some weird agenda. He wasn't mad at anybody. He was for his country and he was for doing the right and wise and difficult thing. And he said that he went to the Oval Office to say that. He took massive, massive abuse from his own donors, which is also something that you don't see people. And he loved his donors. It wasn't a hostile thing, but they had a different view. A lot of them, not all, but a lot. And they expressed it to him in a very intense way. I know because he showed me and he said, "Look, I understand your perspective. This is my perspective and we're going to do what we think is the right thing, the wise thing." In that way, too, he was the voice of young people. I mean, there are no young people in the country anymore supporting this war and wanting Israel to continue its bombing campaign. That's just the truth. Look at the polls. And he was in touch with them. And even where his own opinion may have differed from their opinion, he felt like he owed it to them to bring their message to the sitting president of the United States. I mean, it was that's what's been snuffed out. I I think that's actually an extremely important point that Megan made there, which is that, okay, it's one thing for Tucker Carlson to really become vocal against the wars that Israel is fighting. Uh, and they are worried about that. It's also very worrying when someone like Candace Owens does it, who's roughly Charlie Kirk's age, even though she doesn't quite have the influence among say young people. I think she is more of a broader influence in in the conservative movement, but it's very worrying when she does it. But Charlie Kirk, you know, I said this about Nick Fentes about the enormous amount of influence that he has assembled when it comes to young people on the American right. Charlie Kirk is one of the people you could, you know, say might have even might have more influence, have had more influence among especially young conservatives than anybody else. More than Ben Shapiro, more than Tucker, more than Nick Fentes. and he was very entrenched right at the peak of Republican power of conservative power. I mean he was close friends with Donald Trump and JD Vance and you know that's the president vice president and everybody down the line. So for Charlie Kirk to start representing this massive change in American attitudes toward Israel, given that Charlie Kirk had always been a supporter of Israel, given that many of his donors are extremely pro-Israel, as Tucker said, in a way that could have been the most alarming danger for Israel possible. the thing they were most worried about that he was clearly moving away from that pro-Israel stance in a way that might have been almost a tipping point in in right-wing politics. Just to give you uh one example of what Tucker was talking about, in April of 2025, Tucker Carlson had basically said he was in touch with people very closely at the White House and knew that there was a serious movement to have the United States abandon its diplomacy that Trump kept promising was going to resolve the problem with Iran and instead to bomb Iran, to go to war for for Israel and with Israel in Iran. And Tucker came out with a big dramatic statement about how dangerous this is. And right around the same time, might have even been the same day, day before, day after, it was really right around the same time, this is what Charlie Kirk posted to X. Quote, "It's going unnoticed because so much other news is happening, but the war drums are beating again in DC. The wararmongers worry this is their last chance to get the white whale they've been chasing for 30 years, namely an allout regime change war against Iran. So he's denouncing and warning about the so-called wararm mongers who he says have as their primary goal an allout regime change against Iran. Who is he talking about there? Neocons, Israel supporters, Israelis. Obviously, that's who had as their white whale an all-out regime change war against Iran. He was denouncing them and warning of their dangers. This is what he said. Quote, "A new Middle East war would be a catastrophic mistake. Our military stockpiles are depleted from three years of backing Ukraine. Our effort to restore manufacturing has only just begun and will take years to bear fruit. War could worsen our already immense deficit and international debt. Iran is larger than Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan combined. A war would not be easy and could easily become a calamity. Thanks to President Trump's restraint during the first term, America has a golden opportunity to pull away from the Middle East quagmires for good. We shouldn't throw that opportunity away so that some DC husbands can feel tough by sending young Americans to die yet again. I mean, it's hard to overstate what a significant statement that was. He wasn't just warning about the dangers of a war with Iran. He was denouncing a very specific group of people in Washington in the Republican party in the conservative movement, calling them hasbins and wararm mongers and warning about how they were pushing for regime change in Iran in order to benefit Israel. Now, what Charlie Kirk also was was very loyal to President Trump and oftentimes he would express these things and he would find a way to still support Trump even when Trump