September 11, 2025 • 26 mins
Josh Hammer, Senior Editor-at-Large @ Newsweek – on his relationship with Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk shooting: FBI shares photo of person of interest. Gary talks about the polarization of the Charlie Kirk assassination and gives an update on the FBI Investigation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's days like this.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Where the prospect of doing a show for four hours
is daunting. There is so much that's going on today.
Any plan that we had in terms of the commemoration
of the twenty fourth anniversary of the nine eleven attacks
has kind of been thrown into the blender with everything
(00:35):
else that's been going on. We had the shooting yesterday
at Colorado High School. The shooter shot himself, put another
two kids in the hospital, one of them still in
critical condition, and of course, the suspect still at large
after Charlie Kirk was killed when he was shot during
a speaking appearance at Utah Valley University in Orum, Utah.
(00:56):
You heard us break that story right here during this
show yesterday, and there are some very important and late
developing portions of that story that we'll get to in
a minute. The FBI in Salt Lake City has released
an image on Twitter asking for tips helping identify a
(01:17):
guy that they say is a person of interest.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
They're not saying it's a suspect as of yet.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
But this kind of changes what they said in the
early morning news conference when they said they had images
but that they weren't releasing them releasing them just yet.
You don't have to know anything about Charlie Kirk, but
it's important if you do know stuff about Charlie Kirk,
that you make sure that is the right stuff about
Charlie Kirk and not just taking people's opinions of him
(01:46):
as gospel about who this guy was and what he
believed in. I wanted to bring on somebody who could
talk more about this about Charlie Kirk the person and
not just Charlie Kirk the character that a lot of
people see on social media. Hammer is Senior editor at
Large at Newsweek. He's also the host of The Josh
Hammer Show. And Josh, I know that you and Charlie
(02:07):
are friends. You even posted on Twitter that you had
you had spoken to him recently. What's uh? What's uh?
What's going on with you?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Josh?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Hey, great to join you. I which were under better circumstances. Gary, Yeah,
Charlie ninety. I've known Charlie for for some years now,
after I first got to know him when I was
running the op ed section at Newsweek, which is where
I still work in. My role has changed, and he
was a Charlie was a columnist for US the Newsweek
for for a long time, and I got known better
(02:37):
over the past a few years. I've spoken at numerous
turning point usass including Just the Last Woman happened in Tampa, Florida.
In July, I did a debate against Dave Smith on
US's relations and foreign policy. Charlie moderated that debate. I
actually just saw him again just over a month ago
in New York for a separate event. So we we've
(02:58):
gotten considerably closer over the past year. A year and
a half or so. We were in basically daily communication
as recently as two days ago. I guess it was
this is a void that will not be easily replaced.
He was a it's someone kind of tried and half
need to say, but it happens to be true. He
was a unique force as someone who built an organization
(03:21):
into what I would argue is the most formidable political
organizing organization on the entire American right. And he built
it begining when he was eighteen years old. You know
one of his producers on his show, who I become
very close with tell me a story about how he
first met Charlie. When his producer, his son was actually
(03:42):
Charlie's classmate in elementary school, and his son was like
a fifth grade birthday party, so that they're like, you know, ten, eleven,
twelve years old whatever, and the son tells this guy.
He says, Dad, you have to meet this kid. He's like,
he's talking about politics like he's an adult. He's way
ahead of his time. And my friend, who one of
Charlie's producers, says that when he first met Charlie, you know,
(04:03):
in fifth sixth grade, he's talking about the national debt, immigration,
all these issues in an extraordinarily precocious way. And he
said right then and there that Charlie Kirks is going
to be president of that States one day. And he
was an icon for an entire generation of conservatives, millennial
gen z. He was the undisputed leader, and he was
(04:25):
just a fundamentally good person. He always did what he
did with a smile on his face. I don't think
I ever I generally don't think i've ever seen a
clip of Charlie raising his voice on someone. He had
very strong opinions, obviously, and he would get passionate in
sharing those opinions on air and off air, but I
don't think he ever saw him genuinely get angry. I mean,
(04:46):
the guy basically would would not hurt a fly. He
was a genuinely god fearing, sincere principal devout Christian, and
he was just a committed father and husband. And that
above all, from my thoughts have gone for the past
twenty four hours now is like just grief tremendously for
his his wife Eric, their young beautiful children, and this
(05:07):
as a whole that will not be soon filled.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I think some of the more poignant memorials to Charlie
have started with he was a father, a husband, a
devoted man of faith. And it's important, I think just
in terms of what we do. You you know, with
the podcast that you have, the show that we do
here an absolute ardent defender of the freedom of people
(05:34):
to express themselves and to do so in a public manner.
