9-12-25 - 8am - Shooter Press Conference & Reaction

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To ABC News the press conference in Utah about the
capture of the suspect of the assassin of Charlie Kirk
has just started. Let's just take it.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
And run with logo and light colored shoes.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
When encountered in person by investigators in Washington County on
September twelfth in the early morning hours, Robinson was observed
in consistent clothing with those surveillance images. Investigators interviewed a
family member of Robinson, who stated that Robinson had become
more political in recent years. The family member referenced a

(00:31):
recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to
September tenth, and in the conversation with another family member,
Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked
about why they didn't like him and the viewpoints that
he had. The family member also stated Kirk was full
of hate and spreading hate. The family member also confirmed

(00:53):
Robinson had a gray Dodge Challenger. Investigators identified an individual
as the roommate of Robinson. Investigators interviewed that roommate, who
stated that his roommate, referring to Robinson, made a joke
on discord. Investigators asked if he would show them the
messages on discord. He opened it and showed several messages

(01:13):
to investigators and allowed investigators to take photos of the
screen as each message was shown by Robinson's roommate. These
photos consisted of various messages, including content of messages between
the phone contact named Tyler with an emoji icon and
Robinson's roommate's device. The content of these messages included messages

(01:36):
affiliated with the contact Tyler, stating a need to retrieve
a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in
a bush, Messages related to visually watching the area where
a rifle was left, and a message referring to having
left the rifle wrapped in a towel. The messages also

(01:57):
referred to engraving bullets and a mention of a scope
and the rifle being unique messages from the contact. Tyler
also mentioned that he had changed outfits. I know there
has been speculation as well as to the writing on

(02:18):
those casings, those those bullet casings, and I believe we.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Have that as well, and I'll share that with you now.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
So the area north of Campus Drive Road where the
suspect crossed over, you saw some of that in The
video that we released last night consists of a grassy
area with trees. On the edge of the UVU campus,
investigators discovered a bolt action rifle wrapped in a dark
colored towel. The rifle was determined to be a Mouser
Model ninety eight thirty hot six THIRTYOT six caliber bolt

(02:54):
action rifle.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Investigators noted in screws that had been engraved on casings
found with the rifle. Inscriptions on a fired casing read
notices bulges capital, wo, what's.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
This question mark.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read hey fascist, exclamation point, catch,
exclamation point, up arrow symbol, right arrow and symbol, and
three down arrow symbols. A second unfired casing read oh
bellichow bella chow bellachow chow chow. And a third unfired

(03:36):
casing read if you read this, you are gay LMAO.
We are indebted to law enforcement across the state who
has worked seamlessly together local law enforcement, state law enforcement,
and our federal partners with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(03:57):
Were grateful for everyone who worked together in such a
short amount of time to to find this person and
to UH and to bring justice. I want to think
the public who has been so engaged reviewing, reviewing videos,
helping us with sending in tips and helping us get

(04:18):
to this point. I want to thank UH, the the
family members of Tyler Robinson who did the right thing
in this case and we're able to bring him into
law enforcement as well. I especially want to thank the

(04:39):
family of Charlie kirk Erica, Charlie's parents, his children. I
want us to be thinking of them as we bring
justice in this case. They will be involved in that justice.
We will be working very closely with them as we
move through this process as well. This is a very

(04:59):
set day four again for our country, a terrible day
for the state of Utah. But I'm grateful that at
this moment we have an opportunity to bring closure to
this very dark chapter in our nation's history.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
With that, I will now.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Turn the turn the microphone over to the director of
the FBI, Cash Pitau.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Thank you, Governor.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
This is what happens when you let good cops be cops.
The FBI and our partners are proud to stand here
today together to bring justice to the family of Charlie
Kirk in honors memory. I want to express my deep
gratitude to President Trump, the Vice President, and the entire
White House who have been so incredibly supportive with both
resources and just personally to the FBI as a team.

(05:49):
They had our backs the entire way, and I just
want to express my gratitude for giving us the resources
we need to operate in this space to bring this
sort of justice at this sort of speed. Thirty three hours,
we have made historic progress for Charlie. Governor Cox, our
partnership has been absolutely incredible these last few days. Our

(06:11):
partnership will endure your state and local partners, your sheriffs,
your DPS, community has been unbelievably impressive in the hardest
of times. In a case like this, cannot be solved,
cannot be brought without partnering with your state and local authorities.
The FBI has a certain role to play, and we
will play that role, and we will lead out for
the federal government. But Governor Cox, we are so grateful

