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We're coming to you this evening with a special edition about the appalling murder of Charlie Kirk, one of the country's foremost MAGA media firebrands.

An appalling political murder

Tess Crowley/The Deseret News/AP

The killing of Charlie Kirk has shaken the landscape of politics and media like few events in our collective memory. As a guest said on CNN this afternoon, this is "the assassination of a movement leader."

CNN's newsroom is getting new updates about the manhunt every few minutes, and you can follow along via this live updates page or CNN's rolling live TV coverage. Here, we're going to focus on Kirk's impact on the media.

Kirk, 31, pioneered a new model for conservative political advocacy, merging multi-platform media commentary with in-person gatherings and get-out-the-vote drives. He was a hugely successful political field organizer, TikTok influencer, radio host, nonprofit leader and public speaker all rolled up in one telegenic figure.

One minute, Kirk would be on Fox News promoting his friend President Trump’s agenda; the next, he would be on X or Instagram, inviting young people to start conservative groups at their high schools and college campuses. The operation he built was the envy of many Democratic rivals.

For Kirk, unlike an older generation of opinion stars, the talking head part of his job seamlessly blended together with the political-organizing part. He prioritized live events — which, in turn, generated viral content for his shows and social media platforms. 

Today, Kirk took the day off from his daytime radio show and podcast to prepare for the Utah Valley University event, and he was about 20 minutes into the appearance when he was struck in the neck by a gunman’s bullet.

"We have lost one of the most important voices that we've had in my lifetime on the right," Megyn Kelly said on an emotional live stream this afternoon. Liam Reilly and I wrote more about his impact here...

A champion of 'open' debate

Kirk's accessibility was part of his appeal. I corresponded with him occasionally, and I remember the day he invited me to have an "open (and fair) debate" with him. "I'm trying to be proactive about encouraging dialogue between people who disagree," he wrote. 

Liberals might have doubted that, but he welcomed the dialogue. At Wednesday's event, there were anti-Kirk protesters on the edge of the courtyard, holding signs opposing "fascists" and calling Kirk a "liar." The event itself was promoted as a forum for disagreement, with Kirk at his “Prove Me Wrong” table, where he would face off with ideological opponents. Videos of the shooting indicate that he was answering a question about transgender mass shooters seconds before he was attacked.

 >> "Charlie Kirk was doing it the right way," Republican strategist T.W. Arrighi wrote on X. "Charlie built a movement on campuses across America by engaging students in debate and dialogue. Challenging orthodoxy and winning hearts and minds in the process. Isn't that what we want from political figures? To try and silence that work through violence is antithetical to everything we stand for as a country."

Free speech groups condemn shooting

Democracy depends on resolving differences with words, not weapons. "Political violence is never an acceptable response to speech," FIRE said in a statement this afternoon. Violence "has no place in our democracy, and campuses must be safe spaces for dialogue across a wide range of political views," PEN America said. "All Americans must reject violence as a response to speech. Ideas must be met with debate and not bullets."

Political leaders in both parties were swift to say the same — even as partisans on social media sites waged their usual ugly battles. Some right-wing figures are "already calling for retribution," The Guardian noted, pointing to the "Libs of TikTok" account saying "this is war."

Other talking head types are trying to lower the temperature. Veteran conservative organizer Matt Schlapp said on Newsmax and X that young people will "make Charlie awfully proud if you continued fighting. But also if you fought in a way where at the end of the day, you can go have a cup of coffee with someone who you disagree with, and show that there's a humanity to this important endeavor that we're involved in."

CBS correspondent Ed O'Keefe made a similar point, from a different direction, during the network's live coverage. "There are going to be a lot of people who see this news this afternoon and have no idea who Charlie Kirk is. And that’s not their fault. And it speaks to the incredibly digital and algorithmic world that we now live in," O'Keefe said. His point: You may not have listened to Kirk, "but a lot of your relatives and friends and coworkers probably did. They'll know who he is, and you should talk to them about who he was and what he did."

A self-styled intra-MAGA peacemaker

Hadas Gold writes: Kirk was genuinely well-liked in the highly competitive conservative media sphere. I didn't often see him engage in the wars of words that sometimes erupted between pro-Trump media figures. In fact, during the Trump-Elon Musk fight, Kirk emerged as an intra-MAGA peacemaker, talking about how he knew and liked both men and was going to work to bring them together.

Read this recent profile of Kirk...

Kirk made his future ambitions clear in an interview with the Deseret News for a feature that was published just a few days ago. "He sees no tension between his Christian calling to be a peacemaker and his role as one of the country’s most recognizable culture warriors," Brigham Tomco wrote. 

"For Kirk, the true test of Turning Point is whether it can extend MAGA's mission well beyond the political career of its founder in the White House."

Here's the key quote: "We want to be an institution in this country that is as well-known and as powerful as The New York Times, Harvard and tech companies," Kirk said. “And we believe we’re creating that." It is tough to read this profile today in light of his death...

Bracing for the reverberations 

The NYT's live blog coverage noted that Kirk "was scheduled to debate a progressive influencer, Hasan Piker, at Dartmouth College on Sept. 25. On his Twitch live stream, Piker reacted to the news with horror, urging some of his followers to stop making jokes about the shooting, and he expressed fear that he could be similarly targeted. 'This is a terrifying incident,' Piker said. 'The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this violent, abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome.'"

'They killed him'

Here's a look at some of the reactions and rhetoric from prominent MAGA media personalities this evening: 

 >> "The Lord God has called his servant Charlie Kirk home. Charlie Kirk is now a martyr," Benny Johnson wrote. "I ask for real prayers for Charlie’s children and wife. May this be a Turning Point for America."

 >> "They sent a trained sniper to assassinate Charlie Kirk while he was sitting next to a table of hats that said 47. You could be next," Laura Loomer wrote. "I hate to say it, but I have a sick feeling we will be seeing more targeted assassination. The Left are terrorists."

 >> "All that Charlie ever did was have conversations with people. He didn’t insult anyone," Matt Walsh wrote. "And they still killed him."

>> "They are at war with us," Fox News host Jesse Watters declared. "And what are we going to do about it?"

 >> Over at VF, Natalie Korach wrote about how other anchors on Fox News "processed his death in real time."

Ezra: 'Political violence is always an act against us all'

NYT columnist Ezra Klein took a moment to be the voice of reason on X today, reminding everyone about just how much political violence there's been over the last few years. His list: "The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. The storming of the Capitol and pipe bombs left at the RNC and DNC. The break-in to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and the brutal on Paul Pelosi. Multiple assassination attempts against Trump. The assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Luigi Mangione's assassination of Brian Thompson. The assassination of Charlie Kirk."

"Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all," Klein wrote. "The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be so blind not to see that."

We'll leave you with a prayer that Kirk's wife, Erika, tweeted. She shared this on social media more than an hour before the shooting. It is Psalm 46:1: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Our prayers are with Erika and her family tonight.

This special edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback here. We'll be back in the morning at our usual time.