did them. You can debate that. But in many instances, Charlie Kirk's become increasingly outspoken about his discomfort with the USIsrael relationship. And now that Charlie Kirk can't speak for himself any longer because he was just savagely assassinated, Benjamin popped up immediately to speak for him to tell you who Charlie Kirk was when it came to Israel. Not in Charlie Kirk's words, but in Netanyahu's. Here's what Netanyahu said on Wednesday. So this was the day after Charlie Kirk was killed. quote, "Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom, a lionhearted friend of Israel. He fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization. I spoke to him only two weeks ago and invited him to Israel." Sadly, that visit will not take place. Note that Netanyahu didn't indicate that Charlie Kirk had accepted that invitation or planned to go and several sources very close to him indicate that he did not. Netanyahu added, "We lost an incredible human being. His boundless pride in America and his valiant belief in free speech will leave a lasting impact." Yes, Netanyahu is a very fervent believer in free speech. Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk. I mean, he just swooped in. He saw that opportunity. And you notice what the only thing that mattered was he was a stalwart friend of Israel. I spoke to him two weeks ago. So, there's this outpouring of love for Charlie Kirk and then comes Ben say, "I loved him too. I'm mourning with you because he he was such a stalwart defender champion of Israel and every chance that now he gets he defines western values as Judeo-Christian so that Jews and Christians unite against Muslims or so that Christians who dominate in the West see Jews in Israel as an essential part of their agenda because we're they're united. everyone is united in Judeo-Christian values, which he says is what Charlie Kirk most vigorously defended. I've heard Charlie Kirk talk a lot about his religion, his Christianity. As I said, I've been on his show. I've talked to him before, and I don't think Benjamin should be talking for him. There's a lot of evidence of Charlie Kirk speaking on these issues himself, but this is what Netanyahu is absolutely up to. The next day he went on Newsmax and I'm saying he's all over American media, multiple media appearances day, all over X, all over social media, inserting himself into this national upheaval around the assassination of Charlie Kirk, obviously for Israel's purposes. And he was on with Greta Van Sust and this is what he claimed happened. You know, they're trying to delegitimize the state of Israel. Charlie Kirk said to me that he wrote me this detail letter. You have to fight the slander. These untruths, these vilifications have consequences. And he was right. But I'll tell you one thing. We're fighting on the battlefield against the terrorists and winning. And he was fighting on the battlefield of ideas. And I think he was winning. He was going to win. That's why they shot him. I hope they don't silence him. I don't think people will give into these ridiculous, ridiculous lies. Now, a lot of people who are very close to Charlie Kirk, like Candace Owens, said that the letter Charlie Kirk wrote to Netanyahu was wildly distorted and and misrepresented by Netanyahu. I mean, if he's going to talk about the letter, he ought to release it so that we can actually see whether Netanyahu is accurately describing it. Here is Netanyahu on Fox. This was also yesterday. I'm telling you, Netanyahu's primary mission this week was exploiting Charlie Kirk's assassination. You would think he's like someone with nothing to do. It was just like a the best friend of Charlie Kirk and he's in mourning and grief and grieving. That's why he's all over the media. This is his number one priority. And you should really think about why. Why is the assassination of Charlie Kirk and his desire to speak to the American people about it such an crucial priority to him while his country is engulfed in not just wars but all kinds of political crises that he's at the center of scandals and crisis upheaval. Here's Netanyahu on Fox. This was yesterday where he elaborates on this letter that he alleges Charlie Kirk wrote and makes other claims about Charlie Kirk views about Israel. Prime Minister, you have your own memories of Charlie Kirk. Please share them. Well, Harris, before I do that, I have to say that we're just heartbroken. myself, my my wife, my family, my son actually, and his 2019 visit to Israel. Had lunch with him and his wife Erica were shattered first as human beings because a great human being has been taken from us. Uh he's was an extraordinary friend. Uh he you know he he said he wrote me a letter on on May 2nd this year. He said, "One of my greatest joys as a Christian is advocating for Israel and forming alliances to defend Judeo-Christian civilization." A few weeks before the tragedy yesterday, I I called him and I spoke to him and I said, "Please come to Israel." I invited him to Israel and sadly that visit will not take place. But he was he was a defender of our common Judeo-Christian civilization. He was unbelievably excited to walk in the footsteps of Jesus here. He and while Yes. Netanyahu says he was excited to walk in the footsteps of Jesus here. And while Netanyahu is spouting