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Sept. 11, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
42:31
Tragedy in Utah - September 10th, Hour 2
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
All right, Hour 2, Sean Hannity Show.
Here's our toll-free number.
It's 800-941.
Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, we don't have any updates as it relates to the news of the day.
If you're just joining us, Charlie Kirk, who we all know very well in this program, Turning Point USA, was shot during a campus event earlier today at Utah Valley University.
AP is reporting he is in critical condition.
A man has been taken into custody.
We're updating you.
We're going to update you on that in a second.
Apparently, known to my friend and host at KNRS, our affiliate in Salt Lake City.
We've been friends for decades.
Rod Arquette, we'll get to him in a minute.
We're also following another shooting story, unfortunately.
This one out of Colorado.
Multiple arrests apparently have been made here at Evergreen High School in Colorado.
At least two students have been injured there, other victims hospitalized.
And authorities obviously are investigating that.
If we get more details on that shooting, we'll bring you up to speed as quickly as possible.
Anyway, we bring back Rod Arquette.
Rod Arquette and I go back many, many years together.
He used to be my boss when I was at the ex-wife station until we made the number one station on KNRS, 105.9 in Salt Lake.
But we've had a lot of good times together, and he knows the area so well and the people are so well.
You know, one of the things that always sticks out in my mind about Salt Lake City, you know, Rod, is I'll never forget, I felt like I was always going back in time.
Like, I felt like it was reminiscent in a good way, in every good way.
I remember, you know, being part of a parade one year with one of the Stadium of Fire events, which was, you know, one of the greatest events ever put on anywhere in the country.
And just walking down the streets, it's felt like circa 1950s USA.
But, you know, we've also had, you know, you guys, like every other city and every other area across the country, we're dealing with this crime problem.
It's in small towns and big cities.
I don't understand the mindset that has led us to defund the police, dismantle the police, no bail laws, reimagine.
It's not applicable to this event, but we can restore law and order.
I think the president proved that with Washington, D.C., but then you can't stop evil.
And it seems that apparently we have what appears to be the man that took this shot on Charlie is in custody.
We've had multiple callers call in.
A guy in a blue shirt, older gentleman.
You have looked at that video.
This is somebody we're not going to mention names.
That person that is, again, not confirmed, but is somebody that's familiar to you?
Yes, he is.
As a matter of fact, since we talked originally a few minutes ago, we have now seen video of a second person earlier being taken into custody as well.
So there may be two suspects.
The person you referred to, this gentleman who we saw initially, and we saw a video of him on the ground in handcuffs, police surrounding him, something like this.
Then a short time later, we saw a second video of police hauling a guy into the back of an SUV.
They got him by his arms and legs.
They're carrying him in this van.
He may be the suspect.
Now, since then, we have learned the university has issued a statement.
They're indicating the shot may have been fired from a nearby building about 200 yards away.
Well, let me, I can add some context to that because Newsweek is reporting at this hour that the university released a preliminary number of details following this reported shooting of Charlie.
And according to a university spokesman who spoke to Newsweek, Kirk began speaking around 1 p.m.
That would be local time in Utah, in Salt Lake City.
At approximately 1.20 p.m., a single shot fired from the top of a nearby building roughly 200 yards away from the venue, which would not be a far shot for anybody that knows how to shoot a rifle.
The university confirming that he was struck.
The suspect is now in custody.
One other thing we can update you on, and this is directly from the Associated Press, that Charlie Kirk, CEO, co-founder of Turning Point USA, is in critical condition at a Utah hospital.
As of now, well, going back maybe 10 minutes ago, after being shot at a college event, videos posted on social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with slogans, the American comeback, prove me wrong.
And a single shot, that seems to be a consistent refrain and report, rang out, and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a, I mean, the blood, you can see the video.
There was a close, there was a video close-up taken and blood gushing from the side of his neck, stunning spectators.
But anyway, continue what you were saying.
Well, and Sean, if that is the case, and the university obviously has now confirmed it, it would be unlikely that the individual we know would have been on that building.
My guess is he's one of these guys who's always in the crowd.
You see him, he usually is right up front.
