Today on the Playbook podcast, the latest fallout from the killing of Charlie Kirk,

and what this means about the present moment in U.S. politics.

Hello, I'm Adam Wren.

And I'm Megan Messerly. It's Friday, September 12th.

And this is the Playbook podcast. Let's get right to what's driving the day.

Megan, we are still experiencing the shockwaves from Charlie Kirk's death.

What we know when we're recording, as of late Thursday Thursday night is that essentially the public safety officials in Utah and the FBI have what they are saying is, quote, no idea about who did this.

We are still monitoring this.

We know that President Donald Trump awarded posthumously the Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk.

We know that the FBI has received the most digital tips since the Boston Marathon bombing.

We're seeing that many lawmakers, including AOC, are canceling their campaign events.

We're seeing threats to historically black colleges and universities. And we're hearing Megan, President Donald Trump himself,

saying, quote, we have to beat the hell, end quote, out of quote, radical left lunatics,

end quote, after Charlie Kirk's killing.

Megan, what do you make of all of this? You're out this morning with some fresh reporting

about how Charlie Kirk influenced a number of White House officials. What do you make of this

moment? One of the MAGA movement's own stars, own leaders, has been killed.

But the Trump administration is really struggling to find the person who did this.

They really are. And I think that really just makes the grieving process so much harder for

those who knew Charlie Kirk well.

I spent the whole day yesterday pretty much talking to folks in the White House,

folks outside the White House, all the way from people who knew Charlie very well and were close friends to people who didn't know him personally or had only met him in passing,

...