this noxious garbage about Charlie Kirk trying to plan the emotions of the Fox audience on the screen it reads Netanyahu Netanyahu says Kirk is an was an extraordinary friend of Israel. I mean, the propaganda is so brazen. Can it get more propagandistic? And Harris Faulner is really, she's one of the just absolute dumbest and most mindless personalities on Fox. I'll never forget one of the best TV moments that she ever provided, which was when she had Condisa Rice on Conda Rice after the Russians invaded Ukraine and Harris Faulner said to Condisa Rice, "Look, how can this not be a war crime? My understanding is that if you invade a sovereign country that hasn't attacked you, that's by definition a war crime. Like not remembering that she's sitting next to the woman who was one of the main architects of the invasion of Iraq. It's like she does not nothing connects. She's just an absolute vacant propagandist for the Murdoch agenda. Very loyal to the Fox agenda. But in any event, so she's the perfect person for net to come on with. She's never gonna get a ask him even like a minimally challenging question. He's just gonna let her speak and then talk about how beautiful everything he said was. But on the screen it says, "Kirk is an extraordinary friend of Israel. In case you're wondering what the purpose of all this is, here's the rest of this if you can bear it. He valued our bond, the bond between America and Israel. He uh you know, he uh uh did so many things to defend free speech. He had his truth. He stood up for it. But he said, "You can you can come and debate me." He invited that debate. He certainly didn't invite the violence, the horrible violence that tried to silence him. And you know, this is a worldwide problem. the the people on on the, you know, on the extremes, the the Islamists, the radical Islamists and the their union with the ultr progressives, uh, they often speak about human rights. They speak about free speech, but they use violence to try to take down their enemies, whether it's President Tribe, who's been almost assassinated twice, or, you know, they try to kill me here, too. Uh, but they got Charlie Kirk and it's just heartbreaking. They got Charlie Kirk. I don't think Muslims had anything to do with either of the two assassination attempts on President Trump. And I from everything I understand don't believe that anything to do with the assassination on Charlie Kirk. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. What he's trying to do is he knows who Israel's two main enemies are. The American left and Muslims. Now, he's also very aware that the American right, large portions of it are also starting to turn against Israel, which is why this is such a priority. But you notice how deceitful is like, yeah, Muslims and the the union of of them with the ultra progressives. This was before anyone, this was yesterday, before anyone had any idea who the person was who shot. We still don't really know much about this person. I know that everyone on the left is saying he's a grier. Everyone on the right is immediately saying that he's some sort of DSA socialist type. There's a lot of conflicting signals as there are in a lot of these cases with young killers who are obviously radicalized in like on the internet with memes and the like. I don't think that they're overwhelming his overwhelming uh there was like a discernable right-le ideology, but more will come out. I don't I'm not really attached to that. I really don't care. My point is that Netanyahu before anything was known about him is saying telling the Fox audience that's who killed your beloved leader Muslims and the sup super progressives that's against us and he's always trying to tie himself to Donald Trump. He has corruption charges against Trump. So of course he's against Netany oh they're doing to me what they did to Trump. He's claiming they tried to kill him and he's saying that's what happened with Trump as well. Everything is always trying to imply to Americans that Israel and America are like this. There's no separation. We're basically part of exactly the same country, the same mission. And exploiting Charlie Kirk's death to to do it um in such a brazen way, I think, is extra repugnant. Now, it isn't just Netanyahu doing it. huge amounts of Israel. Uh here is a tweet today from Hillel F, the fanatical Israeli uh propagandist. And here's a picture of an IDF soldier, helpfully uh blurred out. You wouldn't want to expose him. And he's holding a gigantic missile, which I'm sure was either sent by the United States and or paid for by the United States. These are the ones that are used to blow up ball of Gaza and kill children. And he wrote in there in memory of Charlie Kirk. And then he posed for it. Just in case you're not understanding, this was Israel's loss as well. Israel loves Charlie Kirk every bit as much as you do. And Hill the tweet was direct from Gaza. He'd be so proud. Do you see how they're talking for Charlie Kirk? Like he'd be so proud to have a missile with his name on it that's going to blow up kids in Gaza. As Megan Kelly said, he he was representative of the younger uh wing of the conservative movement that was turning against Israel and turning against his wars. Nobody has the right to say that about Charlie Cook. I'd be so I'd be so proud