So that would lead us to believe the other suspect who we do not know and who was taken in custody, that could be the individual who may have fired that shot from the college building.
So, you know, you've got two people who were taken into custody.
One we know, we think we know, the other we don't know, and that's where we stand today.
And we're hearing the same thing about Charlie Kirk.
He's stabilized, but he's still listed, of course, in critical condition.
And we can all just hope and pray that Charlie Kirk will be okay because he has done so much for this country in engaging, especially young people, in politics and talking about the issues.
We need voices like him and Homeley.
Hopefully he'll still be there.
By the way, this just breaking in, and again, this is not a rush to be first.
We're just trying to pass on information as it becomes available.
Obviously, we can't confirm, but we are using legitimate sources.
Now, the New York Times, just to be very clear, reporting the police have determined the man taken into custody was not the shooter.
I'm assuming they're talking about the guy in the blue shirt.
Yeah, the guy we know is in the blue shirt.
Now, Sean, I don't know if you've seen this, but John Solomon and Just the News is reporting that Charlie Kirk is dead.
That's coming from John Solomon with just the news.
I pray to God.
I've never wanted my friend John Solomon to be more wrong than now.
I pray to God that's not true.
Oh, my gosh.
The headline reads, Charlie Kirk dead at 31 after shooting at Utah event.
Three officials confirm.
That's what we're just seeing coming across right now, Sean.
I've been getting texts from sources that have been saying this that are credible.
John says it's true.
Linda, just talk to him.
Rod, stay right there.
Dr. Brian Tyson, our friend, is with us.
Dr. Tyson, you saw the video, and then we did have a young girl that was an eyewitness in front of that stage.
This is very hard to talk about.
And she said that, you know, well, people, they started carrying him out.
But if you look at that close-up video, if you look at the video, you can see that the blood was gushing out of his neck.
If you don't immediately stop that bleeding, I don't know how you don't bleed out.
And that was my fear from the second I saw that video.
My hope was that there might be paramedics there, skilled professionals that would be able to, you know, have triage and stop that bleeding immediately because that's what it would need, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, I look at the video.
I've done ER medicine for quite some time, you know, 13 years of it, and it does look like a severe traumatic wound to the left side of the neck, likely involving the common carotid artery and probably even the internal and external jugular veins.
There was a tremendous amount of blood coming out, which would have needed to be compressed immediately in hopes that you can at least tampon off the continued flow of blood.
Unfortunately, the carotid artery comes right off the aorta, and so it's an extremely high-pressure vessel.
And if it did hit the carotid artery, I'm afraid what you're saying is probably most likely true.
Did you see the video that I have seen?
Have you had an opportunity to see it?
Yeah, I've seen it, and I've seen a couple different angles as well.
How much time would you have if you were on the scene, and we've been friends a long time, Dr. Tyson, if you were on the scene and you were there and you could get right in there, what would you do, and would you be able to save him?
It would be, so you have to put immediate pressure.
You've got minutes, if that, with a wound that size, would I have been able to save him?
Not likely if it hit the common carotid artery.
You have to put a lot of pressure, which would then compromise his airway.
You would need to have an intubation kit.
You'd have to have basically surgeons on site.
That's a very, very traumatic gunshot wound.
Yeah, when I saw it, I just couldn't, you know, just common sense takes over, and I'm like, you can't do this.
You know, you really can't.
He's, you know, we've spent time with Charlie on multiple occasions, and I'm heartbroke.
I'm heartbroke too, Dr. Tyson.
I wish somebody like you was there that would have given him, that would give him the best shot.
Maybe there was.
I'm still hoping upon hope that there might be a chance that he's surviving.
Rod, what are people telling you there?
Rod Arquette, we'll go back to Rod.
Yeah, we're getting, yeah, I'm here.
I'm here.
Can you hear me, Sean?
I can hear you.
Thank you.
Okay, yeah.
We're getting the same information you had.
We had earlier reports that he was in critical condition and stabilized.
But as we just mentioned, John Solomon reporting that Charlie Kirk has died at the age of 31.
We haven't seen other reports come in as of yet, but you know John very well.
John's a reliable source.