I mean, as evidenced by what he was doing when
he was shot. He was on a college campus, speaking openly,
speaking freely and inviting the debate that he loved so much.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
He was literally martyred in the moment for doing that
which he loves, which is defending free speech and modeling
free speech. He died a martyr for free speech and
is one of the ideals that he most cherished. I mean,
you know, when he did these campus events, it was
not with the necessary intention of just getting eliciting all
the turning point in USA, the Committee Conservative Activists, he
(06:16):
was actively trying to get people who disagreed with him
to attend. Just yesterday, the tragic final event in you
thaught the canopy the little tents in which he was sitting.
The title of it said, proved me wrong, which is
an invitation to debate. And that's really the ultimate question
I think that we of the country have going forward,
because lower case are Republican self governance is completely unsustainable.
(06:40):
It cannot exist if we are willing, perhaps even eager,
to resort to intimidation and or outright violence the same
way that we would respond to speech with more speech.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
That is that is that is.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
How a country dies, and that that really is fundamental
with the question of Part of my found frustration is
that this is disroportionately coming. I hate the sounding a partisan,
but we have more than enough data this sort of
dispportion of political violence really is coming from folks on
the left, and for folks like me who are on
(07:15):
the right, it's frustrating because there's only so much that
I can do to induce the left to get its
own house in order, and it's gotten beyond out of hand,
beyond out of hand. And I just sincerely, sincerely hope
and pray that this amazing country really turns back from
the brink of forts too late.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Josh, I appreciate your time. Condolences for the loss of
your friend.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Gart you bet Josh.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Hammer, their senior editor at large at Newsweek and again
host of the Josh Hammer Show. You can find that
podcast on the iHeart app. There are, as I said
at the top of the show, here some very late
developing elements of this story, including an image now we
believe from the.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Salt Lake City FBI office.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
They say they have identified a person of interest and
they need they need help identifying a person of interest,
but they do have an image that they have put
out their information about the rifle that has been found,
potential words, ideologies, whatever that have been written on the
bullets and the rifle.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So all of that is still to come.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Gary and Shannon a quick note, quick note, also more personal.
Shannon says, mom surgery went well, so that's good news.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
This is not going to be a dour show the
entire time, I promise, but we do have some business
that we need to attend to. The FBI office in
Salt Lake City has released a couple of photos they
say are a person of are of a person of
interest in the shooting of Charlie Kirk yesterday at that
college campus. Now we put them all up on all
(08:56):
of the KFI socials so you can check them out
wherever it's a social media, Twitter, etc.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
At KFI.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
The again, FBI office out of Salt Lake City just
put those up literally as the show was starting, So
we do know. We do have images again they say,
of a person of interest, and they're asking for the
public's help and identifying. It's a very nondescript shot. I mean,
(09:22):
there's some probably some identifying characteristics of this guy's face
that somebody might recognize. But he's wearing a ball cap,
he's wearing sunglasses, he's wearing a long sleeve black T
shirt with some sort of an emblem on the front
of it. It's hard to tell exactly from these pictures
what it is but wearing jeans. This morning, they did
an update from officials there in Salt Lake City and
(09:46):
Bo Mason with the Department of Public Safety there in
the state of Utah gave a pretty basic timeline of
what it was they believe happened yesterday.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Starting at eleven fifty two am. This subject arrived on
campus shortly away from campus. We have tracked his movements
onto the campus through the stairwells up to the roof,
across the roof to a shooting location. After the shooting,
we were able to track his movements as he moved
to the other side of the building, jumped off of
(10:16):
the building, and fled off of the campus and into
a neighborhood. Our investigators have worked through those neighborhoods, contacting
anybody they can with doorbell cameras witnesses, and have thoroughly
worked through those communities trying to identify any leads. We
(10:38):
do have good video footage of this individual, we are
not going to release that at this time.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Wall Street Journal is reporting that investigators also found ammunition.
The rifle was found in that wooded area. Believe it's
a thirty caliber rifle. They found one spent shell casing
inside the rifles because it was a bolt action. Unless
you pulled the bolt back, that thing is going to
stay in there, and then three unused bullets still loaded inside.
(11:09):
They said that the ammunition was engraved with expressions of
transgender and anti fascist ideology. This older model thirty caliber
hunting rifle, they said, discovered in the woods near the
scene of the shooting at Utah Valley University, was wrapped
in a towel. They said, the spent cartridge was still
in the chamber, and then three unspent rounds in the magazine,
(11:32):
and all of them had wording on them. Too early
obviously to come up with a conclusion about what that means.
