The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1816 - Texts From The Charlie Kirk Assassin And His Trans Boyfriend REVEALED

00:00:00.000 Newly revealed text messages between Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin and the suspect's

00:00:04.780 trans-identifying boyfriend explain a lot about the suspect's state of mind before

00:00:09.820 and after the shooting. In fact, they explain a little bit too much. We will get to how.

00:00:16.660 Then, amid a nationwide crisis of left-wing political violence, a New York judge drops

00:00:22.340 the top two charges against alleged left-wing terrorist Luigi Mangione. Finally, Attorney

00:00:27.960 General Pambandi has conservatives scratching their heads as she promises to crack down on

00:00:32.900 so-called hate speech. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:00:36.300 Welcome back to the show. A number of you have been asking about something for the past few days,

00:01:00.620 and I was not able to give an answer previously, but now I can. You know, I was out in Phoenix

00:01:06.100 yesterday visiting our friends at TPUSA and filling in for Charlie's show. I think Charlie is going to

00:01:13.500 have friends filling in for his show for the foreseeable future because he still has this

00:01:18.400 big radio show and they have to do the show. So, the bright side of that is that Charlie had about

00:01:26.420 100 billion friends, like real friends, and so there will be people filling in for that, and

00:01:33.660 it was great honor and privilege to be able to do it yesterday. While I was out there, I was able to

00:01:40.120 get some clarity on something that a number of you have asked me about. Charlie and I were scheduled to

00:01:46.220 speak together on campus at the University of Minneapolis this coming Monday, and so when Charlie

00:01:53.100 was murdered, not my first thought, probably my 15th or 16th thought was, well, I guess the tour is

00:02:02.880 canceled. I guess all of his speaking tour and his friends joining him on the tour and including my

00:02:07.580 speech, and then I thought, well, actually, maybe it's not because I sure know Charlie would not want

00:02:13.480 to back down from anything, and I know TPUSA probably wouldn't want to back down, but anyway, I wanted to get

00:02:17.640 guidance from them first. So, I spoke yesterday with TPUSA, and they 100% want the speaking tour to

00:02:27.560 go on, and I agree with that. I think that's totally right. The left wants to silence us, and we should

00:02:34.360 not give them the satisfaction. Charlie certainly would not. TPUSA will not, and so Charlie's speaking

00:02:40.260 tour will go on, and the first event now will be the event that Charlie and I were supposed to do

00:02:47.500 together at the University of Minneapolis. That will be one day after his memorial service in Phoenix,

00:02:53.980 and if you would like to come to that, you can go to Charlie's website, AmericanComebackTour.com.

00:03:00.940 Obviously, we will have very serious security. You should reserve a ticket. You should plan to get there

00:03:06.480 quite early to get in, but Charlie's tour will go on, so that will be the first stop since his

00:03:13.620 assassination. I'm sure there will be more information to come from TPUSA on that, but

00:03:18.400 I'll see you in Minneapolis next Monday. Okay, before we get to the new information about the

00:03:23.620 assassin, I want to tell you about Birch Gold. Text Knowles to 989898. When inflation jumps, when you hear

00:03:29.920 the national debt is over $37 trillion, do you ever think maybe now would be a good time to buy some gold?

00:03:35.120 Well, whether as a hedge against inflation, peace of mind during global instability, or just for sensible

00:03:41.620 diversification, Birch Gold Group believes every American should own physical gold, and so they created

00:03:46.860 something special. Until September 30th, if you are a first-time gold buyer, Birch Gold is offering a rebate

00:03:52.760 of up to $10,000 in free metals on qualifying purchases. To claim eligibility and start the process,

00:03:58.480 request an info kit now. Just text Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S, to 989898. Plus, Birch Gold can help you roll in

00:04:04.820 existing IRA or 401k into an IRA in gold, and you are still eligible for a rebate in free metals of

00:04:11.000 up to $10,000. Join their tens of thousands of happy customers and make right now your first time

00:04:16.840 to buy gold. Take advantage of a rebate up to $10,000 when you buy by September 30th. Text my

00:04:22.340 name, Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S, to 989898. Do it by September 30th. Claim your eligibility today. Text