And if he's getting that information, I think we can understand that what he's saying is, in fact, fact.
And what a sad, sad day, Sean.
I've never had a chance to meet Charlie, but I know you've been very close to him and have worked with him over the years.
And just a very, very sad story.
Tragic day.
When you hear from Dr. Tyson and then you look at the video and then he describes how quickly and what you would need to do to survive a shot like that, it is a very sad, tragic day.
And this man has done, this young man has done so much good in his life.
And we're praying upon all hope that maybe this report is not accurate, but it's not looking good.
That video did not look good.
We're going to take a break.
We'll come back.
We'll have more.
Rod will be back with us.
We do have people that were at the event.
They will share what they saw.
We'll have more medical updates.
And we're following the news.
Charlie Kirk shot at Utah Valley University earlier today.
Our prayers are with him and his family.
I are both friends with Charlie.
Let's talk about Charlie the man for a moment.
You might have heard me talking a little bit earlier about how supportive he is of everyone.
I'm sure of you.
I'm sure of me.
He is a family man.
He is a father.
He is a Christian, a true believer in Jesus Christ.
Tell us about the man you know, Charlie Kirk.
Charlie is a force of nature.
Some of Fox's coverage.
We do have a lot of people calling in, and Rod Arquette, who's been very gracious.
We've been friends a long time, Rod.
And, you know, normally we would be joking about Krownberger and our fun times together or the time somebody threw a book at me.
It seems, you know, it seems rather small in light of the events of today.
If you're just joining us, Charlie Kirk has been shot during an event at Utah Valley University.
It was a very bad shot.
There are reports that he's in critical condition.
Justthenews.com is reporting that he has passed.
We have not been able to independently corroborate it, so I want to be very careful.
Newsweek is reporting that the alleged shooter fired from the top of a building 200 yards away.
There is very, very graphic video online of the shooting and what is basically blood gushing out of what looks like Charlie's neck.
It looks like it hit the carotid artery, which is, you know, in my martial arts training, it is a targeted strike because of the heavy blood flow in the area.
We just had Dr. Tyson, Brian Tyson on the program, what it would take to save somebody's life if in fact it was the carotid.
We got into that.
Rod, if you can stay with us, we have Brian in Utah.
Apparently, was at the event.
Brian, what did you see?
Where were you?
Brian, are you there?
I guess Brian, we'll put Brian on hold.
It looks like he's.
No, not Rod.
I'm looking for I went to Brian in Utah.
Brian, are you there?
Brian's not there.
Taylor in Utah, are you there?
Yeah, I'm here, Sean.
So tell me what you've been hearing and what you saw.
I know this is your alma mater.
Yeah, so I graduated from UVU in 2018.
I was vice president of College Republicans at UVU, and I'm disgusted.
And part of my heart rage, obviously, Rod isn't associated with this because KNRS is fantastic.
But I'm really disgusted with the local media here.
They have painted Charlie as white supremacist, this evil person, and I put some of the blame on the local media because they painted him.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
They were saying that in the lead up to this event or saying it since he got shot?
No, there were some articles from some of the local media here saying how bad he was.
And I put some of the blame on them because that riles some of the very small minority here in Utah.
You won't hear that either.
You know, you hear this all the time.
I mean, there's this false narrative, false characterization.
I mean, the rhetoric on the left about Donald Trump and his family and conservatives, we had Eric Trump on for an extended period today and all that he has been through and his family has been through.
And I'm talking about his brothers.
I'm talking about his sister.
I'm talking about Melania.
By the way, stations along the Sean Hannity Show Radio Network, we're going to continue our live coverage.
Charlie Kirk, according to one report, in critical condition, that is our hope at this time.
Other news organizations have not followed through on justthenews.com's early reporting.
And we're just going to hope upon hope that that's not the case.
Brian in Utah, I guess, was at the university event.
Brian, you were there?
Yeah, I am here, Sean.
Thank you so much for taking my call.
It was, so just to go back to your asking a moment ago, I was actually north on the north side of the event up on the terrace, the second floor terrace.
It was so crowded by the time I got there, I couldn't get any closer to the crowd.
