September 9, 2025 • 8 mins
Brian Stelter says ‘MAGA Media’ is using the Charlotte murder as ‘Political Symbol’ to stoke racism.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I don't understand. Was the Thumb fired from CNN
and they brought him back? Yes see one of those guys.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Same thing with old Lubin Jeffrey Tubin.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Right, Lubin Tuban was. But the Tuban's not there anymore now,
is he? Oh? Yeah, he's not full time.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
But when they have a panel, okay, yeah, they bring
out old Captain Lube.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And then just Stelter the Thumb. And we call him
the thumb because he actually looks like a thumb.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Right, if you hold your thumb out and imagine a
little face of concern. That's Brian Stelter.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
He's and he's their media like analyzer, contributor.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Correct, he's fat, he's bald, he covers the media. He's
the thumb, and they fired him once they brought him back.
Here he is talking about that brutal killing on the
North Carolina subway or train or whatever you want to
call it. The guy that had been let out fourteen
times previously. Here's Brian Stelter talking about the real victim
(01:03):
in all of this.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Most murders in the US never become national news. This
one's gone an attention for a couple of reasons. Number
one first and foremost the recent release of that gruesome video. Second,
the energy from pro Trump activists. They picked up on
this video from local news and ran with it. It's
a little bit like the times when civil rights groups
have raised attention about police involved shootings. In this case,
(01:26):
it is Trump aligned influencers who are posting up a
storm about this case on social media. Really over the weekend,
Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, other Trump aligned figures succeeded in
making this senseless death a symbol of big city crime,
and it's being used, as you said, Brian, as a
political symbol, with MAGA media calling for more forceful punishments
and more incarceration. I have to say some of the
(01:49):
replies to Musks, some of the comments around the story
are baldly racist, stoking fear of African Americans because this
man attacked a white woman.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Ah, there, it is so hard the R word. We
finally get to the heart of the matter. Brutally murdered
because of racism.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So, according to Brian Stelter, the real aggressors are MAGA
media and people who wanted to make this about race,
which would mean the victim is the guy that stabbed
the woman. Is that what we're doing here, is that
the angle that this guy wants to go down.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
The narrative that they pushed they, I mean, the legacy
left his media is that the GOP Republicans pounce on
this murder, on this heinous that we're pouncing, We're pointing
it out, We're pointing it out.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
The way that guy pounced on that woman, cutting her
neck and throat.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
The way that he was arrested fourteen times. And the
governor comes out and says, well, we need more we
need more police, We need more police.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
No, you don't.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
You need a police and the judges to keep these
criminals in, These animals, straight up subhuman animals in jail.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Right. The police did their job. You don't need any
more police. They did their job, they made the arrest.
It's the judges and the revolving door, which tell me
if that doesn't sound familiar of North Carolina's justice system
that let this guy out, violent offender. He's beaten women,
beaten his own sister, multiple armed robberies. This guy had
(03:25):
been let out fourteen times, and he brutally murders a woman,
and the thumb wants to blame everybody else for the
media coverage here except for the.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
DA it's the murder, Like, what in the world does
it matter that this happened a month ago when they
were only now picking up on it.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
It's insane, That's why it happened. That's the angle here.
But let's not get ourselves had it been the other
way around. Do you think the media coverage would be
different had that been a young black woman that had
been killed by some white guy. Do you think CNN
(04:07):
would have covered it? The Associated Press USA today, any
one of those outlets.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I do, but I well, they certainly did with the
guy the marine on the subway that was trying to
subdue the guy that was Daniel Penny. Yeah, Daniel Penny.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh, he was a He might as well have been
the joker in Gotham City. He was the villain, right,
all right? So Abby Phillips, she has a low rated
CNN show, and she brought on Van Jones and they
were having a conversation about the guy that stabbed this
Ukrainian woman. And once again, racism is the biggest problem,
(04:46):
not the fact that there was a fourteen time violent
repeat offender out on the streets.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
You are mentally ill, you have a hard time knowing
that you are mentally ill. But also, I mean, people
like Charlie Kirk fan they've been looking for opportunities to
make this some sort of like reciprocal George Floyd situation.
And that's the part that I think he's almost giving
away the game. And it's sad to see a lot
(05:12):
of people going along with it.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
You know, I need to say a couple of things.
One is, and what happened to that young woman was
horrible and it's everybody's nightmare. We don't know why that
man did what he did. And for Charlie Kirk to
say we know he did it because she's white, when
there's no evidence of that, it's just pure race mongering,
hate mongering.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's wrong.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Vinny says that if something like that had happened the
other way, there'd be sweeping changes and pose on society.
Where is the George Floyd Policing Act. It didn't pass.