(06:33):
for your state partnership that let out on this investigation.
A little bit of the timeline. Charlie was shot at
twelve twenty three pm on Wednesday. The first FBI agent's
aren't arrived on scene in sixteen minutes with chiefs of
police at twelve thirty nine and secured the scene. The
FBI immediately launched fixed wing assets. We utilize these assets

(06:57):
to transport personnel, specialty technicians, hasa's rescue teams. We also
utilized these assets to go back and forth from the
East Coast and here in Utah to transport forensic evidence
and other evidence that will be analyzed and is being
analyzed at our FBI laboratories in Quantico and other laboratories,
including the ATF At my direction, the FBI released the
first set of FBI photos of the suspect at ten

(07:20):
am local time on nine to eleven, Then shortly thereafter,
the FBI reward of one hundred thousand dollars was released
at ten forty five am Local myself and Deputy Director
Bondino arrived on the scene at approximately five thirty pm
on nine to eleven. The Governor led a press conference
last night at approximately eight pm, where at my direction,

(07:44):
the FBI released a never before seen video of the suspect.
We also released new images to the public of the suspect,
and just last night, the suspect was taken into custody
at ten pm local time, in less than thirty six
hours thirty three to be precise, Thanks to the full

(08:06):
weight of the federal government and leading out with the
partners here in the state of Utah and Governor Cox,
the suspect was apprehended in historic time period. And I
want to highlight what Governor Cox said, This would not
have been possible without you the media and you the public.
That's why we went so public so fast, and we're
so transparent, and we're committed to that transparency. The crime

(08:29):
scene just a little bit there. It is a large
crime scene. State local authorities along with the federal authorities,
processed that crime scene quickly, and I even had the
ability to walk through that crime scene and walk through
the steps the suspect took to learn more about what
was needed and what resources we need to brere to

(08:51):
create a full picture for the FBI and leadership back
in Washington. Furthermore, thankfully to state local partners, forensic evidence
has been seized and continues to be garnered. Forensic evidence
has already been evaluated FBI laboratories in Quantico and state
local authorities here. We will continue to process evidence as
we see it, as we collect it, and we will
continue to deliver to Governor Cox and his team. Last night,

(09:16):
we had a total of approximately seven thousand interviews excuse me,
seven thousand leads. As of this morning, thanks to your
great work, we have over eleven thousand leads that were
called in to the FBI, and we are running out
every single lead that we can. Every one of those
leads will be run out. The arrest is a testament
to dedication of good law enforcement being great and partnerships

(09:40):
in law enforcement, which I've tried to highlight as my
tenure at the director of the FBI. There is no
better relationship for law enforcement than the FBI to partner
with state and local authorities, and you've seen it here
in these last few days. The FBI Salt Lake Field Office,
along with our offices in La Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio,
Las veg I, Guess, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, our headquarters component in Quantico,

(10:03):
all participate in the FBI.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
I want to.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Express my deep gratitude to the employees of the FBI,
the men and women, the evidence response team, tacticians, the
special operators, the agents, the support staff. You have done
monumental work in historic time when the public who had
a right to demand such an expeditious solving of an investigation.

(10:29):
The FBI answered that call diligently, critically important to our nation,
and we delivered. And I'm proud to be their leader,
and I'm proud to.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Be the director of the FBI.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
This is a very much an ongoing investigation, as the
governor said, and we will continue to work with state
and local authorities to develop the investigation, to provide them
the evidence they need for their ongoing prosecutions. And we
will be here to answer every call they absolutely have,
as long as it takes, for as long as we
need to find an APPREHENDI who whatever suspects were involved

(11:01):
in this crime.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Lastly, to my friend Charlie kirk.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Rest now, brother, we have the watch and I'll see
you in Valhalla.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
Thank you, and good morning. I would just like to
take a few minutes, as the sheriff to express my
gratitude for everybody who has played a part in this investigation.
As you know, it's been a vast complicated and a
very very fast paced investigation. You're looking at people standing

(11:43):
up here who are running on if they got an
hour's sleep in the last couple of days. They're probably lucky.
It has been very taxing. It has been so impressive
of speaking on behalf of the local law enforcement see
the cooperation that we've seen in this type of case

(12:03):
across the state. Sheriffs chiefs, our state partners have stepped
up and have come to the call on anything that
we needed. Our county chiefs have been phenomenal. Our Utah
County Attorney Jeff Gray, who's standing up here with us,
has been phenomenal in leading us through this investigation. I

(12:25):
would like to thank the federal government for their sources,
their assets, our local team here, our FBI team has
been extraordinary and helping us work through this and bring
this person to justice. Most of all, I would like
to thank the public, and specifically, I would like to

(12:49):
thank the public who turned to prayers and who turned
to positiveness for us. I would like to thank them
on behalf of the law enforcement community, because we needed
those prayers. That's what we needed to get through this.
We needed your support and you gave it to us.
We needed your patience and you gave it to us.

