The media's reaction to Charlie Kirk's murder last week has been disturbing to say the least. They made absurd speculations about the shooter’s politics and tried to link him to MAGA, the usual stuff that happens after mass shootings.
Authorities quickly confirmed that Kirk wasn’t a random target and that Tyler Robinson killed him for his political views.
Robinson left no ambiguity about his motives, and CNN's Scott Jennings was clearly bothered when some of his fellow panelists on CNN's NewsNight suggested the killing wasn't or may not have been political.
Former talk show host Montel Williams argued the assassination felt personal more than ideological. He pointed to the suspect’s own messages as evidence that this wasn’t a long-nursed political crusade. “One of his texts said, when asked, how long have you been thinking about this? A week and a half. It wasn’t, I’ve been thinking about this for the last year and a half. He said, a week and a half. If we’re going to believe what he said and other places in this text, why not believe that?” Williams asked, arguing that a short planning window suggested a spontaneous, emotionally driven act.
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“I don’t believe he was motivated politically. I think this was motivated emotionally. I think this was an emotionally studded [sic] person who literally, when I say it this way, just hear me, tried to defend his significant other, not trying to defend some ideology,” he said.
This claim from Williams was so egregiously wrong that even Phillip pushed back, noting the clear ideological threads in the case — the family dynamics, the suspect’s account that his father was “MAGA,” and public statements attacking conservatives.
“But although I do think there – I mean, there’s clearly an ideological difference. That’s why I played about what they said about the family. I mean, the ideological difference that he was reacting to wasn’t just Charlie Kirk. It was also maybe his dad,” she said.
Neera Tanden, Joe Biden’s former domestic policy advisor, also tried to argue it wasn’t ideological.
“I guess. I don't know that we'll ever get into fully the minds of what happened here, but it is really horrible that Charlie Kirk was murdered by this person,” she said.
But Jennings wasn’t having any of it: “Guys, guys, the evidence here is overwhelming. He said, ‘Charlie Kirk, I can’t stand this hate anymore, I’m going to take him out.’ The testimony from and the statements of his family, he had become more left wing. He etched the statements that are made by the left about Republicans and conservatives and Charlie Kirk fascist on the bullet casings.”
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Jennings argued that the weekend’s attempts to recast the suspect as conservative had failed once the evidence emerged. “There is an effort, there was an effort all weekend long on the left to try to make this guy sound like he was a conservative that failed. That was passed around all over the weekend. That has now failed. The evidence has now come out. He was motivated by hate. He was motivated by left wing radicalism.”
Jennings didn’t shout, but you could tell he was angry.
Williams pushed back again with a detail that, to him, undercut Jennings’s certainty: “He made a joke about it in his last text,” he said, noting the same messages he’d cited earlier.
That didn’t sit well with Jennings: “Well, it doesn't sound like a joke to me because someone's dead and about to be buried. So, it doesn't sound like a joke to me.”
Jennings continued, “So, I'm just telling you. There is an effort, there was an effort all weekend long on the left to try to make this guy sound like he was a conservative that failed. That was passed around all over the weekend. That has now failed. The evidence has now come out. He was motivated by hate. He was motivated by left wing radicalism. He got mixed up with some trans ideology in his life. We'll learn more about that, I'm sure, when more evidence and testimony comes out. We are looking around the edges of this for something other than what's staring us in the face, left wing radicalism got this kid, he went up to a roof and he murdered our friend, and that's what happened.”
CNN's @ScottJenningsKY has had ENOUGH of the left's equivocating, defending, and even celebrating of the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin and his transgender relationship.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2025
Scott is PISSED. pic.twitter.com/fw5iXg9Aoo
The media’s refusal to call the Charlie Kirk assassination what it is — political murder — is a national disgrace. Scott Jennings shattered the left’s denial, exposing their dangerous narrative twist. PJ Media cuts through the lies the mainstream ignores. Support fearless truth-telling; join PJ Media VIP with code FIGHT for 60% off. Don’t wait; join today.
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