Even when you had a white police officer murder a
black man on live television, the whole world saw. There
were no sleeping changes. In fact, not one law was
past at the federal level. So I think that's an
(05:55):
important thing to point out. The other thing is you
mentioned the thing about cash list bail. I think this
is a big challenge that we have. Would you have
felt better if there had been cash bail and the
mom had come and put down one thousand dollars to
let him out. It's not about cash less bail or
no cashless bail. It's about the fact that we don't
know how to deal with people who were Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You shouldn't have had any bail at all. You should
have been kept in in prison or in jail.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And listen, if they paid one thousand dollars and he
got out, all right, fine, that's the system. But a
lot of people can't afford one thousand dollars. And if
you keep these violent offenders behind bars, you will shockingly
see the crime numbers start to decrease.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Called a habitual offender fourteen times, I'm thinking bail doesn't
factor into the equation after fourteen arrests, all right.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Remember the old three strikes in your out come on
justice approach, fourteen fourteen strikes and well maybe you get
one more. But I want to go back to something
Van Jones said he was ripping Charlie Kirk for say
there's no evidence that this was race related. There absolutely is.
There's another video that shows this guy walking away from
(07:08):
the crime scene and you can hear him repeatedly say,
got the white girl, Got the white girl. Now I've
got the audio here. The audio is not the greatest, Okay,
so Alison, make sure you turn it up just a
little bit, but you will listen. You'll hear some static
in the background. But this lunatic from the security surveillance
video saying got the white girl, got the white girl?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I heard it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And he's walking away. He's got blood on him, starting
to drip. So don't for one minute act like race
wasn't a factor here. If you want to tell me
he was nuts, he's insane and we need to have
a conversation about mental health, I'm I'm open to that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Did you watch? But come on, did you watch the
actual footage? Have you seen the whole thing?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Ugh, I haven't watched it yet. And I noticed the
other thing that I saw was just like nobody came
to her aid, except maybe afterwards. There was one guy
that was helping her right, that was on his knees,
that was holding her, but everybody else was just kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And it happened so quick.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, I guess that's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And she puts her hands over her face. It wasn't
like she died right away. She puts her hands on
her face, and I think people are like, oh my god,
what's going on here. Maybe it was a state of shock.
I don't know. But again, if anybody is the victim here,
it's the actual victim. It's not the perpetrator because he
had a mental issue, or people are being mean or
(08:37):
racist after all this happened. I don't care to quote
jd Vance. I don't give a bleep.
So I don't understand. Was the Thumb fired from CNN
and they brought him back? Yes see one of those guys.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Same thing with old Lubin Jeffrey Tubin.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Right, Lubin Tuban was. But the Tuban's not there anymore now,
is he? Oh? Yeah, he's not full time.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
But when they have a panel, okay, yeah, they bring
out old Captain Lube.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And then just Stelter the Thumb. And we call him
the thumb because he actually looks like a thumb.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Right, if you hold your thumb out and imagine a
little face of concern. That's Brian Stelter.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
He's and he's their media like analyzer, contributor.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Correct, he's fat, he's bald, he covers the media. He's
the thumb, and they fired him once they brought him back.
Here he is talking about that brutal killing on the
North Carolina subway or train or whatever you want to
call it. The guy that had been let out fourteen
times previously. Here's Brian Stelter talking about the real victim
(01:03):
in all of this.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Most murders in the US never become national news. This
one's gone an attention for a couple of reasons. Number
one first and foremost the recent release of that gruesome video. Second,
the energy from pro Trump activists. They picked up on
this video from local news and ran with it. It's
a little bit like the times when civil rights groups
have raised attention about police involved shootings. In this case,
(01:26):
it is Trump aligned influencers who are posting up a
storm about this case on social media. Really over the weekend,
Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, other Trump aligned figures succeeded in
making this senseless death a symbol of big city crime,
and it's being used, as you said, Brian, as a
political symbol, with MAGA media calling for more forceful punishments
and more incarceration. I have to say some of the
(01:49):
replies to Musks, some of the comments around the story
are baldly racist, stoking fear of African Americans because this
man attacked a white woman.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Ah, there, it is so hard the R word. We
finally get to the heart of the matter. Brutally murdered
because of racism.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So, according to Brian Stelter, the real aggressors are MAGA
media and people who wanted to make this about race,
which would mean the victim is the guy that stabbed
the woman. Is that what we're doing here, is that
the angle that this guy wants to go down.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
The narrative that they pushed they, I mean, the legacy
left his media is that the GOP Republicans pounce on
this murder, on this heinous that we're pouncing, We're pointing
it out, We're pointing it out.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
The way that guy pounced on that woman, cutting her
neck and throat.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
The way that he was arrested fourteen times. And the
governor comes out and says, well, we need more we
need more police, We need more police.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
No, you don't.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
You need a police and the judges to keep these
criminals in, These animals, straight up subhuman animals in jail.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Right. The police did their job. You don't need any
more police. They did their job, they made the arrest.