Is that an attempt to throw off investigator.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
We won't know until we have some better indication of
who the suspect is. And then a couple of other
things about this. There was discussion yesterday about how somebody
could get this close with a rifle and peel off
a shot like this, And it turns out that security
wasn't that tight the security immediately around Charlie Kirk. And
(12:07):
I mentioned this yesterday just seeing some of the videos
of the moment that this happened. There were six or
eight guys standing right around the stage that Charlie Kirk
was on that you could tell were security, But they
were doing that personal preventing an attacker with a knife
(12:27):
or some other weapon coming close to Charlie Kirk. They
were not prepared for someone hold up in a sniper's
position one hundred and fifty one hundred and seventy five
yards away being able to get a clear shot. Although
now you look at the scene, it's one of those
where you think, how could you miss that? How could
you possibly miss that? There's another thing about this that
(12:50):
is particularly disturbing to me, and I think it's the
lack of willingness for people to understand that even if
you disagreed with Charlie Kirk, this goes beyond your disagreement
with his ideology or his practice of politics, or how
he exercised his free speech rights. You are shallow in
(13:15):
thought and slow of mind if you think this is
not a big deal. Again, you don't have to agree
with him politically, but people who are celebrating his death
or people who are saying that this was a win
for the other side, whatever side you happen to be on,
this is not. It puts all of us in a
worse position today than we were yesterday. We'll get into
(13:37):
a little bit of what some of the experts have
been saying, some of the investigators', former FBI special agents, etc.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
When we come back.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
We're going to lighten it up a little bit next hour. Actually,
Michael Monks is going to join us, so we're going
to have a little bit more fun less about what's
going on national and some more local stories that are
coming up, and we will do strained science a little
bit later. We'll get into some of the fun, crazy
science stories and the good ones actually too in terms
of health and wellness stories that we have to get to.
(14:13):
We will also mention, of course, that Evergreen High School
shooting that took place yesterday. It was shadowed by the
fact that this assassination of Charlie Kirk took place in Utah.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
There was a.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Shooting at Evergreen High School southwest of Denver, up in
the foothills there at Jefferson County High School. And if
you remember, I mean I do, because I was there.
But Jefferson County was the lead investigative agency after the
Columbine shooting, so it was the same agency dealing with
yet another one. In this case, there was a student
(14:46):
that shot two other students at Evergreen High School and
then shot himself. The one who shot himself is the
only one at this point who has died. One of
the kids that he shot is still in critical condition.
The FBI in Salt Lake City has shared a photo
of a person of interest in the Charlie Kirk shooting,
suggesting that they would need the public's help in finding
(15:08):
this guy. And one of the I guess the identifying
factors that the FBI referred to this morning in this
early morning news conference was they believe he is a
college age male.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's about it.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
They said they've tracked some of the movements coming onto campus,
leaving campus, et cetera. I wanted to play for you, Well, okay,
I'll do it this way. Already, in the two segments
that I've covered this story, I'm getting plenty of talkbacks
(15:42):
from people who are suggesting that my head is up
Charlie Kirk's ass, or that I am only telling one
side of this story because political violence knows no side,
or whatever, And I just want to caution everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
It seems like.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
The the cycle is getting smaller and we're all to
blame for this, and the cycle is something tragic shocks
the nation's sensibilities. We come together, we condemn that something tragic,
and then we fall back into the same political division
or cultural division or or social pattern of hating somebody
(16:22):
from the other side or accusing them of being whatever
you want, too liberal, too woke, too conservative, too religious, whatever. Today,
obviously the twenty fourth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks,
you have to remember that in those months after September eleventh,
(16:44):
two thousand and one, George W. Bush saw an approval
rating in the ninetieth percentile, I mean, ninety two, ninety
three percent was the peak something like that for months.
In yesterday's instance, within minutes, people took to social media
(17:06):
to laugh at this and to cheer the death of
a guy who championed everyone's free speech, not the right,
not the left, everyone's free speech.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And again.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
You can insert whatever incident of political violence you want to.
Minnesota state lawmakers who got shot, a former president who
was shot at on the campaign trail, the Pennsylvania governor's
house was firebond, senators that were shot at on a
baseball field, an attempt on a Supreme Court justice. I mean,
(17:39):
the time between the tragic event and this same old,
same old is now down to out minutes and hours,
down from months. Part of it is social media. Part
of it is that we're willing to allow ourselves to
fall prey to the baser instincts because we all believe
that our point of view is the absolute truth, no
(18:02):
questions asked, when we should actually spend more time stress
testing our own beliefs and less on the beliefs of others.
I hate the term stress testing, but I used it
intentionally because of the conversation that Gavin Newsom had with
Charlie Kirk earlier this year. And if you question his
(18:27):
dedication to debate Charlie Kirk's dedication to debate, go back
and listen to that podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
He doesn't like Gavin Newsom.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Gavin Newsom doesn't like him, but they had a civil, reasonable,
high level conversation about their differences, and ignore for the moment.