00:04:30.320 Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S, to 989898. The Utah County District Attorney came out yesterday. In fact, I had

00:04:39.380 just gotten to TPSA when this press conference started, and so we were all just standing around

00:04:45.620 watching it. Utah County DA read texts between the alleged shooter and the shooter's trans-identifying

00:04:55.460 boyfriend here in the DA's own words. On September 10th, 2025, the roommate received a text message

00:05:04.860 from Robinson, which said, drop what you're doing. Look under my keyboard. The roommate looked under the

00:05:12.280 keyboard and found a note that stated, quote, I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk,

00:05:19.000 and I'm going to take it. Police found a photograph of this note. The following exchange,

00:05:27.080 text exchange, then took place. After reading the note, the roommate responded, what? You're joking,

00:05:35.660 right? Robinson, I am still okay, my love, but am stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet.

00:05:43.880 Shouldn't be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest, I had hoped to

00:05:51.020 keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you. Roommate, you weren't the one who did

00:05:59.380 it, right? Robinson, I am, I am, I'm sorry. Roommate, I thought they caught the person. Robinson, no, they

00:06:09.700 grabbed some crazy old dude, then interrogated someone in similar clothing. I had planned to grab 0.98

00:06:15.940 my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. It's quiet,

00:06:24.100 almost enough to get out, but there's one vehicle lingering. Roommate, why? Robinson, why did I do

00:06:32.120 it? Roommate, yeah. Robinson, I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. If I am

00:06:40.840 able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again.

00:06:50.920 Hopefully, they have moved on. I haven't seen anything about them finding it. Roommate, how long

00:06:58.120 have you been planning this? Robinson, a bit over a week, I believe. I can get close to it, but there

00:07:05.220 is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don't want to chance it.

00:07:13.320 Robinson again, I'm wishing I had circled back and grabbed it as soon as I got to my vehicle.

00:07:19.020 I'm worried what my old man would do if I didn't bring back grandpa's rifle.

00:07:26.100 I-D-E-K, if it's had a serial number, but it wouldn't trace to me. I worry about prints. I had

00:07:33.600 to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits. Didn't have the ability or time to bring it with.

00:07:40.420 I might have to abandon it and hope they don't find prints. How the F will I explain losing it to my

00:07:48.520 old man? Only thing I left was the rifle wrapped in a towel. Remember how I was engraving bullets?

00:07:57.800 The effing messages are mostly a big meme. If I see Notice Bulge UWU on Fox News, I might have a

00:08:09.060 stroke all right. I'm going to have to leave it. That really effing sucks. Judging from today,

00:08:16.180 I'd say grandpa's gun does just fine. I-D-K. I think that was a two, a two K dollar scope.

00:08:27.380 Wink, wink. Robinson, Robinson again, delete this exchange. Again, Robinson, my dad wants photos of

00:08:38.360 the rifle. He says grandpa wants to know who has what. The feds released a photo of the rifle and it

00:08:45.580 is very unique. He's calling me, RN, not answering. Robinson, since Trump got into office, my dad has

00:08:54.800 been pretty diehard MAGA. Robinson, I'm going to turn myself in willingly. One of my neighbors here

00:09:03.720 is a deputy for the sheriff. Again, you are all I worry about, love. That came from Robinson. Roommate,

00:09:12.040 I'm much more worried about you. Robinson, don't talk to the media, please. Don't take any interviews

00:09:18.680 or make any comments. If any police ask you questions, ask for a lawyer and stay silent.

00:09:27.960 Okay, that's a lot. I wanted to play it in full from the DA. The conclusion that we are supposed to

00:09:36.360 draw from this is that the trans furry boyfriend roommate knew nothing about the alleged shooter's

00:09:45.400 plans. I don't believe that. Do you believe that? I don't believe that. We are supposed to draw this

00:09:54.260 conclusion because from this text exchange, the trans furry boyfriend roommate says that he didn't know

00:10:05.460 and he's incredulous. He says, you're joking. It couldn't have been you, but just look at the texts.

00:10:13.020 You are joking, right? I am still okay, my love. Shouldn't be long until I can come home. I'm sorry

00:10:21.160 to involve you. I wanted to keep this secret till I died of old age, followed by all of that.