And so as I was there, I couldn't really hear the proceedings from that far back.
And so I decided to go down the first floor.
And there's a tent that was actually in the videos that were shown on Fox News as people were starting to scatter.
And I was right behind that tent there as the shot rang.
So there was a single shot, and there was definitely not a security presence there, hardly, except for a couple officers that I saw directly behind and above where Charlie Kirk was standing.
I didn't see the impact of the bullets, but it was just chaos.
And there were people saying, I saw him get shot in the neck.
And then everyone just started fleeing in into the buildings and then out.
And it literally took over 10 minutes.
Did you stay long enough to see?
Because, I mean, it is very graphic, the video online of the moment he got shot, and it looked like he got hit in the carotid artery, and it was like a gusher.
I mean, it was, I mean, blood was shooting out of his neck, which indicates that he was bleeding out very fast.
Did you see anybody attend to him and put pressure on that neck?
Did you see any medical attention at all going on?
What did they do?
I didn't see anything, but by the time I heard the gunshot, and I was behind that tent area, we were just scrambling, but literally, there was not the medical personnel.
There was no one there.
It took at least 10 minutes for personnel.
We could start where I was leaving and evacuating from the campus.
They were getting everyone out, and I was going across the freeway there on the little pedestrian walkway with hundreds of hundreds of students.
And you finally started hearing signs coming toward the campus, and I saw a fire truck and stuff.
So it was not an instant response either.
It took time for emergency personnel to respond and get there.
So I'm just hoping just as much as everyone else out there that hopefully he's okay, but it sounds like he may not be.
And we'll just continue to pray for him and his family.
And thank you so much for your time, Sean.
No, thank you for calling in.
We really appreciate it.
I want to thank everybody in Utah that has called in, all the people that have been at the event.
You know, sadly, in moments like this, there are people that like to call in and spoof radio shows as if that's a funny moment to do it.
A man, a father, a husband who's only 31 years old was shot severely in his carotid artery.
And we've got to get to the bottom of this.
Let me go back again to Brian Tyson.
Then we'll check in with my friend Rod Orquette with our affiliate KNRS out in Utah in Salt Lake.
Brian, let me go back again.
And that's now the second call that we've had of an eyewitness that says there was not immediate medical attention.
And based on the video that we have, let's go through this again in detail.
What would need to happen and how quickly based on the video that you saw?
So, I mean, based on the video that we saw, definitely pressure needed to be applied to the open wound immediately.
There's three main vessels in that part of the neck.
So you have the common carotid artery that runs up to the brain.
Then you have the two main internal and external jugular vessels that come down from the brain.
You know, in a hopeful world, we would hope that the bullet missed the carotid artery.
And actually, what we saw was venous bleeding from a main vessel from probably the external carotid or from the external jugular vein.
If that were the case, putting pressure on that area, even just handheld pressure, could be enough to save off any further bleeding at that point in time.
That would be the ideal scenario in an instance like this.
If it did, in fact, hit the carotid artery, I don't feel like there would be any chance of survival at that point with no medical attention on scene for 10 minutes.
And Brian, again, walk us through.
If you were there behind the tent, you saw what happened, you saw the blood gushing out the way it was, what would be the treatment that you would undertake in that moment?
I mean, the biggest treatment is you have to apply pressure.
So you would need to put pressure, stabilize the neck, get an airway in him as soon as possible, intubate make sure that there was no damage structurally to the trachea or anything else with a gunshot wound was of that nature um also worrying about maybe you know did it hit the cervical spine uh were there any spinal cord damage so you have to stabilize the c-spine um as well but you the pressure is the main
get the vessels to close, tamponade those off if you could.
But, I mean, medicine in the field, it's not like you can take a needle and tie off an artery.
So it's just compression, airway protection, C-spine stabilization, and then getting into a trauma center where the trauma surgeons can then take into the UOR and tie off those vessels, and then hopefully the collateral circulation from the other side will take care of the brain and any of the vital structures in the head at that point.
We really appreciate your expertise, Dr. Brian Tyson.
Thank you.
If you're just joining us, Charlie Kirk was shot during a Turning Point USA event.