(13:09):
And I would like to thank you for the Kirk
family because that's what they need, is your support and
your prayers, and that will get us through all of this.
So thank you everybody, for everybody that have stepped up.
We've had such a phenomenal response to this. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Thanks.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
I also want to give a special thanks to the
Attorney General and the Department of Justice. Their unwavering support
and their commitment to justice is shown true here and
without ag Bondi and Deputy Attorney General of Todd Blanche
and the resources they brought to bear, we have not
been able to complete our mission. And I just want
to say special thanks. It's an honor to be a
part of the Department of Justice.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Thank you again to our incredible law enforcement team who
has worked so hard.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Shareff.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
I got a solid ninety minutes last night, so I'm
probably the most well rested person up here. Please, gentlemen,
I get the microphones, so I hope you will permit
me a moment just to share a few more thoughts
about where we are and how we got here, and
maybe a little bit of where we go from here.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
I don't want to.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Get too preachy, but I think it's important that we,
with eyes wide open, understand what's happening in our country today.
I've heard I've heard people say, why.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Are we so invested in this?

Speaker 3 (14:40):
There's violence happening all across our country, and violence is
tragic everywhere, and every life taken is a child of
God who deserves our love and respect and dignity. This
is certainly about the tragic death, assassination and political assassination

(15:01):
of Charlie Kirk, but it is also much bigger than
an attack on an individual. It is an attack on
all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
It is an attack on our ideals.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
This cuts to the very foundation of who we are,
of who we have been, and who we could be
in better times. Political violence is different than any other
type of violence for lots of different reasons. One because,
in the very act that Charlie championed of expression, that

(15:47):
freedom of expression that is entrined in our founding documents,
in having his life taken in that very act makes
it more difficult for people to feel like they can
share their ideas, that they can speak freely. We will
never be able to solve all the other problems, including

(16:08):
the violence problems that people are worried about. If we
can't have a clash of ideas safely and securely, even
especially especially those ideas with which you disagree. That's why
this matters so much. Over the last forty eight hours,

(16:31):
I have been as angry as I have ever been,
as sad as I have ever been, and.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
It was.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
As anger pushed me to the brink. It was actually
Charlie's words that pulled me back. I'd like to share
some of those, and specifically right now, if I could,
I need to talk to the young people in our state,
in my state, and all across the country. As President
Trump reminded me, he said, you know who really loved

(17:07):
Charlie the youths. He's right, young people love Charlie, and
young people hated Charlie. And Charlie went into those places anyway.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
And these are the words that have helped me.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Charlie said, when people stop talking, that's when you get violence.
He said that week can never forgive. Forgiveness is the
attribute of the strong. The only way out of the
labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. Welcome without judgment, love
without condition, forgive without limit. He said, always forgive your enemies.

(17:54):
Nothing annoys them so much. A few months Ago. I
referenced this last night Charlie posted to social media. When
things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds,
it's important to stay grounded, turn off your phone, read scripture,
spend time with friends, and remember Internet fury is not

(18:14):
real life.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
It's going to be okay.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
He again said, when you stop having a human connection
with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier
to commit violence. He said, what we as a culture
have to get back to is being able to have
a reasonable agreement, being able to have reasonable agreement where
violence is not an option. Now again, to my young

(18:42):
friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics
feels like rage.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
You've been listening to the press conference in Utah about
the capture of the assassin of Charlie Kirk. Stay tuning
after this, a few comments about what you just heard.
We'll be right.

Speaker 6 (19:03):
Back, Michael and Redbury. We can see that the Democrats
cultivated the hate in the scumbag that shot Charlie Kirk.
I mean, just look at the AMMO. It says fascist

(19:25):
on the animal. Well, who was saying that? Joe Biden Paris.
All of the anti American Democrats are still saying that
Trump's a fascist. Okay, the Democrats have blood on our hands.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yes they do. The governor the press conference is still ongoing.
We're not going to break back into it. He's answering questions.
If and when either the director of the FBI or
the sheriff start taking questions, then I want to go
back to it. But right now, quite honestly, I just
don't care what the governor has to say, and I

(20:02):
haven't heard it. But Dragon tells me that the answer
to men of the questions have been that I can't
say anything. All right. I can't go into that right now.
A couple of points I want to make. So here's
what we know. The guy's name is Tyler Robinson. He
was apprehended after the public manhunt that at some point

