Trump says ‘with a high degree of certainty’, Kirk’s shooter is in custody
The president is being interviewed by Fox News now. It’s a live taping at their studio in New York.
“I think we have him,” Trump just said, regarding Charlie Kirk’s shooter. “I think that with a high degree of certainty we have him in custody”.
Updated at 09.44 EDT
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The press conference in Utah with the FBI and local law enforcement is due to begin in four minutes.
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Alaina Demopoulos
After clinching the title of top conservative podcast in America (and second overall news podcast, according to Apple’s ranking) in March, Charlie Kirk said: “We’re not just talking. We’re activating a revolution.”
In the hours after his killing at age 31 on the first stop of a buzzy college campus tour, the rightwing activist’s words echoed through young conservative circles. Social media eulogies rolled in, with users reposting clips of Kirk with his wife and children. Parents of teens wrote on X of learning about Kirk’s death through their children. “My 17 year old is bumming. Told me he plays Charlie in the background on his computer when he’s on it,” the conservative radio host Jesse Kelly wrote on X. Another X user wrote about speaking to teens at a church youth group: “Everyone I talked to is so distraught and heartbroken at his passing.”
A key figure in Donald Trump’s success, Kirk galvanized college-aged conservatives who moved in a different ecosystem from traditional media. The decade or so between Kirk’s beginnings as a teen activist and the shooting saw the rise of Maga politics alongside the shake-up of the conventional media landscape, with Kirk playing a crucial role in both.
Adam Pennings, 25, is the executive director of Run Gen Z, a non-profit that supports young Republican candidates. “He’s always just been such an important part” of the young conservative party, Pennings said of Kirk. “He was everywhere.”
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We’re due to hear from FBI officials and the Utah Department of Public Safety at a press conference shortly. We’re told that there will be a five minute warning ahead of it starting.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as it gets underway.
Updated at 09.38 EDT
Suspect in Charlie Kirk killing identified as Tyler Robinson – reports
According to multiple reports, citing law enforcement sources, a suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, who is local to Utah.
We’re due to hear from FBI director Kash Patel and Utah officials shortly. We’ll bring you the latest lines as we have them.
Trump just described some of his conversation with Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, yesterday.
“She’s devastated,” Trump said. The president encouraged Erika to continue making statements following Kirk’s death. “Turning Point is a real power…I think they’re going to rally around together.”
ShareSuspect taken into custody on Thursday – report
The New York Times is reporting that a man was taken into custody on Thursday at 11pm MT (the local time zone in Utah), by Utah state and local police.
The Times cites a law enforcement official, who requested anonymity to talk about the case.
They add that, allegedly, the man in question was arrested near Zion National Park – which is hundreds of miles away from the Utah Valley University campus.
Updated at 08.57 EDT
FBI to hold press conference at 9am ET on Kirk Shooting
Brian Kilmeade, who is interviewing Donald Trump, just said on air that there will be a press conference at 9am ET with FBI director Kash Patel present.
Kilmeade goes on to say that he’s getting word that the shooter is “in custody, and he’s alive, and he was turned in by by a friends and family”. He didn’t elaborate on his sources.
Updated at 08.56 EDT
‘I couldn’t care less’, Trump says about division within the country
The president, when asked about how we “fix the country” or “come back together” after Kirk’s shooting, says that he “couldn’t care less”.
“The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They don’t want to see crime, worried about the border,” Trump says. “The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy”.
ShareTrump advocates for death penalty for Kirk shooter
In his interview with Fox News, Trump just said that he hopes the shooter “gets the death penalty”.
“Charlie Kirk was the finest person,” Trump added. “He didn’t deserve this”.
Updated at 08.58 EDT
Trump says National Guard troops to be deployed to Memphis
The president has just announced in his Fox News interview that he will be sending the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee.
He described the city as “deeply troubled” and vowed to “straighten that out”.
Updated at 09.25 EDT