00:10:27.800 You weren't the one who did it, right? It reads like fiction, but it reads like bad fiction.

00:10:34.460 Not only do I think these people are liars, I think they are bad liars. I think they're not

00:10:41.860 intelligent liars. I think they're very, very unimpressive people in most ways. I am, I am,

00:10:53.120 I'm sorry. I thought they caught the person. No, they grabbed some crazy old dude. Look,

00:10:58.320 maybe I want to leave open the possibility. Maybe this is real. These two people are obviously

00:11:04.460 nuts and engage in all sorts of deviant behaviors and desires and disgusting ideologies. So could be 1.00

00:11:14.280 they're obviously total freaks, but I don't believe it. Why? Why? Well, I thought I'd hidden all the

00:11:25.280 evidence, but now I'm just going to lay out every single thing that supposedly happened

00:11:29.380 in excruciating detail with a digital trace. A completely unerasable digital footprint that

00:11:36.520 just coincidentally totally exonerates you and puts all the blame on me. Even though there is

00:11:43.620 other digital evidence that's come out from the prosecutors that suggests that people had

00:11:48.580 foreknowledge of this. Multiple people had foreknowledge of this attack. Even though there's

00:11:53.820 other digital evidence that suggests that this guy and perhaps his trans furry boyfriend roommate

00:12:00.120 were engaged in online communities of people inclined toward left-wing LGBT terror. Even though,

00:12:07.840 even though, even though, no, no, it was just this guy and no one else knew anything about it.

00:12:12.680 I will try to grab my rifle. I don't know what my old man would do. This is bad writing.

00:12:19.620 There are a handful of people in America who might call their father their old man.

00:12:25.320 Not even I. I'm pretty right-wing. I'm pretty conservative. I'm pretty fuddy-duddy. I own a

00:12:29.000 lot of tweed and bow ties. Even I'm not going to say, Miles, I was talking to my old man today. It's

00:12:33.220 just reads like fiction. Just reads like a romantic narrative that they're trying to spin up to cover

00:12:41.660 their tracks. I don't believe that for a second. My grandpa's rifle is pretty unique. Pretty unique.

00:12:46.520 It's like the most generic hunting rifle you've ever seen in your entire life. It's pretty unique,

00:12:50.400 but it's my uncle's rifle. I think it was a $2,000 scope. Yeah, maybe, maybe not.

00:12:58.740 I'm only concerned about you. Delete this exchange. I'm so concerned that this exchange will be

00:13:06.220 discovered. I'm going to lay out every element of the crime in excruciating detail, but make sure no

00:13:11.640 one finds this. I don't buy it. I think that this was cooked up by these two to cover the tracks of

00:13:18.720 the trans, furry, gay, boyfriend, whatever. And I think there's more to the story than this. 0.59

00:13:26.100 At the very least, though, I think we have to acknowledge this. This is a text exchange between

00:13:33.320 these two people. I think we have to acknowledge all of the evidence, the overwhelming amount of

00:13:40.220 evidence points to at least this guy having committed the crime. The fingerprints and the

00:13:46.960 videos and the pictures and the alleged reported confessions and the everything says it was at least

00:13:52.800 him. So the question is not, in my mind at least, is there good evidence that this guy did it?

00:13:59.280 It seems to me he did it. The question is not, is this guy on the left or the right? Not many

00:14:05.880 conservatives have trans, furry boyfriend roommates. Not many conservatives write, catch this fascist. 0.99

00:14:15.020 Not many conservatives write weird sexual furry memes on bullets. Not many right-wingers write 0.92

00:14:24.600 ant, antifa songs from mid-century Italy. But on that point, if the trans, furry boyfriend didn't 0.98

00:14:32.840 know anything about the shooting, why would the alleged shooter bring up engraving the bullets

00:14:39.160 as something that the trans, furry boyfriend would know about? He says, you remember those engraved 0.83

00:14:44.780 bullets? Hold on, I thought the boyfriend didn't know anything about it. What did he think? You were

00:14:51.280 engraving bullets for your art project? I don't buy it for a second. I think the boyfriend knew.