to see Israel blowing up kids in my name. Here is Yaki Lopez. Don't know who that is, but who cares? Who wrote, "Oh, he's an Israeli official." Yeah, that makes even more sense. This afternoon in Tel Aviv, Israel remembers # Charlie Kirk and then there's a picture of some sand castle that someone made. Can we where it says Charlie Kirk his legacy will continue to shine and there's a cross and a star of David and then two Israeli flags at the top. I mean, could you imagine that if you like if you if you died and then people just started trying to use you as an avatar of things that you didn't actually stand for or represent. I talked about that last night with all the calls for censorship, or even the broader theory that the people with blood on their hands aren't just the ones who pulled the triggers, but the ones who speak and give opinions that inspire that. He was contemptuous of that theory. It's one of the things that he and I like very much had in common ground. Charlie Kirk was an absolutist free speech defender. There are a lot of people on the right who claim to be and we've seen over time that many if not most are frauds, but Charlie Kirk was a genuine free speech advocate and he in that tweet we read was responding to a lot of the reaction on the right after that couple got killed outside of the Israeli embassy in May in Washington. And he was like, "Look, I warned this couple. They're beautiful couple. They had all their lives ahead of them. is a horrible tragedy. The person who killed them should be punished to the maximum extent of the law. But he said, I'm seeing a lot of conservatives saying it's not just he who has blood on his hands, but also people who demonize Israel or were against the war, called it a genocide. He was like, no, that's not how it works. Words are not violence. He said, "Violence is violence. So stop trying to say that people who never engage in violence have blood on their hands because of their views that they expressed." And he was telling that to his fellow conservatives in the knowing that this theory is extremely dangerous and has been weaponized against the right that if you express certain views you're causing these people to be endangered. You know, the first time I ever encountered that theory, this theory was back in the 1990s. There was like this spate of murders of abortion doctors. And you know, they would be in their home and somebody would come and just snipe them or outside their office getting into their car, someone would just shoot them. And there was this extreme effort by the media and liberals to blame prolife activists for those shootings. And there was one shooting in 2009 of an abortion doctor. And this abortion doctor happened to be somebody that Bill O'Reilly frequently talked about and highlighted on his Fox program because he was a very prolific uh abortion doctor, but he also performed later term abortions. They were legal, but Bill Riley was morally opposed to them. And Bill Riley would go on every on the air every night and say that this guy was a murderer. In fact, his name was Dr. Tiller. And Bill O'Reilly would always say, "Tiller the killer." And so the media tried saying, "Look, it's not just the guys going and shooting these abortion doctors. It's the people on TV and the pundit constantly saying abortion is murder and abortion doctors are murderers. Because if you keep telling people that, of course, it's predictable they're going to go and kill abortion doctors." And maybe that's true. But Bill O'Reilly didn't tell anybody to go kill anybody. He didn't advocate violence. There's no view that you could express that doesn't have the possibility that someone listening might not get inspired to go kill somebody. And it's extremely dangerous to free speech and just to the truth to try and transfer words into violence to say Bill O'Reilly has the blood on his hands for the murder of abortion doctors or Tucker Carlson has the blood on his hands from the massacre in Buffalo because the guy who did it wrote a manifesto talking about the grace replacement theory and they claimed Tucker Carlson also talked about that. It wasn't true. The guy had a totally different worldview than Tucker. But even if they had identical mindsets, Tucker would not be responsible for that anymore, then some liberal is responsible because some fanatical fan of Rachel Matto goes to a softball field where he knows Republican members of Congress are playing and tries to murder them after having spent two years posting Rachel Maddo clips saying that Russians that Republicans are Russian agents. You have to separate words and violence. And this was a foundational view of Charlie Kirk. Now, one of the things that Charlie did recently because he was getting very kind of torn about the Israel issue because he was somebody who was concerned about anti-semitism. He didn't want opposition to Israel spilling over into anti-semitism. He also did have a spiritual connection to Israel the way a lot of Christians do because it's where Jesus was born and died and a lot of other events of that kind that are regarded as holy by Christians. And at the same time, his America first ideology, his anti-war views were leading him to also start questioning US support. And he also knew that a lot of Gen Z conservatives were very