‘SOMETHING CHANGED’: Disturbing details surface as investigators look for Kirk gunman’s motive

‘SOMETHING CHANGED’: Disturbing details surface as investigators look for Kirk gunman’s motive

Well, let’s bring in retired FBI agent Darren Mott, who spent 20 years in the bureau and is now director of client outreach and education at the National Cyber Security Operations Center. And clearly, there’s a lot of cyber investigation at work in this uh in this crime investigation. Darren, welcome. Your take on the evidence that you heard about today in this case. So, with the DNA DNA evidence, obviously, if you’re going to touch something, you’re going to leave evidence on it. And and with most guys of this particular persuasion, operational security is not the key thing they’re thinking about. So being able to find digital forensic information about notes that he wrote, finding the Discord and perhaps Telegram channels he was on makes it easy to go back and process what he was thinking leading up to this event. So, it’s shocking when you dig into some of the back and forth on Discord because after he committed this crime, allegedly committed this crime. Um, this is the kind of So, his friends in this group chat and in many of people in these group chats have no aren’t using their real names. It seems like in this case he was because they refer to him as Tyler and they talk about Charlie, but he sees the guy on the video who looks just like him. He says, “Oh, that’s a dopelganger. You know, that’s my twin.” Um, and one of the other people says, “Whatever you do, don’t go to a McDonald’s anytime soon.” And we all know that’s where Luigi Manion, the healthc care, uh, United Healthcare CEO uh, alleged killer, that’s where he was caught. Um, and then they go back and forth on the reward, the $100,000 reward for any information. He says they say, “Oh, we’re going to turn you in.” He says, “Only if I get a cut.” And then he’s he’s, you know, joking, “Better get rid of this manifesto and the exact copy rifle that I have lying around.” what you know, as as someone who’s seen a lot of criminals and the things that they say, this seems very cavalier for someone who just took someone’s life and who never had any experience with this kind of thing before. Sure. And I think there’s a lot of cognitive dissonance with these guys because they think, well, he probably didn’t do it, but it sounds like something he might do and it’d be cool if he did. So, they have that those kind of things in their head because that’s kind of how they’ve been raised with the way the digital environment is, right? There’s 20 million Discord servers actively going on right now. We can’t monitor them all. And there’s a lot of bad things being talked about in all of those channels, such as this event, which I’m sure was discussed amongst people that had the same political leanings that Tyler had. So, and again, hard to monitor it, but it needs you just need one person to say, “Well, this doesn’t really sound right. I need to talk to somebody about that.” Yeah. So, what is the responsibility of someone who was given uh this information prior? you know, if there’s a if there’s a conversation prior to the shooting, and there was, in fact, um, we heard from Cash Patel that he said that this suspect said, “I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it.” So, anyone who received that message, what responsibility did they have to act on it, to go to the police, to let someone know? Yeah, they they needed to reach out to somebody to say, “This doesn’t sound right. Someone needs to look into this person.” the cases that I successfully prosecuted is because I had someone within criminal groups that said, “Hey, this doesn’t look right. How can I help you find these guys and and put them in jail?” And that’s what we did. So, someone has to step up and do that. Confidential human sources are what makes FBI cases work. So, this dark world that these young men are diving deep into that is capable of at least being one component and completely changing their character. They lose all contact with their families. We saw the same thing with Luigi Manion. Same thing with Thomas Krooks. This is a huge problem that we have that led to, you know, in part to the death of Charlie Kirk. As someone who studies cyber is, can we shut this down? Can we get at this? Can we break it up? How hard is it? Well, the hard part is if we look at Discord by itself, it’s a US company. So, the good thing for the FBI is because it’s a US-based company, they can do legal process to get all sorts of information from the servers this guy was on. If he was on Telegram, that’s owned by a Russian national who has who has placed it in Dubai. We can’t get to that stuff and it’s all encrypted. So, if they have no motivation to support it or help, then it’s not going to and and it’s it’s those are just two examples of a multitude of different types of things where discussions like this are going on. We’re not even talking about the dark web, which is a whole thing all into itself. This is Cash Patel talking about how difficult this part of the investigation can be. Watch. People thinks we can just get in these group chats and immediately find out who is in them. And there are scores of people in this Discord chat room. But we have to effectuate legal process. We have to go out there with search warrants so that if prosecutors want to later use this evidence, it’s not tainted by being illegally