Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard.

And I'm Dasha Burns. It is Thursday, September 11th.

And this is the Playbook podcast. This morning we should be talking about the inflation figures

that are coming out. This morning, we should be talking about America's response to global

conflicts. We should be talking about Donald Trump and J.D. Vance

visiting the 9-11 memorials on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but instead, Dasher, of course.

We have to talk about political violence in America and the horror of what happened yesterday.

This is one of the most affecting stories I've had to write about.

And I think the shockwaves that are felt across

Washington by the killing of Charlie Kirk yesterday are going to rebound for a long time.

How are you doing, Dasher? And how was it down in the Central D.C. yesterday?

Bleak, I think, is the best way I can put it. bleak and heartbroken and just devastated for what this all means and what it says about our country.

You know, in terms of folks in the White House, several of them were in Butler, Pennsylvania, just over a year ago when there was an assassination attempt on President

Trump. So for a lot of those staffers, not only were they close to Charlie Kirk, but this is also

bringing up a whole lot of PTSD from another unfortunately recent act of political violence. And so I just feel like there are so many folks

reeling regardless of what side of the aisle that you're on, this is sending shockwaves across

across the country to see a major political figure be struck by a bullet.

I should say we're recording this podcast very late at night on Wednesday,

and at the time of recording, there have been no arrests made in this case,

so we still don't know who was responsible for this killing.

Everyone listening to this will know who Charlie Cook was,

the right-wing political influencer,

...