Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old father of two and founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed in broad daylight Wednesday at a Utah Valley University event in what Utah governor Spencer Cox described as a "political assassination."
The event marked the first stop of Kirk's "American Comeback" campus tour. Sitting under his signature "Prove Me Wrong" tent, Kirk spoke for roughly 20 minutes before a single shot rang out, reportedly from roughly 200 yards away, as Kirk began to answer a question about transgender shooters. A gruesome video from the event shows a bullet hitting Kirk in the neck.
Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and saw it expand to campuses across the country, did more than virtually anybody over the past decade to bring young people to the conservative cause. He started a podcast, "The Charlie Kirk Show," in 2017. During that time, he became a close friend and ally of President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other top GOP lawmakers.
It was Trump who announced his death on Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, describing him as "great" and "legendary."
"No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie," he said.
Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and their two young children.
Kirk was also an outspoken supporter of Israel, jousting with anti-Israel students on campuses in the U.S. and abroad.
"The war started because 1,300 Jews were killed and 200 were taken hostage," he said of Israel's war on Hamas at a Cambridge University debate this summer. "When you declare war on Israel, expect a firestorm in reaction."
"The IDF, when they do something right, they get no credit. When they do life-saving surgeries of a Gazan child, they get no credit," he continued. "But when they happen to bomb a place where they are operating their military from—which we now know from third-party verified sources, hundreds of Hamas military operations are in mosques, schools, and hospitals—I'm sorry. ... Hamas started the war."
At a 2023 event, when an attendee pressed Kirk on his statement that Christians who don’t love Israel take the Bible "way too much for granted," Kirk responded, "Let me ask you. What religion was Jesus, what did he believe? … He was born in Bethlehem, and he was raised in Nazareth, and he walked on the water in Capernaum. What country are those places in?" Kirk asked. "It does matter—you know why? Because when I went to Israel I came in contact with a living God that walked on water and rose Lazarus from the dead. When I went to Israel I saw the Bible come to life. When I went to Israel … I said, this is the word of God. This is real. These are not fairy tales or fables or things that we tell our kids."
"I reject wholeheartedly this narrative, Christians who turn their back on Israel," Kirk continued. "It says in Genesis and Romans and First Thessalonians, Paul said, you will bless the Jews. If you bless Israel, you will be blessed, if you scorn Israel, you will be scorned."
Some left-wing figures responded by suggesting Kirk was at fault for his own shooting.
"We don't know the full details of this yet. We don't know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration, so we have no idea about this," MSNBC's Matthew Dowd said in response to anchor Katy Tur, who called Kirk a "divisive figure" and said the Trump administration would use the shooting "as justification for something."
"But following up what was just said, he's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech … aimed at certain groups," Dowd continued. "And I always go back to: Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions."
The night before his final appearance, Kirk texted one of our colleagues:
He died doing what he loved, in a fight he understood was dangerous and knew was worth fighting.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