obtained. We, the FBI, are running the investigation pointly on the Discord chat group. There are scores of individuals that are going to be spoken to. So, you talk about the dark web, too. It’s how hard it is to get into these networks. And what about the possibility that foreign governments are dropping algorithms into these environments to egg on these sorts of chaos creators? Oh, absolutely. Tik Tok does it every day. It is probably the number one methodology for the Chinese government to send propaganda and to disrupt the minds of kids like this is exactly what’s happen. And to say Russia’s not doing it is wrong because they’re doing it too. They’re just not quite as open about it. Darren Mott, thank you very much. Retired FBI agent uh and a national cyber security expert. Good to have you here today, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Martha. Thank you. I can report today that the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA on the screwdriver are positively processed for the suspect in custody. We have the DNA on the screwdriver that was found on the rooftop and the towel that the firearm was wrapped in. The firearm itself, this is a great point. Thanks. Thanks for raising it. That is being processed by ATF ATF laboratories in Maryland and I believe they’ll speak to that at a later date when their process is incomplete. A Fox News alert in a Fox and Friends exclusive. Moments ago, FBI director Cash Patel giving us brand new details about Charlie Kurts, assassin who is refusing to cooperate ahead of his first court appearance tomorrow. Fox News contributor and defense attorney Josh Ritter joins us live on the ground in Utah in front of the jail where the suspect is being held. Uh Josh, thanks so much for joining the program. Uh a lot of big information from the director. Uh how critical is even though you got the suspect still getting more details such as the DNA on the towel and the screwdriver? It’s huge. Uh the DNA, I I was really glad to hear that they had a positive hit on that. The towel and the screwdriver. It looks like they’re still going to continue to try to uh test for DNA on the rifle itself. Um that’s very, very important. The other thing that the director mentioned was digital evidence that it sounds like they’re now scouring his phone and creating a digital footprint and history for him. Also critical, hugely important. The other thing that he said that I really appreciated as a lawyer is that they are going about this very deliberately to make sure that all of their warrants are correct. That it’s not just about seizing and collecting evidence, but it’s making sure that you’re preserving that evidence so that it can be used legally at trial. That was important because as you saw Joshua, I was pushing him on the people that were in the chat and he said, “Wait, I’m aware of it. We know who there are. They’re actually more than 20, but we got to go through the process to make sure that it can hold up in court. Meanwhile, he also talked about the assassin’s far-left ideology. Let’s watch it. His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology and even more so in these last couple of years. And he uh had a text message exchange. he the suspect with another individual in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for. So Joshua from a legal standpoint, this is where it gets a little muddy. At what point did the friends, the family need to report to authorities? That’s a great question. Um it what we’re talking about is a potential conspiracy allegation here and the the elements of that come down to was there some sort of agreement between parties. Was there an understanding of what he was going to do? That’s more than threats. That’s more than uh big talk. Uh it’s the idea that he was actually planning something. they were aware of that and there was some sort of agreement reached between him and other individuals that that’s what he intended to do and then proving some sort of act in furtherance of that. So I agree with again with the director saying let’s be careful. Let’s interview these people. Let’s take it all in due course. He’s now been arrested. So that in that need for immediiacy is over and now it’s time to take a breath and make sure that the evidence that they collect, the interviews that they conduct are all done in such a way that they can all be admitted at trial. Josh, I want to get your um comments on another trial and that’s Ryan Ruth. Opening statements are anticipated to start uh Thursday. I guess my big question is normally the judges give room to lawyers during their openings and closings, but you got someone that doesn’t understand the process and going to violate a lot. What do we expect uh this defendant who is representing himself to say? Uh these these types of cases where you have a pro per defendant can can really turn into a circus and a lot of that is going to depend on how the judge uh conducts the courtroom. And and it’s a balancing act, too, because on one side, uh, you have to make sure it doesn’t turn into a circus, and you have to make sure that things don’t go too far a field or we’re talking about a bunch of irrelevant evidence. But at the other side, the judge has to be concerned with protecting the due process rights of the defendant himself to make sure that he has an opportunity to present his case, however ridiculous that may be, uh, so that we are not creating potential appellet issues down the