much against Israel. And so he kind of assembled some Turning Point interns and uh other members who are Gen Z to talk about Israel to try and kind of get to a consensus point about where young conservatives should be. And this is part of what happened. Resonate with you. Oh, yeah. Exactly. You're not anti-Israel. You don't wish them harm. You're you're not, you know, like cheering on Iran. No, I I support is I think they're our ally. I want them. But you would be called an anti-semite by some people for saying this. And I think that's ridicul. I don't hate Jews because I think a nation should defend themselves. Exactly. Like I I think that's the most ridiculous thing ever. I feel like it's becoming like the word racism. like we just disagree with them so we just have to call them a name. I don't think it they're actually anti-semitic. I think people just can't agree with them and they can't prove them wrong so they just throw a word out and be like you're anti-Semitic for because you think that we should stop sending our money there. Oh my god. Hallelujah. I didn't realize I forgot that that uh that guy made that point. So true. He's saying like, "We spent all these years criticizing liberals who just scream racist and anybody disagrees with them, but now I'm watching all these conservatives scream anti-semite the minute you question whether the US should be supporting Israel." And you can see Charlie Kirk having being very sympathetic to that view, saying, "Yeah, just because you don't want the US financing Israel anymore doesn't make you an anti-semite." I see amongst the people I'm around, I do see more like general disdain towards, I mean, just being honest, Jewish people. That's correct. just because they're constantly being told that you hate Jews. And it's like, fine. If you're going to say I hate Jews over and over and over again. Like, if I'm going to be convicted of the crime, I might as well do the crime. I fear the same thing happens with all the talk of race. The more we talk about it, the more the more racism actually happen. This is like I try to tell Thank you for saying this. Like because like this is I try to tell these people and they're like, "We must get more aggressive." And so like let me ask a question. if we were to say if we were to remove like if people said what Tucker said is anti-semitic I don't hold that view but it's like a lot of people on Twitter are like calling us out and like if whatever that's not going to happen but um if we were to cancel Tucker would anti-se anti-semitism increase or decrease I think increase because that means any supporter of Tucker Carlson's statement therefore makes them anti-semit and association 100% exactly but the binary that's presented is that if you don't passionately talk about it, you are a hater. That's probably destructive for everybody involved. So for me, I'm trying to find this new path, which is I love Israel. I visited there. My wife and I had the best experiences ever. I saw where Jesus rose from the dead and he walked on water. But also, I'm an American and I represent a generation that can't afford anything and that we are like flooded with illegals and no one speaks English and our hospitals are clogged. I think we need to have the prudence to reject the Jew hate. Like, okay, we're not going to put up with that. That's dumb. But also, if you call everyone an anti-semite if they don't take a puritanical view of the Netanyahu government, then I think that's it's bad for everybody. I mean, you can just see him kind of grappling with this issue and he has a bunch of young Turning Point people there with him saying like, "Yeah, I I'm sick of this. I'm sick of the fact that you can't question Israel without being accused of being an anti-semite. And like if anything, it's going to make us actually become anti-semites. And he was pushing back against the saying, we don't want anti-semitism, but what's breeding it is this demand that you just bow to Israel and cheer Israel and support more money for Israel and more wars for Israel. That's what Netanyahu is doing. He's jumping into this breach where Charlie Kirk can't speak for him anymore. That's why monuments are being built in Tel Aviv and his name is being used on missiles and Netanyahu is on TV every day talking about Charlie Kirk being the greatest friend that Israel has ever had. Charlie Kirk went on Megan Kelly and I'm showing you this because I want you to see Charlie Kirk speaking for himself rather than Netanyahu doing it for him. And Megan Kelly uh in particular has been a stalwart supporter of Israel. Like pretty much the standard conventional view on the right that Israel is our ally. We should support them. They're in a sea of radical Islam which is also our enemy. And you know she's a very fervent supporter of Israel. She has been her whole career in a way that aligns with Fox and fits right in there and you know that's Megan Kelly has some pretty standard views of foreign policy very much aligned with like the Bush chain era where she emerged from but she's also been questioning a lot of those. I've been on our show a couple times debating with her and she's very open to those debates and has started questioning things that she would never have questioned even a year ago. And Charlie Kirk was doing the