(20:25):
they released the surveillance footage showing him fleeing the scene.
According to NBC News, a family member recognized him in
those published images and is the one that alerted the
authorities that led to a surrender. Last night. He was

(20:45):
headed over by a person close to him, believed to
be a relative, apparently the father. That's a little questionable,
but that's pretty much what everybody's saying. Right now. The
weapon a Mauser thirty eight to six caliber bolt action
rifle found in the woods. Forensics and analysis analysts collected

(21:09):
all the physical evidence. They had a palm print, forearm impression,
shoe print from the rooftop crime scene. They received over
seven or eleven thousand tips. It's obviously a lot. He
is in custody awaiting formal charges. I assume they a
will start with state murder charges and then reserve their

(21:35):
ability to file additional charges, including federal charges later after
the initial charges, just to get some charge, obviously a
murder charge, first degree murder, so they can hold him
without bail. The here's what I can find using a

(21:56):
couple of sources, including Lexus Nexus. He doesn't have a
criminal record according to state records. Now, whether that is
a fifty state search or a Utah state search, I'm
not sure, but the general route, the general consensus right

(22:16):
now is he does not have a criminal record. He
graduated from Pine High School in Saint George, Utah in
twenty twenty. He had a high ACT score thirty eight, sorry,
thirty four out of thirty six, so he ranks in
the top one percent nationally. Social media posts from his mother,

(22:37):
Amber Robinson, depict him as the eldest of three brothers,
described as a close knit family that enjoyed vacations and
outdoor activities together, which makes sense with the mauser. He
also attended Utah State University on an academic scholarship that's
not been publicly announced by the school, but that's been

(22:59):
reported by USA Today. There's no indication of any violent
behavior prior to the attack, but a lot of sources
are saying that there's no indication of any extremist tendencies.
Well to the talkback point, if you etch onto your

(23:23):
amo fascist grab this, yeah, I would say that's pretty extremist.
There's a costume incident that's being reported by USA Today
that back eight years ago, he wore a Trump themed
costume for Halloween. That's based on social media posts by
his mother. I would not read a lot into that yet,

(23:47):
because we don't know whether that was for ironic purposes,
for satirical purposes, or that he was a Trump supporter.
He is registered to vote, but it does not indicate
I assume it's an assumption because we do know that
he is registered to vote, but we do not know
the party affiliation that they indeed may have an affiliated

(24:14):
registration in Utah. What I find interesting about this, just
from a psychological and a legal point of view, is
you have Now let's make sure I've always used the
term assassin, and I'll explain why I use the term
assassin in a moment. But he's obviously a high IQ.

(24:35):
Thirty four out of thirty six on the ACT does
put him in the top one percent, and that shows
a high IQ. So you plan out the logistics, but
then you're not street smart enough that you touch a
bunch of stuff, including fingerprints on your AMMO, on your gun,

(24:57):
you wrap it up in a towel, even in a
wooded area, wrapped in the towel, and then you go online.
I'm utterly fascinated by the fact that he goes online
to message a friend, Hey, could you go pick up
my rifle? It's over in the woods. It's such and
such place that becomes now, I think that was on

(25:25):
I don't know whether that was on telegraph or that
was on the disc whatever it's called the discord discord,
But unless it was on like Watt's app, that means
somebody had to decrypt that before unencrypted it before they
got to it or to be able to read it.
But if it was on discord with yoke and you

(25:46):
will get my rifle instead a towel in the bushes.
That's on discord probably publicly available if if not, if
you're not in that chat particular discord chat group, FBI
is going to have access to that. So high IQ
stupid street smarts, really stupid, which to me shows a

(26:12):
highly politically motivated because all you can think about is
getting on the rooftop, getting off the kill shot, and
then I got to climb down and get out of here,
not once thinking about oh, wearing gloves, not wearing gloves
all the I mean just the governor was quoted as

(26:34):
saying that social what was he said, dragons thing about
social media is a curse on society or so exactly,
which I do believe that social media can be a curse.
I don't think that it is a curse, but I
think it can be a curse depending upon how you
use it. It shows that look and I'm not trying to

(26:57):
take anything away from what cash Betel said about the
thirty three hours that it took to capture him. I'm
not surprised by that. Initially I had my doubts because
we didn't know. I mean, there are all of this
conspiracy theories. Is this a group, is this an assassin?
I even heard that the Massad was involved. I mean,

(27:17):
that's how backcrap crazy it got in terms of conspiracy theories.
And I did pick up that it was Patel that
said that we have the suspect and we're going to
prosecute him in any groups, So you know, they they
may think that there are other people involved, or they
may not have, may just been that was the word
he happened to use. But what fascinates me is a