00:14:57.460 I think pretty clearly a number of people knew beforehand. So good, get the guy, prosecute him

00:15:04.620 to the absolute fullest extent of the law, no question. I want to see other prosecutions.

00:15:09.680 I want to see other arrests. I want to see other prosecutions.

00:15:13.340 I at least have seen more than enough evidence to point to a conspiracy, to point to LGBT crime and 1.00

00:15:25.780 terrorism, to point to far left crime and terrorism. I want to see more arrests. Because

00:15:31.600 if with the publicly released information you can see that, I have to imagine the investigators are

00:15:37.000 seeing that too. Yeah. Throw the book at this guy. Throw the book at other people too.

00:15:43.220 Okay. There's, just when you think you have lost every ounce of respect that you had for the

00:15:51.340 establishment media, they somehow managed to degrade themselves even further. Their reaction to this

00:15:56.420 text exchange is nauseating. We'll get to that momentarily. First, I want to tell you about

00:15:59.800 Cowboy Colostrum. Go to cowboycolostrum.com slash Knowles. Bloating and gut discomfort are incredibly

00:16:05.600 common issues that millions of people deal with daily. Even when following all the standard advice,

00:16:10.680 eating slower, walking after meals, avoiding processed foods, sometimes you still feel awful.

00:16:16.720 That is where Cowboy Colostrum comes in. This liquid gold is packed with proteins, natural growth

00:16:21.100 factors, and antimicrobial peptides that enhance immune response, reduce inflammation, and repair

00:16:26.080 your gut lining. Cowboy Colostrum offers the highest quality bovine colostrum available 100% made in

00:16:32.000 America from 100% American grass-fed cows. They source from the first milking and only collect

00:16:38.880 surplus after calves get their fill. Unlike other brands, they don't over-process it, keeping it

00:16:44.040 whole and full fat for maximum nutrient density. Simply add a three-gram scoop of their delicious

00:16:49.820 chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, or strawberry flavors to your coffee or your smoothie. As an added bonus,

00:16:55.860 the natural growth factors and peptides in Cowboy Colostrum will make your hair and skin look

00:16:59.720 amazing. I really, really love this stuff, as do everyone else at The Daily Wire. For a limited time,

00:17:05.280 our listeners get up to 25% off their whole order. Go to cowboycolostrum.com slash Knowles,

00:17:09.320 Canada W-L-E-S. Use code Knowles, Canada W-L-E-S, at checkout. That's 25% off when you use code

00:17:14.320 Knowles, Canada W-L-E-S, at cowboycolostrum.com slash Knowles. After your purchase, you will be asked

00:17:20.300 where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you.

00:17:24.660 Here's how ABC News responded to the revelation of the texts between the suspect and his trans furry

00:17:33.600 boyfriend. We have seen an alleged murder with such specific text messages about the alleged

00:17:42.460 murder weapon, where it was hidden, how it was placed, what was on it. But also, it was very

00:17:47.280 touching in a way that I think many of us didn't expect. A very intimate portrait into this

00:17:51.840 relationship between the suspect's roommate and the suspect himself with him repeatedly calling his

00:17:59.200 roommate who was transitioning, calling him my love, and I want to protect you, my love.

00:18:04.000 So it was this duality of someone who the attorney said not only jeopardized the life of Charlie Kirk

00:18:09.840 and the crowd, but was doing it in front of children, which is one of the aggravating circumstances

00:18:13.940 of this case. And on the other hand, he was speaking so lovingly about his partner. So a very

00:18:19.120 interesting and, as Pierre said, riveting press conference, David.

00:18:22.360 It was, Tyler.

00:18:24.500 What? I think, I can't even do an impression of it. It's so messed up, this guy's reaction.

00:18:34.880 What did he say? He said, you know, the text exchanges, they were really very touching in a

00:18:39.860 way we wouldn't have expected, really touched my heart, really made me just go tingle. 0.95

00:18:44.060 When I read the exchanges between the terrorist and his freak, tranny, furry 1.00

00:18:51.240 sexual partner, did that make you go tingle? Maybe we got a lot of freaks in this country. 1.00

00:19:00.380 This ABC reporter, man, what on earth? That's the kind of thing you find touching and heartwarming?

