Jonathan Kearsley: US correspondent on the ongoing manhunt after the assassination of Charlie Kirk

The US is on edge after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed today. 

The Donald Trump ally died after being shot in the neck at a campus event at Utah Valley University.

The shooter remains on the run after reportedly fleeing from a rooftop.

US correspondent Jonathan Kearsley says this incident is another watershed moment in the history of American gun violence.

"We've seen politically motivated attacks in Washington DC, we've seen the shootings of Minnesota senators, Minnesota politicians earlier this year - and now we're seeing a conservative commentator assassinated in full view of the public."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the US, a manhunter is still underway to find
the person who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah
this morning. Donald Trump has called the killing a dark moment,
and flags on the White House are flying at half mass.
US correspondent Jonathan Kursley is back with us.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, Jonathan, Heather always gets choking out.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
What have they told us about the person they're looking for?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, essentially not much. I mean, what we are seeing
is video being circulated online of a person that had
been on the roof in the moments before that shooting
had taken place, and clearly now that is the person
that they are looking for. The manhunt very much continues.
They had arrested two people were taken into custody two
people earlier today. One was described as a person of interest.

(00:40):
Both of them have been released. One was an old man,
the other a younger male. But clearly now this manhunt continues.
There were hundreds of people at this university gathering that
Charlie Kirk so often does. This is what he was
known for, going into universities, taking in his political action
group that he started when he was eighteen, and openly

(01:01):
debating his ideas with students. He's a conservative thinker. He
believed in a free speech, he believed in the Americans
right for people to bear arms, and he was quite
confrontational with his views. Some viewed him as controversial. Donald
Trump clearly viewed him as an ally and even essentially
said that he had helped win him last year's election. Now,

(01:23):
at the age of thirty one, he's been assassinated in America.
He's facing yet another watershed moment when it comes to
gun violence and politically motivated violence.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
I mean, this is nuts, right the political debate. It's
nuts that the political debate has gone this way. So
the question I suppose, is this an infliction point where
people stop and reflect and change course, or do you
think this is simply the new normal.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, you've got some on the far right side of politics,
the Alex Joneses of Info Wars fames essentially saying that
they are now at war with the left. You had
Jesse Waters from Rupert Murdoch's Fox News saying that the
left has been accusing the right of being at war
and now the right, in his words, will no longer
stand for it. Donald Trump himself spoke from the Oval

(02:06):
offers and essentially said that it was the rhetoric of
what he said was the radical left was responsible for,
in his words, the terrorism they're seeing in the country now,
and said it must stop. Now. He has made a
point of singling out rhetoric from what he views as
the radical left, from the left side of politics. You've
got to remember, too, Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts

(02:29):
of his own, and clearly now it is being viewed
in that framework. You would have thought that the assassination
attempt on a presidential candidate more than a year ago
would have been the moment that maybe Americans stood up
and thought, well, hang on a moment, is this the
way that we need to have a political debate? Can't
we just be a little bit more civil and talk
to each other about it. Yet, we've seen politically motivated

(02:53):
attacks in Washington, d C. We've seen the shootings of
Minnesota senators, a Minnesota politicians earlier this year Democrats, and
now we're seeing a conservative commentator assassinated in full view
of the public. It's understood his wife and two young
children were also at the university at the time too.

(03:14):
They are obviously now grieving a husband or father but
this country is now finding itself trying to deal with
the consequences now of what some experts are saying now
could be a vicious spiral that could lead America into
something really really bad.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Jeez, hopefully not, Jonathan, Thanks so much, Jonathan Cursley, US correspondent.
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