(27:41):
highly intelligent individual that at that By the way, he
was twenty two. Somebody said on the text line, why
releasing his name when they've never released the name of
these school shooters. Well, because he's twenty two years old,
he's not a minor. But we often forget that our

(28:03):
online presence, whether you ever comment or not, can be
im material. It can be what you look at that
the algorithms capture everything that you do online and your
internet service provider, who was it the the I don't

(28:28):
apologize because I just don't pay attention to it. The
murder case in Colorado where the guy was the Aveta
or something. I think he was a veterinarian or maybe
he's a he's a dentist, and he ordered some material,
some poisonous material that he used to kill his wife.
I know, I'm sure you know all the details about it,
but murder cases don't interest me, so I didn't pay

(28:51):
much attention to it. But what I did pay attention
to was how stupid, how stupid that you go on Amazon,
or you go on too some warehouse where you can
get chemicals, and you order the one chemical, the one
chemical that they find when they do the autopsy, and
they can trace it back to you. It just shows
how little we understand about how much is known about

(29:15):
everything that we do. And youth, whether you're twenty two
or you're eighteen or you're fifteen, they don't get that.

Speaker 7 (29:25):
Good morning, Michael and Dragon. Michael, thank you for your
perspective on everything this morning. In the last couple of days,
I think Dostoevsky suggests it to us in Crime and
Punishment that criminals often want to be caught because they
won't be able to handle the moral questions that come
to their minds and their bodies. For that matter anyway,

(29:48):
have a great weekend, guys, take care.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
I think that's very insightful, and I think that's generally true,
particularly a gruesome murder like this when it's very public,
it's seen by thousands of people, well now literally by
millions of people, and you walk away from and your

(30:12):
all of the anger that you've built up is now
culminated in that gruesome scene that you've just perpetuated. And
I do think that it goes to again the nature
of man that is evil. And but they but they
see that, oh, and then they see all the reaction

(30:32):
around it. There's another thing that goes on. It's like
serial killers. They they collect trophies and they want the
cops to know who they are. That you know, it's
a cat and mouse game. You don't pull an assassination

(30:57):
like this and have that kind of IQ and not
want people to know what you did because it's yeah,
you may have some moral equivocation about it, but you
also have a desire to hey, that was me, that
was me?

Speaker 8 (31:15):
That didn't That probably why you write stuff on the
bullets and casings.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Which one of the things that was written on that
caught our attention was what dragon.

Speaker 8 (31:22):
Both of us looked up because it was it was
some kind of foreign language or something. Because we had
no idea what it said. I did a little diving
into that. Apparently it was some lyrics to an Italian
protest song called bella Chow, which translates to goodbye beautiful.
It's also known as an anthem for the Italian fascist resistance.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Hmm, fashion fascist fascist fascist fascist.

Speaker 8 (31:45):
Fascists, and bullets said hey fascist catch yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
The death penalty exists in Utah. The governors announced that
they will pursue the death penalty. The death penalty is
becoming a little less prevalent in Utah, but it's still
on the books. There were no legislative changes last year
to it, but courts and judges have been a little

(32:15):
we rephrase that courts and prosecutors. Judges and prosecutors have
been a little more reticent about pursuing it. But when
it comes to the general rule about the death penalty,
I think it's applicable here. You file what's called a
bill of particulars about why you're pursuing the death penalty.

(32:37):
Particularly gruesome, very very public, the a targeted political assassination.
Now I don't want to compare killer to killer, and
I don't want to compare numbers to numbers. But Timothy
McVeigh engaged in terrorism, which was political assassination of all

(33:01):
those people in the Alfred P. Murra building. This guy
pursued political retribution, a political assassination in the public assassination
of one singular individual. These are indeed assassinations, their assassinations
because they are you know, Archie Duke Ferdinand that I

(33:25):
mentioned numerous times, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, RFK, MLK, the.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Donald Trump are all gerald Ford.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Although I think what's her name was just backcrap crazy,
But I think anybody that commits murders backcrap crazy, so
you just have to start with that premise. But I
think they can meet the standards for the death penalty
in Utah. What I'm kind of curious about, just from
a legal point of view, is whether or not we
have concurrent charges filed at the pudderal level. Also a

(34:01):
double whamit, He's going down. But again, hats off to
both the stupidity of the shooter for being so smart
yet so stupid, and for the FBI and local law
enforcement within thirty three hours to capture him. Now the
burden becomes to prove beyond the reasonable doubt that he

(34:24):
committed the act.