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Today in Focus

The US on the edge after Charlie Kirk’s killing

Today in Focus

The Guardian

News, Daily News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The killing of the rightwing activist and podcaster has left the US reeling. Yet President Trump and his supporters are a long way from calling for calm. Ed Pilkington reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:08.8

Today, how Charlie Kirk's killing is being weaponised in the US.

0:20.7

Today in Focus is supported by Service Now, the AI platform for business transformation.

0:28.0

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0:32.0

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0:52.5

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0:57.1

Learn how to put AI agents to work for your people at service now.co.uk. He was the face of a movement, a ferociously right-wing Christian nationalist who inspired a generation of conservative youth.

1:20.9

Charlie Kirk toured campuses, whipping up culture wars, actively caught in controversy.

1:26.3

But when he was killed last week, in a horrifying

1:29.6

public shooting, his death became something else entirely. If you thought that my husband's mission

1:36.3

was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country.

1:46.8

You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife.

1:52.8

The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry. In the hours that followed, social media litter.

2:04.9

But it wasn't just Kirk's widow and TikTok influencers.

2:08.4

It was the president himself.

2:10.9

The problem we have is on the left.

2:13.3

And when you look at the educators, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country,

2:20.5

the American flag burnings all over the place.

2:23.0

That's the left.

2:24.0

That's not the right.

...

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