For this moment, ignore the political affiliations, ignore the friendships
that Charlie Kirk made over the course of the last say,
ten or fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Think about his pursuit of.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
The most American practice, the free open, the public debate
of issues, hashing out those wrinkles that exist between the
opinion and the reality, the opinion that you have and
the reality that we all live in. This guy was
a husband, This guy was a father to two small kids.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
This was not just someone you disagree with.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
This was a guy who was celebrating his and yours
First Amendment freedom to speak freely on a college campus,
of all places, and someone took that from him with
extreme violence, someone who was, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Know, afraid of his.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Excitement, his existential, his unbridled the nuanced power that is
free speech, and decided that some blunt instrument like a
thirty caliber hunting rifle was the way to silence him.
(20:02):
So what kind of country do you want to live in?
Do you want to live in a country where I
can say things like that and then you can leave
messages where you call me an idiot or say I
have my head up, my ass or whatever, or do
you want the free speech.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
To be ended with violence.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
We have to be able to debate our differences with
respect and conviction and love and caring and a greater
sense of good for all, and not some country that
goes further from that and then replaces everything with violence.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
That's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Top of the hour.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Michael Monks is going to join us, and we're going
to talk about some more of the local stories that
are going on. There's obviously still stuff that is happening.
So just a couple of notes. And I don't know
if I want to do this necessarily, because it's kind
of like picking at a hangnail.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That's annoying more than anything.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
If anybody suggests that we didn't spend any time talking
about the Minnesota state lawmakers that were shot as a
form of political violence, or the firebombing of Governor Josh
Shapiro's house out of Pennsylvania, or that we didn't talk
about January sixth and were completely appalled by that, you're
(21:32):
just being shortsighted. You either don't remember or you weren't listening,
or you're making assumptions based on what you think our
political beliefs are. It's it's a waste of your breath.
Don't do that. You make yourself seem small, and we're
better than that. I hope if you have an opportunity today,
go outside and touch some grass, Go out and do
(21:53):
something that's not this. There was a story that came
up earlier this week about the level of anxiety that
exists in our world today, and a lot of times
it is because of what we have in our pocket.
Everybody's got a damn phone, and we were all completely
overwhelmed by information yesterday. Again, it doesn't matter what side
(22:15):
you're coming down on. If you thought, for some reason
that this was a good thing, you were inundated with information.
If you thought it was a horrific episode of political violence,
you were inundated with other information. The simple update now
about what's going on in this investigation is just at
the top of the hour. Right as the show started,
the FBI out of Salt Lake City did release a
(22:37):
couple of photos of a guy they say is a
person of interest in the shooting of Charlie Kirk. On
that college campus yesterday, and it's at this point I'm
assuming they're getting a whole slew of leads from people
who may or may not recognize who that guy is.
The more interesting aspect of this to me is the
(23:00):
security that existed at the campus event. They knew that
Charlie Kirk was a controversial figure. There had already been
a petition that was signed by a couple a thousand
people at least, I don't know if it was more
than that, but a thousand people that said they didn't
want Charlie Kirk even speaking on their campus, let alone
(23:22):
having a debate or having it in a very public
area like this. So they did find a high powered
bolt action rifle, they said, in a wooded area, and
the Wall Street Journal had been reporting that there were
words written on the on the bullet casings the couple.
There was at least one where did it go? There
(23:46):
was at least one spent cartridge still in the chamber
that would account for the one gunshot that we heard yesterday,
and then also three unspent rounds in the magazine, and
all of them had expressions of transgender, anti fascist ideology.
That's according to the Wall Street Journal if we get
more information about what that is.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
And again, this is one of those days.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Where we're just kind of on pins and needles, perhaps
trying to figure out what the next step is in
terms of the investigation. If there are any updates out
of Utah, we'll definitely bring those to you. One of
the things that happened earlier today was President Trump was
at the Pentagon today for a September eleventh memorial and
(24:29):
mentioned at the beginning of his remarks that he said
he was going to honor Charlie Kirk with the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, which is the nation's highest civilian honor.
Date to be determined in the future, and so that
is what's going on. I mentioned the September eleventh memorials.
There were memorials this morning in New York City as well,
and police there, I mean imagine, there was a story
(24:52):
yesterday morning that they had been receiving threats. They always
do it about this time of year, potential threats to
different target It's in New York City, and the NYPD
had already said they were going to beef up security,
and then after Charlie Kirk was shot yesterday, they said
that they added even more security for the events to
mark the twenty fourth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Also, JD.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Vance was supposed to be in New York for one
of those memorial ceremonies.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
He changed his plans.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
He apparently was really good friends with Charlie Kirk, so
he went to Utah apparently to be with Charlie Kirk's family.
All right, so we will switch gears. We'll get into
a little bit more of what's going on locally, including
the LA Convention Center.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
The plans for this thing just keep growing. I don't
know where the money is to come from.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
But also the city Council is now throwing its hat
into this redistricting fight that's going on in Sacramento. All
that's coming up with the Michael Monks Power Hour as
we like to call it. Gary and Shannon will continue
right after this. You've been listening to the Gary and
Shannon Show. You can always hear us live on a
FIAM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday
(26:03):
through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio ap
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's days like this.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Where the prospect of doing a show for four hours
is daunting. There is so much that's going on today.
