The unprecedented reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

In the days since the public killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the country has seen an unprecedented level of eulogizing from Washington. Vice President JD Vance escorted Kirk’s body back to Arizona in Air Force Two and is set to host Kirk's podcast Monday afternoon. A number of senior Trump officials spoke at a memorial for Kirk at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night. But how will Kirk’s killing influence the next stage of policymaking from the administration? Playbook’s Jack Blanchard and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns walk through what may come next.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today on the Playbook podcast, we've got all the latest on the aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk.
0:11.1	We've got Ukraine in the headlines again as President Trump prepares to fly to Europe.
0:15.7	And we've got the Trump administration in a race against time to oust Lisa Cook from the Fed board.
0:22.6	Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard.
0:24.6	And I'm Dasha Burns. It is Monday, September 15th.
0:27.8	And this is the Playbook podcast. Good morning.
0:30.5	Good morning.
0:31.1	Let's get right into this.
0:32.4	Let's do it.
0:32.9	The Charlie Kirk story, of course, is dominating everyone's thoughts and all of the new sites this
0:38.1	morning in DC, and I'm sure we'll continue to do so through the week. There's been so much
0:43.0	talked about this and written about this over the weekend, and rightly so, Dasher. The thing I
0:47.1	wanted to talk to you about this morning, firstly, was just to take a step back and think about
0:51.9	how extraordinary the administration's reaction
0:55.3	has been to this moment.
0:56.7	Unprecedented.
0:57.7	I mean, we use that word a lot, but truly, I don't remember a time in history that
1:01.6	I've learned about when a private citizen was given this amount and this level of attention
1:08.0	and eulogy from the administration.
1:10.0	Right. And that's a fascinating fact to see that Charlie Kirk essentially a political activist,
1:14.6	but obviously not directly a member of the administration.
1:17.3	If you just go through what's happened since the appalling killing last Wednesday,
	...

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