Shot at university
“Political assassination”: influential Trump supporter dead
The right-wing conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk speaks at a US university outdoors. Then a shot falls. The US President later announced Kirk’s death.
The influential Trump supporter and podcaster Charlie Kirk speaks on a university campus when he is shot. He is a guest speaker at Utah Valley University and sits under a shade tent on Wednesday afternoon (local time). A shot can be heard on videos on social media, listeners throw themselves on the floor, scream, run away. A little later, US President Donald Trump announced on his platform Truth Social Kirk’s death.
Legal conservative with the millions of audience
The 31-year-old is not just any Trump supporter. Millions follow him on social media. It is one of the well -known right -wing conservative votes in the United States. He supported Trump in the election campaign.
Some things are still unclear hours after the incident on the university site in the western US state of Utah. A shot was fired at noon (local time), the university wrote to X. The site is blocked.
One person is initially arrested, but released again after a survey, as FBI boss Kash Patel reports on X. The determinations continue, according to a press conference of investigators and representatives of the state of Utah. You will find the shooter.
Authority representative of Utah assume a targeted act. A shot was given to a victim. The Republican governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, describes the fatal shot on Kirk as a “political assassination attempt”.
At the press conference, the suspicion also expresses that the shooter is said to have been on a roof. On videos on social media you can hear that Kirk is asked questions about gun violence in the USA, shortly before he is hit by the shot himself.
Trump: “Charlie, we love you!”
Kirk is one important group of influential right -wing conservative activists in the USA. Many expressions of mourning and condolences from the Trump government ministers show how much the conservative camp is behind him.
Trump writes that Kirk was great and legendary. “Nobody understood the youth in the United States better or had a better feeling for them than Charlie.” He was loved and admired by “everyone”, including himself, adds Trump. “Charlie, we love you!” Foreign Minister Marco Rubio speaks of a murder.
But not only Republicans speak up. On the X-account of Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, can be read shortly after the death message: “There is no place in our country for this form of violence. It has to end now.” He and his wife Jill pray for the Kirks family. The podcaster was the father of two children and married.
Kirk is also recognized abroad after his death: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described him on X as “friend of Israel” and “unbelievable people” that were lost.
Trump places the fact that the US flag on the White House and other buildings, including the messages worldwide, are set to half-mast as a declaration of mourning. The act occurs at a time when America is deeply divided.
Trump makes political violence on the subject
“It is long overdue that all Americans and the media face the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of those with whom you do not agree with (…),” says the US President in a video that he publishes on social media.
Immediately after this speech to “all Americans”, he passes to a criticism of “radical left”, which compared his representation according to Americans like Kirk with “Nazis and the worst mass murderers and criminals in the world”. “This type of rhetoric is directly responsible for terrorism that we experience in our country today, and it has to stop immediately.” His government will find everyone who has contributed to this atrocity and other political violence.
In his list of political violence in the United States, Trump also mentions the attack in the state of Pennsylvania last summer, which he survived. He does not mention political violence against democratic politicians, such as the deadly shots on a democratic MP and her husband in the state of Minnesota this summer. About Kirk’s death he says: “This is a dark moment for America.”
Activist with youth organization
Kirk founded the youth activist organization Turning Point USA, which is aimed at students. He wanted to appear at many other universities in the next few weeks – under the motto “American Comback”. On the campus in the Utah, Kirk Mützen, with the inscription of the Trump movement “Make America Great Again”. You also saw hats with the inscription “47” – what stands for the 47th President of the United States: Trump.
dpa
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