Any plan that we had in terms of the commemoration
of the twenty fourth anniversary of the nine eleven attacks
has kind of been thrown into the blender with everything
(00:35):
else that's been going on. We had the shooting yesterday
at Colorado High School. The shooter shot himself, put another
two kids in the hospital, one of them still in
critical condition, and of course, the suspect still at large
after Charlie Kirk was killed when he was shot during
a speaking appearance at Utah Valley University in Orum, Utah.
(00:56):
You heard us break that story right here during this
show yesterday, and there are some very important and late
developing portions of that story that we'll get to in
a minute. The FBI in Salt Lake City has released
an image on Twitter asking for tips helping identify a
(01:17):
guy that they say is a person of interest.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
They're not saying it's a suspect as of yet.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
But this kind of changes what they said in the
early morning news conference when they said they had images
but that they weren't releasing them releasing them just yet.
You don't have to know anything about Charlie Kirk, but
it's important if you do know stuff about Charlie Kirk,
that you make sure that is the right stuff about
Charlie Kirk and not just taking people's opinions of him
(01:46):
as gospel about who this guy was and what he
believed in. I wanted to bring on somebody who could
talk more about this about Charlie Kirk the person and
not just Charlie Kirk the character that a lot of
people see on social media. Hammer is Senior editor at
Large at Newsweek. He's also the host of The Josh
Hammer Show. And Josh, I know that you and Charlie
(02:07):
are friends. You even posted on Twitter that you had
you had spoken to him recently. What's uh? What's uh?
What's going on with you?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Josh?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Hey, great to join you. I which were under better circumstances. Gary, Yeah,
Charlie ninety. I've known Charlie for for some years now,
after I first got to know him when I was
running the op ed section at Newsweek, which is where
I still work in. My role has changed, and he
was a Charlie was a columnist for US the Newsweek
for for a long time, and I got known better
(02:37):
over the past a few years. I've spoken at numerous
turning point usass including Just the Last Woman happened in Tampa, Florida.
In July, I did a debate against Dave Smith on
US's relations and foreign policy. Charlie moderated that debate. I
actually just saw him again just over a month ago
in New York for a separate event. So we we've
(02:58):
gotten considerably closer over the past year. A year and
a half or so. We were in basically daily communication
as recently as two days ago. I guess it was
this is a void that will not be easily replaced.
He was a it's someone kind of tried and half
need to say, but it happens to be true. He
was a unique force as someone who built an organization
(03:21):
into what I would argue is the most formidable political
organizing organization on the entire American right. And he built
it begining when he was eighteen years old. You know
one of his producers on his show, who I become
very close with tell me a story about how he
first met Charlie. When his producer, his son was actually
(03:42):
Charlie's classmate in elementary school, and his son was like
a fifth grade birthday party, so that they're like, you know, ten, eleven,
twelve years old whatever, and the son tells this guy.
He says, Dad, you have to meet this kid. He's like,
he's talking about politics like he's an adult. He's way
ahead of his time. And my friend, who one of
Charlie's producers, says that when he first met Charlie, you know,
(04:03):
in fifth sixth grade, he's talking about the national debt, immigration,
all these issues in an extraordinarily precocious way. And he
said right then and there that Charlie Kirks is going
to be president of that States one day. And he
was an icon for an entire generation of conservatives, millennial
gen z. He was the undisputed leader, and he was
(04:25):
just a fundamentally good person. He always did what he
did with a smile on his face. I don't think
I ever I generally don't think i've ever seen a
clip of Charlie raising his voice on someone. He had
very strong opinions, obviously, and he would get passionate in
sharing those opinions on air and off air, but I
don't think he ever saw him genuinely get angry. I mean,
(04:46):
the guy basically would would not hurt a fly. He
was a genuinely god fearing, sincere principal devout Christian, and
he was just a committed father and husband. And that
above all, from my thoughts have gone for the past
twenty four hours now is like just grief tremendously for
his his wife Eric, their young beautiful children, and this
(05:07):
as a whole that will not be soon filled.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I think some of the more poignant memorials to Charlie
have started with he was a father, a husband, a
devoted man of faith. And it's important, I think just
in terms of what we do. You you know, with
the podcast that you have, the show that we do
here an absolute ardent defender of the freedom of people
(05:34):
to express themselves and to do so in a public manner.