It's the judges and the revolving door, which tell me
if that doesn't sound familiar of North Carolina's justice system
that let this guy out, violent offender. He's beaten women,
beaten his own sister, multiple armed robberies. This guy had
(03:25):
been let out fourteen times, and he brutally murders a woman,
and the thumb wants to blame everybody else for the
media coverage here except for the.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
DA it's the murder, Like, what in the world does
it matter that this happened a month ago when they
were only now picking up on it.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
It's insane, That's why it happened. That's the angle here.
But let's not get ourselves had it been the other
way around. Do you think the media coverage would be
different had that been a young black woman that had
been killed by some white guy. Do you think CNN
(04:07):
would have covered it? The Associated Press USA today, any
one of those outlets.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I do, but I well, they certainly did with the
guy the marine on the subway that was trying to
subdue the guy that was Daniel Penny. Yeah, Daniel Penny.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh, he was a He might as well have been
the joker in Gotham City. He was the villain, right,
all right? So Abby Phillips, she has a low rated
CNN show, and she brought on Van Jones and they
were having a conversation about the guy that stabbed this
Ukrainian woman. And once again, racism is the biggest problem,
(04:46):
not the fact that there was a fourteen time violent
repeat offender out on the streets.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
You are mentally ill, you have a hard time knowing
that you are mentally ill. But also, I mean, people
like Charlie Kirk fan they've been looking for opportunities to
make this some sort of like reciprocal George Floyd situation.
And that's the part that I think he's almost giving
away the game. And it's sad to see a lot
(05:12):
of people going along with it.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
You know, I need to say a couple of things.
One is, and what happened to that young woman was
horrible and it's everybody's nightmare. We don't know why that
man did what he did. And for Charlie Kirk to
say we know he did it because she's white, when
there's no evidence of that, it's just pure race mongering,
hate mongering.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's wrong.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Vinny says that if something like that had happened the
other way, there'd be sweeping changes and pose on society.
Where is the George Floyd Policing Act. It didn't pass.
Even when you had a white police officer murder a
black man on live television, the whole world saw. There
were no sleeping changes. In fact, not one law was
past at the federal level. So I think that's an
(05:55):
important thing to point out. The other thing is you
mentioned the thing about cash list bail. I think this
is a big challenge that we have. Would you have
felt better if there had been cash bail and the
mom had come and put down one thousand dollars to
let him out. It's not about cash less bail or
no cashless bail. It's about the fact that we don't
know how to deal with people who were Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You shouldn't have had any bail at all. You should
have been kept in in prison or in jail.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And listen, if they paid one thousand dollars and he
got out, all right, fine, that's the system. But a
lot of people can't afford one thousand dollars. And if
you keep these violent offenders behind bars, you will shockingly
see the crime numbers start to decrease.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Called a habitual offender fourteen times, I'm thinking bail doesn't
factor into the equation after fourteen arrests, all right.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Remember the old three strikes in your out come on
justice approach, fourteen fourteen strikes and well maybe you get
one more. But I want to go back to something
Van Jones said he was ripping Charlie Kirk for say
there's no evidence that this was race related. There absolutely is.
There's another video that shows this guy walking away from
(07:08):
the crime scene and you can hear him repeatedly say,
got the white girl, Got the white girl. Now I've
got the audio here. The audio is not the greatest, Okay,
so Alison, make sure you turn it up just a
little bit, but you will listen. You'll hear some static
in the background. But this lunatic from the security surveillance
video saying got the white girl, got the white girl?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I heard it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And he's walking away. He's got blood on him, starting
to drip. So don't for one minute act like race
wasn't a factor here. If you want to tell me
he was nuts, he's insane and we need to have
a conversation about mental health, I'm I'm open to that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Did you watch? But come on, did you watch the
actual footage? Have you seen the whole thing?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Ugh, I haven't watched it yet. And I noticed the
other thing that I saw was just like nobody came
to her aid, except maybe afterwards. There was one guy
that was helping her right, that was on his knees,
that was holding her, but everybody else was just kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And it happened so quick.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, I guess that's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And she puts her hands over her face. It wasn't
like she died right away. She puts her hands on
her face, and I think people are like, oh my god,
what's going on here. Maybe it was a state of shock.
I don't know. But again, if anybody is the victim here,
it's the actual victim. It's not the perpetrator because he
had a mental issue, or people are being mean or
(08:37):
racist after all this happened. I don't care to quote
jd Vance. I don't give a bleep.
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