00:19:08.000 Maybe we need to look into this guy's social media. If your reaction to that text exchange

00:19:16.160 is anything other than revulsion to the point of vomiting, to the point of potentially losing

00:19:23.820 your lunch, then you have something messed up in your view of eros, in your view of human

00:19:29.180 relations, in your view of love. There's something messed up with you and you need to get it fixed

00:19:33.420 because this is revolting, completely revolting. Even the thought, even the memory of my feeling

00:19:42.680 when I read that text exchange is itself nauseating. You find that delightful? Is that, that's just

00:19:49.540 a regular Romeo and Juliet story for you? Oh, it's so sweet. William and Kate, what's the matter

00:19:58.120 with you? What is the matter with you? What kind of sick freak are you that that would be your

00:20:02.380 reaction? It's very touching. And it's so unexpected. Is it unexpected? I don't know. 1.00

00:20:08.280 In like most killer horror movies of the last century, isn't the killer often a tranny? 1.00

00:20:20.460 Isn't that often? I hate to speak so bluntly. They're probably going to have to cut a lot

00:20:23.240 of this out of YouTube, but it's like Buffalo Bill and Psycho and all. It's Ed Gein.

00:20:30.020 All it. There is a strange association between the transgender identity and sexual deviance more 0.88

00:20:39.280 broadly and violence. Isn't there? The last three big violent incidents that we can recall

00:20:47.540 were all trannies shooting people. Shooting Christians. There was the, there was the tranny 1.00

00:20:55.020 in Nashville who shot up Covenant, the Presbyterian school. There was the tranny in Minneapolis. 1.00

00:21:01.360 Was it Minneapolis? I guess there's so many, it's like, you almost can't even remember it.

00:21:05.960 It shot up the Catholic school. The little kids praying at mass. And now this is one step removed,

00:21:13.100 I guess. This is the gay boyfriend of the tranny furry roommate. I don't know. It seems like there's 1.00

00:21:21.920 some kind of connection between extreme sexual deviance. Trantifa is one of these groups that's

00:21:30.520 come up in this investigation between extreme sexual deviance and violence. It's just so sweet.

00:21:38.200 You know, this, it's just so, it's so touching, isn't it? No. So unexpected. No, it's expected.

00:21:44.400 These are the people I expect to do these things. Not saying every sexual deviant is going to go

00:21:50.540 commit mass violence, but it does seem that they do so disproportionately, doesn't it?

00:21:56.480 Hollywood has long thought so. Crime reports have long thought so. So unexpected.

00:22:03.260 You know where this is going. You know, the narrative that the establishment media are setting

00:22:07.460 up. The narrative that they're setting up is that these people had, they were engaging in a love

00:22:14.400 that dare not speak its name. And because of the hate promoted by the likes of Charlie Kirk,

00:22:19.740 they had to protect their loves, their communities by murdering the guy because of the hate. What is

00:22:26.640 the hate that was referenced in the text exchanges? The hate is Charlie Kirk going to college campuses

00:22:31.860 and bringing up Matt Walsh's movie, basically. That's the hate. That's the trans hate that 1.00

00:22:37.480 they're referring to. Is Charlie Kirk showing up generously, graciously, with a great deal of

00:22:43.700 charity and saying, hey, can you define what a woman is? Oh, you can't? Well, maybe that shows that 0.99

00:22:48.420 you're a little confused about the relation of men and women, the nature of men and women. And maybe

00:22:52.760 I would encourage you to engage in healthy, normal behaviors, or at the very least to recognize

00:22:58.000 basic reality. That's the hate. That's the hate. Have you ever heard a more hateful thing from Charlie

00:23:03.500 Kirk? Can you name one thing? I don't think so. And then somehow it gets even stranger because as

00:23:10.740 referenced in those texts, there was this diversion guy. There was this old man who diverted the

00:23:15.480 attention of law enforcement immediately after the shooting, an old man who claimed to be the shooter

00:23:21.660 shooter and helped the actual shooter get away. And then it turned out that that guy was not the

00:23:28.880 shooter. And now it turns out that guy is a little bit of a sexual deviant too. We'll get to that 0.97