I mean, as evidenced by what he was doing when
he was shot. He was on a college campus, speaking openly,
speaking freely and inviting the debate that he loved so much.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
He was literally martyred in the moment for doing that
which he loves, which is defending free speech and modeling
free speech. He died a martyr for free speech and
is one of the ideals that he most cherished. I mean,
you know, when he did these campus events, it was
not with the necessary intention of just getting eliciting all
the turning point in USA, the Committee Conservative Activists, he
(06:16):
was actively trying to get people who disagreed with him
to attend. Just yesterday, the tragic final event in you
thaught the canopy the little tents in which he was sitting.
The title of it said, proved me wrong, which is
an invitation to debate. And that's really the ultimate question
I think that we of the country have going forward,
because lower case are Republican self governance is completely unsustainable.
(06:40):
It cannot exist if we are willing, perhaps even eager,
to resort to intimidation and or outright violence the same
way that we would respond to speech with more speech.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
That is that is that is.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
How a country dies, and that that really is fundamental
with the question of Part of my found frustration is
that this is disroportionately coming. I hate the sounding a partisan,
but we have more than enough data this sort of
dispportion of political violence really is coming from folks on
the left, and for folks like me who are on
(07:15):
the right, it's frustrating because there's only so much that
I can do to induce the left to get its
own house in order, and it's gotten beyond out of hand,
beyond out of hand. And I just sincerely, sincerely hope
and pray that this amazing country really turns back from
the brink of forts too late.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Josh, I appreciate your time. Condolences for the loss of
your friend.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Gart you bet Josh.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Hammer, their senior editor at large at Newsweek and again
host of the Josh Hammer Show. You can find that
podcast on the iHeart app. There are, as I said
at the top of the show, here some very late
developing elements of this story, including an image now we
believe from the.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Salt Lake City FBI office.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
They say they have identified a person of interest and
they need they need help identifying a person of interest,
but they do have an image that they have put
out their information about the rifle that has been found,
potential words, ideologies, whatever that have been written on the
bullets and the rifle.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So all of that is still to come.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Gary and Shannon a quick note, quick note, also more personal.
Shannon says, mom surgery went well, so that's good news.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
This is not going to be a dour show the
entire time, I promise, but we do have some business
that we need to attend to. The FBI office in
Salt Lake City has released a couple of photos they
say are a person of are of a person of
interest in the shooting of Charlie Kirk yesterday at that
college campus. Now we put them all up on all
(08:56):
of the KFI socials so you can check them out
wherever it's a social media, Twitter, etc.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
At KFI.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
The again, FBI office out of Salt Lake City just
put those up literally as the show was starting, So
we do know. We do have images again they say,
of a person of interest, and they're asking for the
public's help and identifying. It's a very nondescript shot. I mean,
(09:22):
there's some probably some identifying characteristics of this guy's face
that somebody might recognize. But he's wearing a ball cap,
he's wearing sunglasses, he's wearing a long sleeve black T
shirt with some sort of an emblem on the front
of it. It's hard to tell exactly from these pictures
what it is but wearing jeans. This morning, they did
an update from officials there in Salt Lake City and
(09:46):
Bo Mason with the Department of Public Safety there in
the state of Utah gave a pretty basic timeline of
what it was they believe happened yesterday.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Starting at eleven fifty two am. This subject arrived on
campus shortly away from campus. We have tracked his movements
onto the campus through the stairwells up to the roof,
across the roof to a shooting location. After the shooting,
we were able to track his movements as he moved
to the other side of the building, jumped off of
(10:16):
the building, and fled off of the campus and into
a neighborhood. Our investigators have worked through those neighborhoods, contacting
anybody they can with doorbell cameras witnesses, and have thoroughly
worked through those communities trying to identify any leads. We
(10:38):
do have good video footage of this individual, we are
not going to release that at this time.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Wall Street Journal is reporting that investigators also found ammunition.
The rifle was found in that wooded area. Believe it's
a thirty caliber rifle. They found one spent shell casing
inside the rifles because it was a bolt action. Unless
you pulled the bolt back, that thing is going to
stay in there, and then three unused bullets still loaded inside.
(11:09):
They said that the ammunition was engraved with expressions of
transgender and anti fascist ideology. This older model thirty caliber
hunting rifle, they said, discovered in the woods near the
scene of the shooting at Utah Valley University, was wrapped
in a towel. They said, the spent cartridge was still
in the chamber, and then three unspent rounds in the magazine,
(11:32):
and all of them had wording on them. Too early
obviously to come up with a conclusion about what that means.