This was in Orem, Utah.
I've been there, by the way.
It's a beautiful part of the country.
The suspect is, in fact, in custody.
I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this.
We will in the days to come.
But the commentary on the left immediately after the shooting is beyond repulsive, predictably repulsive.
And I'm sure you're going to get right into the gun debate will be next.
I'm sure by the time we come on the air tomorrow, I'll be playing things that will shock the conscience and soul of anyone that has one.
Apparently many people do not.
Rod Arquette is back with us.
He has been a long-time friend.
We've been friends for decades and have worked together for decades.
And he hosts the afternoon show on KNRS.
That's our affiliate out in Salt Lake.
And we've had a lot of fun times and great memories together.
And, you know, this, I'm sure, has shaken, you know, the entire state to its core, Rod.
It has, John.
You know, like you said, Orem and Utah Valley University is the largest state-run university.
It has grown, its growth has been unbelievable.
And Utah County is a very conservative county.
It is probably the second most conservative county next to down in the St. George area here in Utah.
And, you know, there was a huge crowd out there for Charlie today.
I want to go back to— I need to correct one thing because we were wrong.
I did see one report that said that they did get the suspect.
The suspect is not in custody.
I need to be very clear about that.
And the person that was on social media in the blue shirt who— you even yourself recognized and identified is not the person that is being a suspect in this shooting yeah that's true that's true sean i was going to mention that i want to go back too sean to a comment one of your uh callers one of our listeners made a short time ago about the media here i remember charlie and it was probably about a week ago maybe even less than that Tweeted out in some headlines in various newspapers.
And Charlie's tweet was, What's going on in Utah?
Because the headlines were calling him, you know, a white supremacist, calling him all kinds of names, controversial.
And Charlie tweeted out that, you know, you would think I could come to Utah and get a pretty warm reception, which he got today with a crowd there, but certainly with not the events that happened.
But even Charlie was kind of baffled to saying, what's going on in Utah when I see the media covering the story like this?
So I thought that was interesting, following up the call that you had just a short time ago, Sean.
Well, it kind of surprised me.
As I said, when I debated Rocky Anderson back in the day, I was surprised that Salt Lake had a Democratic mayor.
There are pockets of every state that have blue areas, and this is one of them.
I'll tell you how repulsive, Rod, and I know this won't surprise you over at MSDNC, Katie Turr reports.
Apparently, there's this guy, Matthew Dowd, a political analyst.
The Daily Caller is reporting that Dowd argued that Kirk's hate speech inevitably led to him being shot.
I mean, this is like within an hour of the shooting.
This is within an hour.
He's 31 years old.
What has he said that's so hateful?
You're conservative.
You like Donald Trump.
He's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or aimed at certain groups.
And I always go back to hateful thoughts, lead to hateful words, would lead to hateful actions.
Everything he is saying is hateful.
And I can't believe this is where the minds of some people go.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but it is so grossly repulsive that this is how some people think in this country in the middle of a shooting like this.
It's only been not that long ago, just a little over a year, President Trump was shot.
I went to breakfast the morning of the incident at Trump International with Steve Witcoff, who's now the Mideast envoy for President Trump.
We had breakfast that morning.
He was begging me to go play golf.
An hour and a half later, I get a phone call.
I think they tried to kill him again.
And it turned out in that particular case, he did hear, rightly, he did hear gunshots, but it was one sharp-eyed Secret Service agent that took out the potential assassin in that case.
But I'm getting the feeling between the rhetoric and everything in between.
It's like there's no limits, Rod, in terms of what you can and cannot say about Donald Trump or conservative, even in the mainstream media these days.
Well, Sean, as you pointed out, and you mentioned this a moment ago, anytime you challenge the Democratic or the socialistic narrative in this country, just challenge it with facts and explain your position, all of a sudden it's hate speech because you're challenging the beliefs that so many on the left have by raising questions.
And simply, Charlie sometimes asking questions, which he did a lot on these college tours.
You're immediately, it's labeled as hate speech.
I've heard Charlie speak a couple of times.
Like I said, I've never met him before.
But Charlie isn't about hate speech.