00:23:33.960 momentarily. First, I want to tell you about masa chips. Go to masachips.com slash Knowles. Did you

00:23:40.380 know back in the day, all fries and chips were cooked in beef tallow until the 90s when big food companies

00:23:45.840 switched to cheaper seed oils? Now those oils make up nearly 20% of what Americans eat daily. Recent

00:23:52.260 studies are linking them to metabolism issues and inflammation. Makes you wonder if we had it right

00:23:56.360 the first time. So masa decided to do something about this whole seed oil problem. They went back

00:24:01.140 to basics with just three ingredients, organic nixtamalized corn, sea salt, and 100% grass-fed beef

00:24:07.780 tallow. No seed oils at all. And they don't just avoid the bad stuff. They taste phenomenal. Way,

00:24:13.360 way better. I mean, to me, forget about the health stuff. It is really about how delicious they are

00:24:19.340 and how they are much, much better than any other chip you're going to have. Crunchier and sturdier

00:24:23.640 than regular chips. So they will not break in your salsa and guacamole. I love them. They're the best

00:24:29.820 chips I've ever had. Go to masa chips right now. They are beloved by tens of thousands of customers.

00:24:35.420 They've been endorsed by industry-leading health and nutrition experts. Are you ready to give masa a try?

00:24:39.780 They go to masachips.com slash Knowles, can-a-w-l-a-s. Use code Knowles for 25% off your

00:24:44.160 first order. Masachips.com slash Knowles, can-a-w-l-a-s. Code Knowles for 25% off your first

00:24:49.860 order. This is where things are getting really, really, it was already quite weird. And they're

00:24:55.700 getting really, really, really weird. The diversion guy. Do you remember the diversion guy? Here's a

00:25:00.320 video of the diversion guy. Immediately after the shooting, the police are trying to figure out

00:25:04.100 what's going on, who was involved. And they arrest this old man in a blue shirt.

00:25:18.820 You got cops around this guy.

00:25:23.080 They're dragging him. I said, shoot me, shoot me. He's got his pants around his ankles. 1.00

00:25:28.600 How dare you? How dare you? How dare you? How dare you? So initially, people thought this was the

00:25:37.660 shooter. I thought it was weird because he doesn't look like the kind of guy I would have expected to

00:25:40.580 be the shooter. But that's what everyone thought at first. Then it turns out, all right, we've seen

00:25:45.420 enough. Then it turns out, he's not the shooter. He admits to officers that he was just trying to

00:25:54.260 create a distraction so that the real shooter could get away. What? So then this raises another

00:26:02.060 question. Did he know that there was going to be, did he have foreknowledge? Even if he didn't,

00:26:07.940 there were plenty of Charlie's enemies who showed up to these speeches. His first reaction after seeing

00:26:12.980 Charlie Kirk murdered was to create a diversion. That's some pretty quick thinking. That's pretty

00:26:17.340 strange. And then it gets even stranger because he admits to the authorities that he was trying to

00:26:22.500 obstruct justice. So he's got that charge on him. The cops start looking through his phone.

00:26:27.120 And what do they find on his phone? You guessed it. Child sexual abuse material.

00:26:35.120 So the diversion guy is a pedo. The diversion guy was there in the first place and at the very least 0.99

00:26:43.860 thought quickly to make a diversion. To try to let the shooter get away, then the shooter is apprehended

00:26:51.920 anyway. But these texts are discovered between the shooter and the transferee boyfriend that seem to

00:26:56.960 exonerate the transferee boyfriend. And it would appear to me that the thrust from the messages is 0.68

00:27:03.200 this was the only guy involved. And once again, all of the evidence that I'm seeing tells me

00:27:09.920 not to believe that. The discord, the radical left-wing groups, the radical LGBT groups.

00:27:19.640 Maybe it's just a coincidence, but this sexual deviant who was a decoy. 0.81

00:27:25.800 Maybe not an intentional decoy, but he ended up acting as a decoy.

00:27:30.840 There is much, much more to this story than we've learned so far, as I'm sure the investigators know.