road. Yeah, those opening statements began last Thursday and he’s already given the judge a run for her money. She is earning her paycheck as a as a judge trying to keep that courtroom in order. Josh, thanks so much. Always a wealth of knowledge. Thank you. So Dan Bonino is the FBI deputy director and sir, thank you for your time this morning. Important stuff here after a very heavy weekend. Thank you for being here. I want to go back to last week on the day that he was killed. Try and clear up a few things as best we can. Did anyone in that crowd aid or assist this assassination? Well, that’s what we’re looking into now, Bill. Obviously, we have um a suspect in custody. It’s quite clear. It’s why I’m here discussing this individual. However, if this was a larger effort, there was any aiding and abetting, whether it be financial, whether it be someone who knew the specifics of it and failed to report that. Uh as you heard the director say this morning, we as an FBI, our team along with our state and local partners are looking into that. Uh we have a lot of technical capabilities, a lot of good investigative capabilities where we can scrub that entire network, whether it’s OSEN, open- source, intel, through social media that people posted publicly. We’ll be looking at that. We’ll also be dropping a lot of paper, a lot of subpoenas out there to take a look to see if there was any extended network. I I want to be clear there are things I can say as you well know today and things I can’t I don’t want to get ahead or jeopardize the investigation but when I can sh what I can share with you Bill I will we are we are clinging to transparency here this is uh you know the era of the you know kronhite and Jennings generation is over new media now is media and we want to be sure we can do everything in our power and do everything in our power to share what we can when we can while still balancing the needs of the investigation. Okay, I heard Cash Patel 90 minutes ago in our program. I want to get to a couple of the things that he made news on, but first I want to drill in on this. Is there any connection at all between the person who was asking the question about um about mass shooters and trans killers or was that just a stunning coincidence when that single shot was fired? Well, we’re investigating that. Um I don’t want to say conclusively right now if there was a connection or not. Um it sometimes he’s I mean Charlie was known to speak out about these issues. He was a powerful voice. It’s uh it’s not terribly uncommon for him to get questions like that. However, uh we are looking into that um any potential connection here. So we’re going to scrub. I I’m I’m not drawing conclusions from your answer, but you’re you’re saying it’s a possibility. Is that what I hear you saying? We’re looking into everything, Bill. There’s there’s not going to be a stone left unturned. If there was anyone involved who aided a betetted, I can’t say that in strong enough terms. Every single FBI asset on this team is being applied and used in this investigation. Okay. After he fired that single fatal shot, we’ve got the video of him jumping off the backside of the building. Where is the gun when he drops 15 feet down to the grass below? Well, if you look at the video, the gun is is you’ll see in the back of the when you when you’re watching the video right there, um it appears from the video here that uh the gun is either in the backpack or on him when he jumps down. This is where, by the way, this part of the video, this is where we got a significant portion of the forensic evidence in the case, which we had to expedite. We had a number of of assets including fixedwing assets to be able to fly in obviously Salt Lake and that specific area in Provo um is not around the corner from FBI labs. It was difficult but we were able during that scene him grabbing that particular side of the building and jumping down um we were able to gather a significant amount of forensic information which we expedited back to the lab which was the key uh I think uh piece of information that we were able to crack this thing open on. Just looking at that video, it’s hard to see the weapon and that’s why the question is still obvious to me today. Cash Patel said earlier today that he expressed to someone that he had an opportunity to take out the killer and was going to do it. Did that person do anything with that information? Yeah, that’s um that’s what we’re um we’re really disturbed about. It appears that this uh this was communicated. You see this a lot, Bill, when in targeted violence cases, assassinations, school shootings, where the individual expresses in advance in a good swath of these cases his desire or her desire uh to do these specific things. That appears to be the case here as well where the um the intent component was there in advance and the target was uh was the target was announced in advance prior. Now that’s the part we want to know. Were they did they know and not say did they Now Bill you have to keep in mind and I don’t want anyone to jump to conclusions on this. There’s did they say it hear it and think it was some kind of a joke? That’s what we’re trying to find out now. But I promise you if there’s a larger network here, we’re going to get that out to the public as soon as we can. We really are. Okay. The reason why this is really important um to your investigation, understanding motive that I’ll get to in a moment here is that I I