Is that an attempt to throw off investigator.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
We won't know until we have some better indication of
who the suspect is. And then a couple of other
things about this. There was discussion yesterday about how somebody
could get this close with a rifle and peel off
a shot like this, And it turns out that security
wasn't that tight the security immediately around Charlie Kirk. And
(12:07):
I mentioned this yesterday just seeing some of the videos
of the moment that this happened. There were six or
eight guys standing right around the stage that Charlie Kirk
was on that you could tell were security, But they
were doing that personal preventing an attacker with a knife
(12:27):
or some other weapon coming close to Charlie Kirk. They
were not prepared for someone hold up in a sniper's
position one hundred and fifty one hundred and seventy five
yards away being able to get a clear shot. Although
now you look at the scene, it's one of those
where you think, how could you miss that? How could
you possibly miss that? There's another thing about this that
(12:50):
is particularly disturbing to me, and I think it's the
lack of willingness for people to understand that even if
you disagreed with Charlie Kirk, this goes beyond your disagreement
with his ideology or his practice of politics, or how
he exercised his free speech rights. You are shallow in
(13:15):
thought and slow of mind if you think this is
not a big deal. Again, you don't have to agree
with him politically, but people who are celebrating his death
or people who are saying that this was a win
for the other side, whatever side you happen to be on,
this is not. It puts all of us in a
worse position today than we were yesterday. We'll get into
(13:37):
a little bit of what some of the experts have
been saying, some of the investigators', former FBI special agents, etc.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
When we come back.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
We're going to lighten it up a little bit next hour. Actually,
Michael Monks is going to join us, so we're going
to have a little bit more fun less about what's
going on national and some more local stories that are
coming up, and we will do strained science a little
bit later. We'll get into some of the fun, crazy
science stories and the good ones actually too in terms
of health and wellness stories that we have to get to.
(14:13):
We will also mention, of course, that Evergreen High School
shooting that took place yesterday. It was shadowed by the
fact that this assassination of Charlie Kirk took place in Utah.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
There was a.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Shooting at Evergreen High School southwest of Denver, up in
the foothills there at Jefferson County High School. And if
you remember, I mean I do, because I was there.
But Jefferson County was the lead investigative agency after the
Columbine shooting, so it was the same agency dealing with
yet another one. In this case, there was a student
(14:46):
that shot two other students at Evergreen High School and
then shot himself. The one who shot himself is the
only one at this point who has died. One of
the kids that he shot is still in critical condition.
The FBI in Salt Lake City has shared a photo
of a person of interest in the Charlie Kirk shooting,
suggesting that they would need the public's help in finding
(15:08):
this guy. And one of the I guess the identifying
factors that the FBI referred to this morning in this
early morning news conference was they believe he is a
college age male.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's about it.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
They said they've tracked some of the movements coming onto campus,
leaving campus, et cetera. I wanted to play for you, Well, okay,
I'll do it this way. Already, in the two segments
that I've covered this story, I'm getting plenty of talkbacks
(15:42):
from people who are suggesting that my head is up
Charlie Kirk's ass, or that I am only telling one
side of this story because political violence knows no side,
or whatever, And I just want to caution everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
It seems like.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
The the cycle is getting smaller and we're all to
blame for this, and the cycle is something tragic shocks
the nation's sensibilities. We come together, we condemn that something tragic,
and then we fall back into the same political division
or cultural division or or social pattern of hating somebody
(16:22):
from the other side or accusing them of being whatever
you want, too liberal, too woke, too conservative, too religious, whatever. Today,
obviously the twenty fourth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks,
you have to remember that in those months after September eleventh,
(16:44):
two thousand and one, George W. Bush saw an approval
rating in the ninetieth percentile, I mean, ninety two, ninety
three percent was the peak something like that for months.
In yesterday's instance, within minutes, people took to social media
(17:06):
to laugh at this and to cheer the death of
a guy who championed everyone's free speech, not the right,
not the left, everyone's free speech.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And again.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
You can insert whatever incident of political violence you want to.
Minnesota state lawmakers who got shot, a former president who
was shot at on the campaign trail, the Pennsylvania governor's
house was firebond, senators that were shot at on a
baseball field, an attempt on a Supreme Court justice. I mean,
(17:39):
the time between the tragic event and this same old,
same old is now down to out minutes and hours,
down from months. Part of it is social media. Part
of it is that we're willing to allow ourselves to
fall prey to the baser instincts because we all believe
that our point of view is the absolute truth, no
(18:02):
questions asked, when we should actually spend more time stress
testing our own beliefs and less on the beliefs of others.
I hate the term stress testing, but I used it
intentionally because of the conversation that Gavin Newsom had with
Charlie Kirk earlier this year. And if you question his
(18:27):
dedication to debate Charlie Kirk's dedication to debate, go back
and listen to that podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
He doesn't like Gavin Newsom.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Gavin Newsom doesn't like him, but they had a civil, reasonable,
high level conversation about their differences, and ignore for the moment.
For this moment, ignore the political affiliations, ignore the friendships
that Charlie Kirk made over the course of the last say,
ten or fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Think about his pursuit of.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
The most American practice, the free open, the public debate
of issues, hashing out those wrinkles that exist between the
opinion and the reality, the opinion that you have and
the reality that we all live in. This guy was
a husband, This guy was a father to two small kids.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
This was not just someone you disagree with.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
This was a guy who was celebrating his and yours
First Amendment freedom to speak freely on a college campus,
of all places, and someone took that from him with
extreme violence, someone who was, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Know, afraid of his.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Excitement, his existential, his unbridled the nuanced power that is
free speech, and decided that some blunt instrument like a
thirty caliber hunting rifle was the way to silence him.