same. And as a result of their even slight deviation from the pro-Israel line, Charlie much more than Megan, but both of them, they started getting accused of anti-semitism in the Israeli media. Charlie was being attacked as some sort of like in following the footsteps of Tony Carlson and they were both very angry about it and Charlie K went on and Kelly and they both kind of aired out their anger and sort of said like look back off or you know you're going to drive people away from you even more. I I feel the connection to Israel and I but at the same time simultaneously when the hostile reaction is that now Megan and Charlie are enemies, right? Boy, I'll tell you like you're you're you're you're going to you're not going to I won't say lose, but you will weaken and just basically deflate two of your strongest advocates if that continues. Right. And it to me I laugh because it's like I've been bullied by the best of them, the best and it it didn't work and it's not going to work with them. Then the more you try to tell me I can't criticize Israel, the more likely I am to do it to focus on exactly what you're doing, right? Like what what are you doing that you're so defensive? You don't own me. I don't I don't take $1 of money from any Jewish affiliated group. That's not that's never been what what my shows model. I take, you know, Cozy Earth is my sponsor. Uh people like Genuisell, those are the people I take and I and I probably would feel reluctant to criticize Genuisell, which is a great product, so I probably wouldn't do it anyway. My point is simply, I have my honest opinions, which is why I had credibility for the two years I've been defending them, right? And I still have that credibility. And I don't need lectures from my friends who are more pro-Israel than I am or who are just American Jewish people who are concerned about what's happening. I don't need lectures on my coverage. Okay? I'll call it like I see it. And you have no right to come on this show and demand a debate with me because I've said something you disagree with. It's my show and I'll decide the coverage we do. Okay. I mean, that was a month ago. I mean, does that sound like Charlie Kirk is the most stalwart defender of Israel? Here's a little bit more uh from what they talked about on that day. Got text about you, Megan, saying, "Why is Megan like doing the bidding of Hamas?" I was like, "What are you talking about? Megan's the best. Like, what? She's amazing." And I said, "Why are you texting me about Megan?" And at that point, and so this is what they don't understand. You and I, Megan, and Tucker is in the same category and they've tried to go after Tucker. Yeah. Is that the And and the more you attack our moral character, the actually the more we're going to double down into direction because screw you. I don't do it that way. Okay. Right. Like when Tell me I'm wrong. Cool. Tell me if I've got my facts wrong. By the way, on the Epstein thing, now Tali Bennett says he was an Epstein agent. We have to be pursuers of truth. They've denied it. Fine. Let's keep digging. Okay. Fine. But the the by the way, that's another thing. Charlie Kirk was speaking openly about the possibility that Epstein was tied to the MSA to Israeli intelligence. He wasn't just like wondering about it as one of many instances. He was clearly uh suggesting that the evidence he's seen is enough to make him strongly suspicious that Epstein was tied to the Israeli government and to the MSAD. Is this the person that sounds to you like some is this Ben Shapiro? Is this Barry Weiss? Like some sort of agent or asset of the Israeli government doing its bidding? There might have been a point where Charlie Kirk was that, but that isn't who he's been over the last several months. And don't listen to Netanyahu about Charlie Curry. Listen to what he says himself. the the thing that I don't think I think is being lost is like on some part of the population you can scold them into silence right but if I have any deviation of a purity test any deviation whatsoever such as hosting a focus group right Megan with a bunch of our students that went viral having Dave Smith or Tucker at my event it is all of a sudden oh Charlie is a uh he's he's no longer with us and all that. So, wait a second. What do you mean? What does with us mean? Exact. That's the other thing. The Turning Point uh annual conference is has become an extremely important stage for conservatism, especially for young conservatives. And not only did Charlie invite Tucker to give a keynote speech, which he did, and talked about the wars in Israel and the like and did it aggressively. I mean, he gave Tucker a major platform at Turning Point USA despite the fact that Tucker has been under massive attack by Israel and its supporters in the United States for supposedly being an anti-semite, for not supporting Israel. He also had a debate on Israel where he invited Dave Smith, the very uh harsh critic of Israel who's a libertarian and invited some neocon who defended Israel. So there was a lot of questioning of Israel at the Turning Points conference and that enraged Turning Points founders and donors rather who are extremely pro-Israel and a lot of people in the conservative movement. That's part of their what they're reacting to. Exactly. Right. I'm an