believe that if I’ve got the dates right here, that that event was announced one week before it happened. And we’ve got the reporting from over the weekend that said that the the killer, the accused killer now, uh, expressed views with his family at a at a dinner table. And I don’t know what the timeline is between when that happened. Was it hours or was it days? I mean, clearly it had to be at least a couple days, if not less. And if he also expressed this uh opinion that he had an opportunity to take out Kirk and was going to do it, what when was that message transmitted? Yeah. From the point that Charlie was killed, this is the troubling part of the investigation as I see it now. There appear to have been multiple warning signs. You just laid out some of them. There were people in his network, friends and family who had stated that he had become more political, that he had become um at some parts, it was I believe some of his co-workers had stated that he had kind of detached himself when the topic of politics came up and walked away from them. Family members said he’d become more political, leading us to believe that this uh ideology had in had infected him and had taken over. and he was just intent. It appears from the data we’ve accumulated and the channel and that uh that that note which we have some evidence uh may have existed before based on the communications in that channel that his target was obviously going to be Charlie and that people knew in advance. The question is again I just want to go back to what you had asked before. Did they know were they sure of this or did they hear this and just write it off? That’s what we’re going to have to find out and that’s what we’re investigating now, Bill. This this investigation is is just begun. This isn’t even the beginning of the of the beginning. You know, yes, we have a subject in custody. You know, everybody’s innocent till proven guilty in our constitutional republic. However, this is not done by any stretch. Our men and women out there in the bureau have worked tirelessly all weekend. I just got back um to DC uh last night and uh you know, Cash and I were out there on the scene. We walked the scene. We went through every single component of it. We saw the evidence up close and personal and we went out there to be able to make uh command decisions with our team on the ground. And uh I think the process, although not perfect, of course, I think the process went uh went pretty well considering we got him in 30 33 hours. Okay. Yeah, I I respect the process here, too. Uh the governor, Cox, said he had a leftist ideology. I I don’t know what issues were important to him. Maybe you can share that with us today. And Cash Patel said, if I’ve got this right, he said, “I’m looking at facts, not motive.” What’s the working theory now as to motive? Well, I I think it’s pretty clear based on the statements of family members, friends, and some of the messaging we have on these digital footprints left behind. Um, that the the he clearly had some obsession with Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk is obviously a conservative commentator. that’s no secret to anyone out there. Uh so while again I I don’t want to speak in advance and and jeopardize the case in any way, I think it’s fairly obvious to everyone out there and there’s no need to parse words with it that clearly this was an ideologically motivated attack. I mean Charlie Kirk is a conservative commentator who sadly and tragically uh gave his life, you know, underneath a sign asking people to challenge his ideas, the very essence of our constitutional republican bill. You know, if I may, I know it’s a a news show, but you know, Charlie was my friend. Charlie wasn’t my friend. Charlie was my good friend. And I spent the weekend, you know, after coming back from Utah, looking through text exchanges, going back years with Charlie. And it’s kind of hard to believe he’s not here. So, I, you know, this has been hard for everyone. And I I think it’s fair and appropriate for every one of the taxpayers who finances your FBI to ask questions about everything. You know what? It wasn’t perfect, but it should be. Next time, we’ll try to make it more perfect. But I just ask everyone to keep in mind that both Cash and I, this was very emotional for us. We had to put that aside. We had a job to do. And when everything settled down and finally got a little bit of sleep last night, it hit me that, you know, Charlie’s not here anymore. And um that was tough for everyone. So I’m not asking for anybody’s forgiveness for missteps here and there. We got our guy in 33 hours. Everything we’re going to go look at everything when this is done. And next time when there’s a crisis, what we can do well, we can do better. We can do better. We can do even better than that. Yeah, Dan, I’m sorry for your loss and I appreciate your work in the story and the investigation. It’s important to America and the world to figure this out. Um and I hope we do in in quick order, I will say. Um, but thank you for coming on. Thanks. And let’s get it right. Thank you, Dan. Thanks. We are learning chilling new details about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin and what he allegedly did immediately following the shooting. Utah officials say the 22-year-old is under special watch and is refusing to cooperate with authorities, but people who knew him are fully cooperating. The FBI today saying it is looking into whether