Jonathan Kearsley: US Correspondent gives latest updates on fallout after Charlie Kirk's death

The killing of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk is causing deep divide. 

He was shot while speaking at an event at a Utah University and later died in hospital. 

US correspondent Jonathan Kearsley says several people have lost their jobs for making comments after the assassination. 

He says it's caused other disruption as well, with a fight breaking out in Iowa after someone shouted profanities about Kirk. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with ends in Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind
for New Zealand Business. Jonathan Cursley, US correspondent with US Hi, Jonathan.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Heather, Hello again you and all the wasn't it now.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
That person jumping off the roof? I mean I looked
at that and thought that person's had some sort of
military training. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, I mean you certainly seem to think that the
longer this goes on the way that they acted at
the scene, the sort of clues they have laid around
that there is certainly a coordinated level of thinking and
planning behind this. They have fled the scene out the back,
scaled down the roof, almost Spider Man's style, jumping off,

(00:40):
and then walking and running across a car park road
into a wooded area to dump the firearm right there
and leave behind supposedly some sort of scrawlings on the
cartridges of the bolt action hunting style rifle that was
used to kill Charlie Kirk. The images that they've released
show him wearing a military style veteran T shirt, a

(01:01):
navy cap with a white triangle on it, and at
the moment, though, that is all the information that police
really have the essential lead investigator locally on the ground,
is essentially saying they have no idea where he could
be and that is obviously going to be of some
significant concern. That is why the authorities are pointing out
they've had seven thousand tips. That is why they are

(01:23):
saying they want more to come forward. And you heard
that grab from Spencer Cox. They're reminding the gunman that
they do have the death penalty in Utah. And the
US President Donald Trump, well, he's certainly trying to make
sure that even though that there is no motive public
from the police and the FBI is yet he's certainly

(01:44):
framing it very much as a political assassination. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I find what I find is very interesting right now
was watching the number of people who are coming out
making frankly quite stupid comments about Charlie Kirk and losing
their positions as a result. Have you been following this.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, exactly, You've seen a number of them. I mean
the latest one that we've seen in the last hour,
so is this calls for a secret service agents to
be fired after they claimed that the assassination was calmer
for Charlie Kirk. Somebody who was an advocate of free speech,
and it's these sorts of comments that are fueling the
right by saying this is the left trying to stir

(02:19):
up conflict, trying to, in the words of some right
wing commentators, be at war. Now, that is the last
thing that this country wants. It is a nation that
is already deeply divided, and that golf is only growing
by the day. We've seen fights in Idaho after somebody
shouted Charlie Kirk profanities. We've seen a bomb threat at
the headquarters of the DNC, the Democratic Party in Washington,

(02:42):
d C. It is a very anxious time from the
President of the United States of America. The words we
heard today was not one of unity, was not one
of calm, but of warnings to what he called the
radical left that he must stop them, essentially in carrying
out what he views as causing assassinations like the one

(03:05):
we saw yesterday.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah. Hey, now we've had this thing developing where Lord
Mandelssohn has obviously left the post and we've got Trump
heading over to the UK and it's the Epstein Stone.
Is this going to make the whole Trump? Is it
really awkward?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, I mean it could. I mean You've had Lord
Mandalston standing side by side with the US President inside
the Oval Office when they've been talking about the US
UK trade deals. Lord Mandilsson resigning over his associations with
Jeffrey Epstein. The Epstein sagary is something Donald Trump has
not been able to get away from for weeks and
weeks and weeks. Now. The last thing he is going

(03:41):
to want to do is to go on a state
visit invited by the royal family, stand alongside the King
and Camilla and the Prime Minister Sekir Starmer, and be
asked about the Epstein files. This is the last thing
he wants. He wants the invite to be all about history,
making the first US president to be given two state visits.

(04:03):
Yet you can imagine, given the political climate in the
United Kingdom and the question still circling over the Epstein
files and the lack of them being made public, despite
the wishes of some in the Republican Party, that this
could very well be a difficult time, a difficult couple
of days, if indeed they wind up do taking questions
over the course of this today visit.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Jonathan, good to talk to you, mate, Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you again soon. That's Jonathan Kursley, US correspondent.
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