00:27:35.920 On top of this, you have left-wing terrorism in basically its purest form. Terrorism,

00:27:43.160 which is the targeting of civilians to advance political ends. You have the Charlie Kirk assassination,

00:27:50.640 which is terrorism as purely as I can see it. Then this follows the Luigi Mangione left-wing terror.

00:27:59.260 This is a guy who, for ideological reasons, murdered a healthcare CEO in New York City.

00:28:07.420 Right in midtown Manhattan, coincidentally, I was staying a few blocks away when it happened that

00:28:11.220 morning, murders him for ideological reasons. This wasn't a crime of passion. It was premeditated.

00:28:17.620 It wasn't because he had a personal grudge against this guy. It was premeditated because

00:28:22.520 he had a grudge against healthcare workers generally for political ideological reasons.

00:28:28.720 It was a clear example of left-wing violence, cheered on by many people explicitly on the left.

00:28:34.080 And a judge yesterday, amid all of this, amid the clearest left-wing terror attack we've faced

00:28:40.120 in our country's history, at least in 60 years, a judge in New York dismisses the top two charges

00:28:49.000 against Luigi Mangione, the charges relating to terrorism. Dismissed murder in the first degree

00:28:55.140 and furtherance of an act of terrorism. Dismissed murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism.

00:29:01.840 Mangione still faces a count of second-degree murder. Second-degree murder? What?

00:29:07.700 Could result in 25 years to life, though potentially with parole, so he could get off much,

00:29:13.140 much sooner. He's a young man. And there is a separate federal death penalty prosecution,

00:29:18.140 which is always hard. According to the judge, there was no evidence presented of a desire to

00:29:24.500 terrorize the public, inspire widespread fear, engage in a broader campaign of violence,

00:29:27.780 or to conspire with organized terrorist groups. Here's how the crowd reacted outside the courtroom.

00:29:33.000 So you can see for the people who are only listening right now, you see them wearing Luigi hats from Mario and Luigi.

00:29:57.320 There's a sign in the background, invading against fascists, quote-unquote, naming Seb Gorka,

00:30:04.860 who's Trump's counter-terror director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general.

00:30:10.020 So it would seem to me that the reaction of the crowd is the proof that the judge made the wrong decision.

00:30:16.680 Because Luigi Mangione's crime obviously has inspired ideological terrorism,

00:30:25.680 the targeting of civilians. You're going to see two names right there, Pam Bondi and Seb Gorka.

00:30:31.280 Civilians in the furtherance of a political agenda.

00:30:37.020 If that's not terrorism, what is?

00:30:40.140 Does anyone seriously think Luigi Mangione killed the healthcare CEO whom he had never met before,

00:30:44.880 who he didn't know from Adam, because he just didn't like the cut of his jib?

00:30:49.900 Does anyone seriously think it was a crime of passion, this obviously premeditated murder?

00:30:56.300 It was terrorism.

00:30:58.360 And the judge in New York says, no, no it wasn't.

00:31:01.620 And what this furthers is the issue that we've been talking about the past few days.

00:31:05.700 I mentioned it on Charlie's show yesterday.

00:31:07.320 The authorities will not count left-wing terrorism as terrorism.

00:31:16.120 That's how you get these numbers that that joker, Seth Moulton, the Democrat congressman,

00:31:20.420 rushed to CNN to proclaim.

00:31:23.260 He said three quarters of political extremist violence in America is from the right, not from the left.

00:31:29.680 I said, is that true? It doesn't seem true.

00:31:31.160 BLM killed dozens of people, and the transvestites keep shooting everybody, and Luigi. 1.00

00:31:37.960 And then I even thought, just in my personal experience, Antifa showed up to blow up an event 0.97

00:31:43.860 that I spoke at on transgenderism actually at the University of Pittsburgh,

00:31:47.360 and seriously injured a police officer.

00:31:50.200 There was the trans shooting here in Nashville.

00:31:52.280 And I just looked into some of these events.

00:31:54.520 I realized they didn't count them as left-wing terrorism, or left-wing extremism, or left-wing anything.

00:32:03.280 They would say, oh, no, it was actually more obstruction of justice.

00:32:05.820 Oh, it was just someone seeking fame.