anyone in the crowd aided or abetted the suspect. And the FBI also revealing today that the suspect wrote a note penned before the shooting happened saying he had the opportunity to kill Kirk and he was going to do it. The state of Utah is expected to charge him tomorrow with aggravated murder as the Department of Justice is expected to file separate federal charges sometime today. This is outnumbered. I’m Emily Kano here with my co-hosts Harris Falner and Kaylee Mcini. And also joining us today, Kaylee McGee White, independent women features editor-inchief and Fox News contributor. And David Webb, host of the David Webb Show on Sirius XM Patriot and Fox News contributor. Now, let’s go to Garrett Tenny, who is live outside of the Utah County Jail in Spanish Fork. Garrett, Emily, a big part of this investigation now is looking into who knew what about this shooting and when did they know it. We have learned that the alleged assassin told at least two individuals that he was planning to kill Charlie Kirk because he hated what Charlie stood for. One of them was in a text message. The other was in a note the suspect left for his romantic partner at their home in southern Utah. Here is FBI Director Cash Patel describing that note this morning. The suspect wrote a note saying, “I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” That note was written before the shooting. Um, evidence of his existence, we now have learned existed before the shooting was in the location um in the suspect and partner’s home. That romantic partner who was cooperating with investigators is a male transitioning to a female. You’ll remember Charlie Kirk was shot right after being asked about trans mass shooters. Investigators are trying to determine if that was just a coincidence or if the person who asked that question was somehow involved. This new surveillance video obtained by TMZ also shows the 22-year-old walking to UVU’s campus the morning of the shooting about 4 hours before it happened wearing a maroon shirt and light colored shorts. We’ve also learned the FBI is investigating left-wing groups in Utah to see if they had any kind of heads up about the assassination plot or somehow helped the suspect since his family told investigators he subscribed to left-wing ideology that had become more extreme over the past couple of years. Here’s FBI Deputy Director Dan Bonino. We’re looking into everything, Bill. There’s there’s not going to be a stone left unturned if there was anyone involved who aided a betetted. I can’t say that in strong enough terms. Every single FBI asset on this team is being applied and used in this investigation. The alleged assassin will appear virtually for his hearing tomorrow. And we are told we will learn a lot more about this investigation ahead of that hearing when prosecutors formally file charges against him. Emily Garrett, thank you. Kaylee, welcome back. Um, what are your thoughts on this as we learn these details? I think it’s clear that two factors contributed to this suspect’s potential radicalization. The first is the online community that he was involved in. This is something that unfortunately is becoming increasingly common among my generation, which is really the first generation to ever be born and raised on the internet. And young adults are increasingly finding their community online, sometimes in very dangerous spaces. And what this case reveals is that you can be raised in an entirely normal middle-class family with parents who were seemingly very involved, who loved their son, and yet still end up in the wrong corners of the internet and be in inundated with radical ideology. The second element here, which will be really interesting to see as this investigation unfolds, is how much and whether at all our education system contributed to this suspect’s radicalization. And based on the things that public school employees and college professors have said on the internet, my guess is that it did in part it did in part at least play a play a part in his radicalization. The things that these people feel comfortable saying online shows that this leftist ideology wasn’t just being it wasn’t hidden inside of them. This is being exposed to our our our children in their classrooms. And so we need to get a grip on our education system and we need to rail back this this ideology. Yeah. One of the headlines today read the purge we need and it was exactly that focusing on academia. Uh so the article and the op-ed David so we expect federal charges to be filed today and we know that the feds can file charges. So too can the state um and then they will decide. We talked about earlier about the different sovereign jurisdictions who will essentially go first and sort of take the lead. But what do you anticipate happening here? Well, it’s likely and since Utah’s has the death penalty that they’ll lead in the case. Now, the feds can run concurrently as you know. However, given the information that Cash Patel gave in this interview this morning, uh it appears that there is enough uh available evidence, use of internet and more that would bring the federal charges into it. That was the challenge for the federal charges. You need some form of interstate internet communication and more therefore the chat room. So, I think that’s what uh we can discern from this morning’s interview with Cash Patel. But Utah has clear lines on this. They have the lead on this and state charges and state prosecutors can be more effective in a death penalty case by the numbers and comparatively to the federal government. It exists in both. But right now, I think they have a strong case based on everything we know. And something we should also realize, we don’t have all the facts, nor should they put them all out there. There’s still an investigation underway. So, they know more. We should not at this point. And that may play into the strength of the case. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Uh they’ve already re revealed the enhanced charges under Utah law and they’re pretty strong. And the investigation that David mentioned, Harris, so as we noted earlier, the suspect is not cooperating at all, but that person’s inner circle and those he interacted with are. So, what what is your take away from that? So, I want to piggyback off of something you said, Kaylee. I I think that there’s always been some existence of people aren’t like their parents and their family. They come out, they they end up, you know, criminals, whatever. They didn’t do what they were raised to do. But you make an excellent point. Part of what’s happening now is that there’s an incubator for them. And that incubator is also an echo chamber. And what Cash Patel and Dan Banino Bonino, excuse me, are saying today is that they’re looking at who was in the room with him on Discord. Who was in the digital room with this young man and have we lost our ability to see something, say something? Are they complicit in any kind of way? Is there a is there a federal charge of conspiracy? All of those things coming into play. But I look at it a little bit differently from 37,000 ft. as a society, can we handle having people around a killer not say anything? Like what kind of footprint really was there? I think it’s an important part of the coverage, but it’s important part for us to know who we are and who’s living among us, too. And what do we need to do with these young people? I say take every one of them and teach them to pray. I mean, you saw the tributes and the vigils over the weekend. There was so much heart healing in that. We have so much more to do with our loss of Charlie. Um, but we have to outnumber them now to show them, and I love that because we’re unoutnumbered, to show them that there are more of us who believe in goodness and in God, right? And interesting that you say that because the the some also articles said, you know, Washington bracing for the reaction. This was a couple days ago, but the reaction was prayer, the reaction was mourning, and the reaction was a peaceful collective um, you know, gathering up that there’s no there’s no rioting happening here. Nope. You’re exactly right. people are turning to prayer and to faith. And ultimately, by the way, how do you stop something like this from ever happening happening again? That’s the answer. We have to have a spiritual revival in this country, uh, the one Charlie Kirk called for in August 20th when he was on Fox and Friends. But the two questions I have because that that will take time to manifest in the hearts of the American people are number one, we need to know exactly, to your point, Kaylee, how this individual became radicalized. We must have an answer. CNN is reporting he had a 4.0 GPA. He had gotten a scholarship. He came from a close-knit family. So, how does someone go from that to assassinating an individual, this suspect? Um, number two, as we’ve been discussing, Harris mentioned this too. People articulate their threats beforehand. We see this in almost any school shooting. And one came to mind also on Discord was the Georgia school shooting that happened on Labor Day. That individual had articulated a threat online. Someone reported it. The FBI came to his house and unfortunately there was no way to detain him and he went on to commit that shooting. Another case, just want to point this last one out. This is ABC News. Discord detected, removed, and reported a user which led to an arrest in a potential synagogue shooting. It was a 13-year-old individual. Said he was going to do something on Discord. Discord reported it. They were able to get the guy charged at the state level. And that’s how you stop a school shooting from happening. Those individuals went on to live their lives because someone had the courage to report. Discord had the cou courage to report. We need those individuals. You could save a life. Indeed. You one one quick note to go with what Kelly said, if I may. Beyond that, we have to imbue a sense of responsibility in people that if you see something bad, hear something bad. Why do we lose that after 911? We we need that and that’s something that’s missing in these chat rooms. So what happened at that radicalization? My generation doesn’t remember 9/11. They’ve grown up in an era of peace and and to you know to Kayle’s first question about how this happened and and how he was sucked into some of these online groups. I’ll just say that especially as a Jenzer with everyone’s noses in their phones. It’s very easy to feel invisible and young adults are going to places where that will make them feel visible. You’re not always going to like the corners of the internet that make them feel that way. But I would imagine that this young man found visibility in the wrong places on the internet. Well, just cuz you may not remember it doesn’t mean you should repeat it. The Holocaust, so many things in history. Read up. That’s what I would say to those young