Charlie shares.
Not at all.
He's actually a very gentle soul.
Charlie shares what is in his fiber that makes Charlie Kirk who Charlie Kirk is.
That is what he's doing to people and asking them to consider it and to wake up and see what's going on.
That's not hate speech, in my opinion, Sean.
No, it's definitely not hate speech.
Stay right there, Rod Arquette.
Thank you.
By the way, thank you, Rod, for your friendship and all your time today.
We appreciate it.
Rod Arquette, you know, hosts the number one afternoon show on KNRS, our affiliate in Salt Lake City.
Alex is in Utah, was at the event with his wife.
Alex, what did you see?
Well, I'm going to try to keep my composure first and foremost, Sean.
I've been a great fan.
You're a hero to a lot of us here in Salt Lake City, definitely mine, all the way back to even beautiful Rush Limbaugh.
But we were there.
We watched Charlie come out, and he teased me, joked, started handing out hats.
And I made a reference to my wife who was right there to give her a hack because she's four foot nine right up front.
And he did so kindly.
And he is a gentle soul, like you say.
And literally, right after the first debate, I wouldn't even consider it a debate because it was one of his fans at CLDS.
They had a discussion about the church, so on and so forth.
And there was a little bit of, you know, differences there.
And Charlie even said flat out numerous times, I don't hate Mormons.
I love Mormons.
They're great people.
Nothing against them.
I don't want anybody to speculate that I'm talking any garbage about Mormons.
And it was a great opening debate.
And literally, as soon as the gentleman walked off, that's when I heard what I thought was a firecracker.
And as I look up, my wife is trying to take a selfie of Charlie right there next to her.
And that's when I seen the blood and hit him right in the neck.
And it looked like confetti, but it was his shirt.
So I tackled my wife down and just laid on top.
And it did.
It seriously took minutes to even get the ambulances there.
It was probably five, ten minutes before I heard the sirens.
But the only thing I pray, because he's a great father of two beautiful girls, that his security was right behind him and was able to, from what I've seen, grab him and pull him off stage and apply some pressure.
But other than that, I'm getting the mixed reviews too with him being gone, him still in critical condition.
So his family's definitely in our prayers.
I can tell you this, and I am texting with John Solomon and John Solomon, JoestheNews.com.
He's a very reliable reporter.
He's standing by his report confirming that Charlie has passed.
I'm praying that it's not true.
I just wrote him.
I said, I pray to God you're wrong.
And all of us now are living through really tumultuous times here.
You know, maybe we get used to it.
Our conversation with Eric Trump, and he's writing about everything that he and his family have been through.
I mean, when you have one family, one man, one organization, you have DAs, you have attorney generals run on a platform to destroy those people.
You know, when did we have attorneys general run on a platform to get one family, one man, one organization?
But that's what they have done.
And the left has accepted this.
At no point would the left ever even speak up and say, no, Mar-a-Lago is not worth $18 million.
That's ridiculous.
You know, a minor perusal of real estate in Palm Beach, Florida would show you that, yeah, that's an insanely undervalued property.
It's worth well over a billion, but they didn't care.
And that tells you a lot about how crazy the left has become.
For them, for people on MSDNC is being reported to immediately start blaming the victim here, suggesting, you know, Charlie Kirk's rhetoric made him a natural target for violence and concluding his remarks is hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which lead to hateful actions, somehow kind of justifying it.
And then you kind of put it all together with all the conversations we've been having about law and order and safety and security and why there's this callousness, you know, on the left and why they cling to defund, dismantle, no bail laws and reimagine the police.
And, you know, we are living through very tumultuous signs.
And if, you know, what did Brian Humpty-Dumpty Stelter suggest?
You know, we were talking about the case of this young woman that was killed on this train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Oh, it's baldly racist.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
You have a young woman, a Ukrainian refugee.
Irina is, you know, just gets on a train, sits down, looks at her phone, and is brutally murdered.
And what we're supposed to just accept that and not talk about it like the rest of the media.
We're living in very dark, dangerous times.
You know, I've not spent.
I'm sorry, what are you saying in my ear?
