What the killing of Charlie Kirk says about America

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

Arizona was central to conservative influencer and strategist Charlie Kirk's political vision. Soon after Kirk was killed on Wednesday, Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd stopped by a church that had been an important base for Kirk's activism. He spoke with supporter Scott Lovett. And, we look at how Kirk gained a massive following. Brigham Tomco, a staff writer at Desert News who covers Utah politics and the conservative movement, joins us. Then, NPR's Ron Elving and historian Jon Meacham talk about the moment we find ourselves in, 24 years after the 9/11 terror attacks, and as we try to make sense of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com.
0:17.6	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:22.6	People love Charlie.
0:24.5	He was such a good, compassionate, loved God more than anything person.
0:30.0	Conservatives mourn Charlie Kirk, assassinated at 31.
0:34.3	Music at 31.
0:45.0	It's Thursday,
0:49.5	and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBOR.
0:50.6	I'm Chris Bentley.
1:01.6	Charlie Kirk, the prominent conservative activist and MAGA influencer who became a close ally of President Trump and helped reshape the Republican Party was shot and killed Wednesday at Utah Valley University
1:08.1	in front of a crowd of thousands.
1:11.5	Utah's public safety commissioner said they're searching for a college-aged suspect,
1:16.8	and the FBI released pictures of what they're calling a person of interest.
1:22.2	Robert Bowles of the FBI's Salt Lake City Field Office said this morning that authorities
1:27.0	had also recovered a weapon.
1:29.1	It's a high-powered bolt-action rifle. That rifle was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled.
1:38.1	Kirk's Group Turning Point USA is headquartered in Arizona. And our own Peter O'Dowd lives not far from the church in Phoenix
1:46.8	that's been an important base for Kirk's activism over the years. He stopped by shortly after
1:52.7	the shooting yesterday, and here's what he found. Scott Lovett prayed with his arms raised
1:58.7	beneath the billowing American flag at the Dream City Church in North Central Phoenix yesterday afternoon.
2:04.6	It was barely an hour after the news broke that Kirk had died, and already the flag had been lowered to half staff.
	...

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