people. All right. Breaking right now. reports of a confession posted on Discord from Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin hours before after the murder, but hours before his father turned him in to authorities in Utah. This is Washington Post reporting on this at this point. Justice correspondent David Spunt joining me now live from Washington. Hi David, what can you tell us? Hi Martha. About two hours before he was turned into authorities. This according to the Washington Post, we are working to independently confirm this as well, but the Washington Post says that Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect charged in Charlie Kirk’s murder, confessed, and I want to read this. According to the Washington Post, writing on Discord, that social media chat group uh that the FBI says he used, quote, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all of this.” This coming from the Washington Post. Now, this comes as DOJ officials began late last week and over the weekend looking at the potential for at least one federal charge. No guarantee they’ll get there. A department spokesperson declined comment, but a source familiar said investigators are not ruling anything out at this time, especially his online gaming presence, his chats, as we just mentioned. Who was he talking to? What did he say? FBI Director Cash Patel said this earlier this morning. Watch. He uh had a text message exchange. He the suspect with another individual in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for. This investigation is is just begun. This isn’t even the beginning of the of the beginning. You know, yes, we have a subject in custody. You know, everybody’s innocent till proven guilty in our constitutional republic. However, this is not done by any stretch. Patel also batting down criticism from some even on the right about his handling of the probe. He put out a social media post hours after Kirk died, saying that there was a sub subject in custody only to be released and he addressed that saying that he could have worded it a little bit better. Today at the FBI history was made when former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey became the co-put director along with Dan Bonino. When we asked what this means, all parties involved on the record say this is a positive move for the bureau. Martha, very interesting. Uh, thank you very much, David Spun. Welcome to the five. That was President Trump in the Oval Office signing a memo on sending the National Guard and other federal resources to crack down on crime in Memphis. He also spoke about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. He said the suspected killer was radicalized online. Officials say Tyler Robinson is not cooperating, but his family and friends are. FBI Director Cash Patel and Deputy Dan Banino giving an update on the investigation. We were able to gather a significant amount of forensic information which we expedited back to the lab which was the key uh I think uh piece of information that we were able to crack this thing open. His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology. claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for. We can confirm that uh that his roommate was indeed a boyfriend uh who who is transitioning from uh from male to female. He is cooperating with uh with authorities as well. You know, Kaylee, a big question becomes, as we were just chatting about a moment ago, when did he become deeply indoctrinated uh with this leftist ideology? And how did he become indoctrinated? That’s the key question. I mean, from what I read with CNN’s reporting, he had a 4.0 GPA. He had a scholarship. He had a family that was close to him. And then something snapped, and we need to figure out exactly what that is. But I can tell you as I’ve watched these im images over the last few days, Erica Kirk, her beautiful and moving speech and then learning about this killer, this assassin, it occurred to me, Charlie Kirk said once that there is a spiritual battle playing out all around us. And you can choose to acknowledge it or you can choose to ignore it, but it is happening nevertheless. And you see that, you know, what you’re looking at now, this, you know, supposed assassin, it’s the face of evil. This is a guy who wrote a handwritten note that he was going to take Charlie Kirk out. He kills Charlie Kirk, a father, a husband, and then he goes on Discord and jokes about his doppelganger doing it. Who who jokes after you’ve literally slaughtered a man? And that’s the darkness. But then there’s also a lot of light. And we get very caught up at the people celebrating this. And I’d like to believe they’re the few voices. But there’s a lot of light out there, too. And I I’ll just end with this. There’s several accounts. I’ve seen amazing accounts of young people. This guy, big athlete, says, “I’m not an emotional guy. I don’t cry. But when I watch Charlie Kirk’s videos, every time he talks about God, I start to cry.” Another young woman said for the first time, she opened a Bible. Her in-laws had been encouraging her to do it. She never wanted to open it. And she read a scripture about the truth, and the truth setting her free. Uh, these stories are huge. They are out there. There is a wave of young people in this country turning toward the light. Erica Kirk is picking up the mantel. She’s carrying it forward and that light will always be the darkness you were just looking at. Jesse, uh, the