(20:02):
So what kind of country do you want to live in?
Do you want to live in a country where I
can say things like that and then you can leave
messages where you call me an idiot or say I
have my head up, my ass or whatever, or do
you want the free speech.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
To be ended with violence.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
We have to be able to debate our differences with
respect and conviction and love and caring and a greater
sense of good for all, and not some country that
goes further from that and then replaces everything with violence.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
That's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Top of the hour.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Michael Monks is going to join us, and we're going
to talk about some more of the local stories that
are going on. There's obviously still stuff that is happening.
So just a couple of notes. And I don't know
if I want to do this necessarily, because it's kind
of like picking at a hangnail.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That's annoying more than anything.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
If anybody suggests that we didn't spend any time talking
about the Minnesota state lawmakers that were shot as a
form of political violence, or the firebombing of Governor Josh
Shapiro's house out of Pennsylvania, or that we didn't talk
about January sixth and were completely appalled by that, you're
(21:32):
just being shortsighted. You either don't remember or you weren't listening,
or you're making assumptions based on what you think our
political beliefs are. It's it's a waste of your breath.
Don't do that. You make yourself seem small, and we're
better than that. I hope if you have an opportunity today,
go outside and touch some grass, Go out and do
(21:53):
something that's not this. There was a story that came
up earlier this week about the level of anxiety that
exists in our world today, and a lot of times
it is because of what we have in our pocket.
Everybody's got a damn phone, and we were all completely
overwhelmed by information yesterday. Again, it doesn't matter what side
(22:15):
you're coming down on. If you thought, for some reason
that this was a good thing, you were inundated with information.
If you thought it was a horrific episode of political violence,
you were inundated with other information. The simple update now
about what's going on in this investigation is just at
the top of the hour. Right as the show started,
the FBI out of Salt Lake City did release a
(22:37):
couple of photos of a guy they say is a
person of interest in the shooting of Charlie Kirk. On
that college campus yesterday, and it's at this point I'm
assuming they're getting a whole slew of leads from people
who may or may not recognize who that guy is.
The more interesting aspect of this to me is the
(23:00):
security that existed at the campus event. They knew that
Charlie Kirk was a controversial figure. There had already been
a petition that was signed by a couple a thousand
people at least, I don't know if it was more
than that, but a thousand people that said they didn't
want Charlie Kirk even speaking on their campus, let alone
(23:22):
having a debate or having it in a very public
area like this. So they did find a high powered
bolt action rifle, they said, in a wooded area, and
the Wall Street Journal had been reporting that there were
words written on the on the bullet casings the couple.
There was at least one where did it go? There
(23:46):
was at least one spent cartridge still in the chamber
that would account for the one gunshot that we heard yesterday,
and then also three unspent rounds in the magazine, and
all of them had expressions of transgender, anti fascist ideology.
That's according to the Wall Street Journal if we get
more information about what that is.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
And again, this is one of those days.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Where we're just kind of on pins and needles, perhaps
trying to figure out what the next step is in
terms of the investigation. If there are any updates out
of Utah, we'll definitely bring those to you. One of
the things that happened earlier today was President Trump was
at the Pentagon today for a September eleventh memorial and
(24:29):
mentioned at the beginning of his remarks that he said
he was going to honor Charlie Kirk with the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, which is the nation's highest civilian honor.
Date to be determined in the future, and so that
is what's going on. I mentioned the September eleventh memorials.
There were memorials this morning in New York City as well,
and police there, I mean imagine, there was a story
(24:52):
yesterday morning that they had been receiving threats. They always
do it about this time of year, potential threats to
different target It's in New York City, and the NYPD
had already said they were going to beef up security,
and then after Charlie Kirk was shot yesterday, they said
that they added even more security for the events to
mark the twenty fourth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Also, JD.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Vance was supposed to be in New York for one
of those memorial ceremonies.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
He changed his plans.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
He apparently was really good friends with Charlie Kirk, so
he went to Utah apparently to be with Charlie Kirk's family.
All right, so we will switch gears. We'll get into
a little bit more of what's going on locally, including
the LA Convention Center.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
The plans for this thing just keep growing. I don't
know where the money is to come from.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
But also the city Council is now throwing its hat
into this redistricting fight that's going on in Sacramento. All
that's coming up with the Michael Monks Power Hour as
we like to call it. Gary and Shannon will continue
right after this. You've been listening to the Gary and
Shannon Show. You can always hear us live on a
FIAM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday
(26:03):
through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio ap
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