I texted you Trump's statement, President Trump's statement.
Uh-oh.
i don't know if i want to read this um um i'm looking at it Okay.
John Solomon was right from President Trump.
The great, even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead.
No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the U.S. better than Charlie.
He was loved and admired by all, especially me.
And now he's no longer with us.
Melania, and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and his family.
Charlie, we love you.
I never thought John Solomon was wrong.
I was hoping upon hope, Rod Arquette.
Yeah, you're right, John.
I'm just seeing it as well, posting up on Fox News a statement from the president saying Charlie Kirk is dead.
I think we're all in a state of shock, Sean, right now.
I mean, this young man, he's 31, married two beautiful little girls, out doing what he loved to do, talking to the American people, answering their questions, sharing his views on what he believes, what America is really all about and what we should be striving for.
Put together an unbelievable organization, Turning Point USA, the conventions.
My guess is, Sean, you've been there.
I never have been, but you've been down to one of them and I've spoken to them.
You know, I'm seeing a picture right now of him and his wife and one of their girls at a baseball game, beautiful smiles.
And I just saw that come across, too, and we're all in shock.
And you're right, John.
John Solomon had this right.
John is a he knows what he's doing.
And as he shared this information, it took us a while to process and to get the word out, but the word is out now that he is dead after the shooting.
31 years old.
31 years old.
Yeah, my question now, Sean, is the search for the suspect, because the university has indicated they do not have a suspect in custody right now.
So what is that process like?
We have a lot of connections down in Utah County with the Sheriff's Department.
We're going to try and follow up on that, see what's going on with that.
But truly a very sad day here in Utah, and I think around the country for just a brilliant young man.
It was life all ahead of him.
I mean, Fox is showing the most beautiful pictures of his wife and his children, two beautiful children that will not know this young man that was full of life.
I've had some of the best conversations with him.
And I don't know why, I mean, But he always was so respectful to me in as much as, you know, you've been doing this a long time.
I need to pick your brain.
I want to talk to you about this.
And I'm not going to get into the personal conversations we had.
But he just really loved people that had been in the movement a long time, cared about it, wanted to get everything right.
That was really one of the larger discussions that we had ongoing.
And, you know, and how did you, how have you survived this long?
He would ask me.
Questions like that, Rod.
I didn't hear what you said in my ear, Linda.
You have to say it.
I can tell you how you.
You're tenacious, man.
You are a bulldog.
You won't give up.
You'll stay in there fighting just like Charlie Kirk was doing each and every day.
I mean, you have to just keep on going.
You have to stand up for what you believe in.
And times are tough.
You've been through them.
I've been through them.
Certainly Charlie today and what has happened to him.
You just have to stand up and fight for what you believe in.
And I wish more people in this country would do it, Sean.
I think sometimes we're a little too easy, and we need to stand up and say enough is enough in this country.
Rod Arcut, you've been a dear friend.
I know you have your show, and you've been so gracious with all your time today.
We really appreciate it.
We are taking calls for people that were at the event today.
We can confirm Charlie Kirk dead at the age of 31.
He has a wife and two young children that survive him.
our prayers are with all of them and
from just putting on truth social the great even legendary charlie kirk is dead No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the U.S. of the United States of America better than Charlie.
He was loved, admired by all, especially me.
And now he's no longer with us.
Melania, and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and his family.
Charlie, we love you.
We do not have a shooter, a suspect.
I don't even know if you can get it online anymore, but the initial video that came out that was up close, it was there was somebody very close to me that is involved in medicine that called and said, you cannot survive that.
And I looked at it and I just wanted, I didn't want to believe it.
This was a young, 31-year-old, young man, had his entire life ahead of him.
The conversations we've had, he was so hardworking, so smart, really believed in everything that he said and fought hard for his beliefs.
You know, young family, wife, two young children that will never know their hero father.
Somebody that was willing to put himself at risk at all times and go into hostile environments for conservatives, which I'll be honest.
I'm like, one time I joked with him.
I said, why?
These people are crazy.
He goes, that's why I go.
Godspeed Charlie Kirk.
Our prayers, love, thoughts with him, his wife, his family.
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