FBI investigation, a lot has been made aware to the public uh, as this is ongoing. But they’ve widened the probe now as we heard through Cash Patel and Dan Bonino. They’ve widened this pro to some of these protrans groups, these online groups. And a big question too will become, did they know that he was going to be taking this action? Did they know in advance? Right. So, we all figured there was going to be a trans angle. So, the guy was dating a trans man, whatever that means. And was this killing a romantic overture to impress this trans boyfriend? We don’t know what was the motivation, but we do know that most of these trans shooters are lone wolf, mentally ill savages. This is not the case here. There might have been co-conspirators. There might have been people with fornowledge of the attack. Did he have a cell, a little cadre of crazy people that knew this was going to happen and gave him aid and comfort? I think the investigation will show that. And this is where it’s different because a lot of these people are highly intelligent. They’re highly motivated. They’re wellorganized. And they’re steeped in this progressive ideology. Luigi, Crooks, Ruth, this guy, the guy who shot Scaliz, all smart people that were very, very specific about their intent and they murdered someone in cold blood. You look at these people at these protests, they’re torching cars. You look at the people at the riots, they’re getting brick deliveries. They put bombs on Fox News trucks out west. These are people that are not flying off the handle. This is very wellorganized and you you want to say, “Okay, well, let’s just come together.” Well, how do you come together with someone like that if they’re hellbent on murder? if they’ve chosen violence as a strategy to advance a political agenda. Charlie came together with him every time he went on campus and they shot him dead in the neck. He tried to build bridges. He tried to have a dialogue and they murdered him in cold blood. So that’s where the left doesn’t really understand what’s been done because if you’re going to kill Charlie, you can kill anybody. This guy was not just a political activist. He was a spiritual leader of a movement. He talked about God, family, love, sovereignty, not just politics. So this was a spiritual attack and people will be dealt with. There will be a reckoning. Not violence. We don’t condone violence. We would never stoop to this level. But we will drive these people out firmly and resolutely. So this kind of stuff will not exist in the United States of America ever again. Jessica, we’re learning brand new details through the Washington Post this evening. U the Washington Post is reporting through two people familiar with the Discord chat uh that we have started to learn some details of. They are reporting that the suspect uh in Charlie Kirk’s shooting did post to Discord it was me an outright confession uh for what he did saying quote I’m sorry for all of this. And that he was going to be turning himself in in a couple of hours which uh we know to be the case. And I’m glad, Jesse, that you were clear that this was a nonviolent call to action that you’re talking about, but there are a lot of people saying things like we are at war and war has a very particular violent connotation to it. And from what we know thus far, and it’s an ongoing investigation that seems deeply complicated, but everybody from the president to Governor Cox to FBI Director Patel, all seem to agree that he was radicalized online and seems to be part of this kind of internet nihilist group of kids, right, who spend all their times in Discord chats that play video games. And that makes sense because of what we saw in the bullet casings, right? The furry meme, which is old, by the way. I was reading about it. It’s over 10 years old. So, you know, he’s grown up on this, been seeing it for a long time, the Hell Divers, too, The Game. Um, then the Chow Bella, which has been used by both the left and the right, this anti-fascist call to action. If there is evidence that he was a leftist, and Cash talked this morning about this note, um, that doesn’t exist anymore, but through our aggressive interview posture, we know exactly what it said. They’re going to have to do better than that for people to take it from the president and people who are supporting him in this that this is a they problem that the left came out and they took out Charlie Kirk. Now, it it may absolutely be the case, but we know that Tyler Robinson was raised in a close-knit conservative family. We know it was a big gun culture family. The grandma said something like, “We don’t even know any liberals.” Uh, it wasn’t school indoctrination. Carrie Lake went off on that. He was in an online apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College, which I don’t think was understand, but they didn’t say when he changed. I’m just saying we need more information before you. Hey, Sean Hannity here. 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Discord, the widely used messaging platform popular with the gaming community, is at the center of the investigation of Tyler Robinson, the suspected assassin of Charlie Kirk. #fox #media #us #usa #new #news #foxnews #charliekirk #assassination #crime #crimenews #crimestory #criminal #police #investigation #motive #discord #gaming #technology #lawenforcement #justice #government #politics #political #politicalnews

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