American. Okay. Like I I I represent this country and I I don't even understand that paradigm. But Megan, I think you would agree with this and I want to make sure we fast like really zero in on this personality types like you, myself, and Tucker. The more that you guys privately and publicly call our character into question, which is not isolated, right, Megan? It would be one thing if it was one text or two text. It is dozens of texts. Yes. Then we start to say, "Hold the boat here." And and to be fair, some of my really good Jewish friends are like, "That's not all of us. It's all But these are leaders, too, though, right? These are these are stakeholders, right?" So, there you have it. And I find it utterly obnoxious. Like I said, imagine that you die and you've devoted your life to various political causes. And in the wake of the emotions left by your your death or your murder, in swoops, Benam Netanyahu to try and recapture the American right as his little pet to say, "Oh, you love Charlie Kirk. Well, then do as Charlie did. He was a unwield unyielding and passionate supporter of Israel and of the American Israel relationship. It's despicable. And I think it's so transparent that it's unlikely to work on anybody other than people who are already what ready to believe whatever Netanyahu says and and believes in the pro-Israel uh fanaticism. [Music] Thanks for watching this clip from System Update, our live show that airs every Monday through Friday at 700 p.m. Eastern exclusively on Rumble. You can catch the full nightly shows live or view the backlog of episodes for free on our Rumble page. You can also find full episodes the morning after they air across all major podcasting platforms, including Spotify and Apple. All the information you need is linked below. We hope to see you there.
People visit a makeshift memorial at Utah Valley University after U.S. right-wing activist and commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at the university, in Orem, Utah. (REUTERS/Cheney Orr)
Nation writer Elie Mystal on Friday tore into some arguments and hot takes surrounding the "canonization" of Charlie Kirk, a MAGA influencer shot dead this week in Utah, cautioning that the "martyred mascot of racism" has distracted people from facing heightened racism and the country's raging gun problem.
"Before the shooting, the biggest story in America was the Supreme Court’s authorization of racial profiling against Latinos. I wrote about it here," Mystal wrote in his column. "After the white media is done celebrating their martyred mascot of racism and bigotry, I hope we can resume our conversation about how the rest of us are forced to live in this white supremacist state."
The writer offered condolences for Kirk and his family, sharing the most recent updates on the suspect, Tyler Robinson, whose motives remain unknown and who is now in custody. He noted that Kirk's last words were “counting or not counting gang violence." And, he recounted how historically Black colleges and universities in Virginia cancelled classes after receiving threats in the fallout.
"To recap, a white man was murdered by another white man for reasons we don’t yet know, but somehow that means Black people have to catch hell," Mystal wrote.
Mystal called out the Yankees for their moment of silence for the right-wing activist and specifically Ezra Klein's recent "unconscionably" titled “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics The Right Way,” dubbing the New York Times opinion piece as the "worst argument of the week," specifically citing his white privilege and shortcomings.
"Klein’s article goes on to condemn political violence," he wrote. "I agree with that, of course. But condemning political violence as an op-ed columnist is a little bit like condemning the French Revolution when you’re a member of the aristocracy. It is in our best interests to condemn the violent murder of public figures, because we all know we might be next. That doesn’t make us empathetic or graceful or more enlightened than the least common denominator on social media, it makes us self-interested."
But Mystal says Klein misses the point — Kirk attacked and denigrated Black people and even threatened the existence of LGBTQ people.
"Moreover, it is entirely possible to condemn political violence and mourn the victims of political violence without lauding the political influence of the victims of the violence. Klein fails that should-be-basic test," he wrote.
"Charlie Kirk represented the very worst American political discourse had to offer, and I wish he were still alive so I could tell that to him, to his face, over and over again. I wish he lived long enough to see everything that he worked to achieve crumble all around him," he wrote.
Mystal argued that Klein ought to pay attention to this.
"You see what I did there, Ezra? It’s really not hard."
For now, Mystal says he's proud to be a Mets fan, saying he wants "people who practice politics to be better than Charlie Kirk. And Ezra Klein."
"All I can do is try to weather the storm. Violent whites have their blood up, and that usually means incredibly bad things for people like me. I’ve got public appearances that I probably need to cancel. I hope to survive this by staying as far away from white folks as I possibly can until their fever breaks."