00:32:07.240 So that's how you get those numbers.

00:32:08.540 They just don't count them.

00:32:09.680 And you see a repeat of that in the Luigi case.

00:32:13.560 Shameful, shameful behavior from the judge, especially at this moment.

00:32:17.580 Real problem for law enforcement, and the federal government needs to do something about it.

00:32:25.140 But speaking of law enforcement from the federal level, amid all of this conversation, amid unity on the right,

00:32:32.800 amid a recognition that the left, and not just the fringe left, but the mainstream left,

00:32:37.180 would encourage and celebrate the murder of half of this country, 0.74

00:32:40.920 The attorney general raised a lot of eyebrows by going on TV and promising to clamp down on hate speech.

00:32:53.320 There's free speech, and then there's hate speech.

00:32:56.000 And there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society.

00:33:02.660 Do you see more law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people

00:33:10.400 so we show them that some action is better than no action?

00:33:13.620 We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything.

00:33:22.440 And that's across the aisle.

00:33:24.960 I'm not exaggerating when I tell you, with the exception of Pam Bondi, apparently,

00:33:30.340 there is not one conservative in America who believes that there is a distinction between free speech and hate speech,

00:33:38.940 and that hate speech needs to be prosecuted by the federal government.

00:33:41.980 There is not one, apparently, other than the attorney general.

00:33:45.720 In fact, Charlie quite explicitly mocked and derided the notion of hate speech as some category that we need to prosecute.

00:33:55.940 This is just completely, completely tone deaf.

00:33:59.880 I don't know Pam Bondi.

00:34:00.800 I don't have anything against Pam Bondi personally.

00:34:02.980 This is crazy.

00:34:04.520 Crazy.

00:34:05.860 Crazy. 0.97

00:34:07.680 And that's from me.

00:34:09.140 I am for limits on speech, okay?

00:34:11.600 I wrote a book about how the American free speech tradition has been hijacked from the left,

00:34:18.040 and actually there are limits on speech.

00:34:19.900 But the limits on speech are not hate speech.

00:34:25.300 What is hate speech?

00:34:26.860 The proper limits on speech are the kind of speech, for instance, that undermines speech,

00:34:33.700 speech like fraud, which undermines trust in speech in the marketplace of ideas.

00:34:38.660 Things like direct threats, which actually discourage speech, which discourage healthy debate.

00:34:45.100 Things like obscenity, which appeal to the prurient interest and discourage reasonable discourse.

00:34:50.540 On and on and on.

00:34:51.720 This goes all the way back in American history.

00:34:53.420 Furthermore, the limits might be set around the axioms upon which healthy debate must rest.

00:35:05.240 Things like the natural law, I don't know.

00:35:08.140 Things like murder is wrong.

00:35:11.100 Things like what C.S. Lewis would call the Tao, what others have called the first principles of practical reason.

00:35:17.740 Basic sorts of things.

00:35:19.000 The example, I think, that comes to mind for a lot of us this week is celebrating the murder of an innocent man,

00:35:25.380 and an obviously innocent man for speaking.

00:35:27.680 Because if one is to do that, one would be dramatically reducing the likelihood of healthy discourse in the country.

00:35:33.680 You can't have a business where people go in and believe that half of the business would encourage their own murder.

00:35:42.220 However, you can't have hospitals that operate that way, schools that operate that way, restaurants that operate that way.

00:35:49.440 It just can't exist.

00:35:51.940 There necessarily are limits on speech.

00:35:55.640 There's no question about it.

00:35:57.900 It's built into our First Amendment.

00:35:59.440 The framers and the founders understood that.

00:36:02.300 But it's not hate speech.

00:36:03.420 The one thing it's not is quote-unquote hate speech.

00:36:05.740 Where is this coming from?

00:36:09.240 We will get to the rest of the attorney general's remarks in a moment.

00:36:12.020 First, my favorite comment yesterday is from Druid4438, who says,

00:36:17.700 The issue is we now know 45% of the population will cheer and celebrate if 50% of the population were murdered.

00:36:23.000 Yeah.

00:36:23.640 That's one of them.

00:36:24.740 There are many layers to the grief and mourning around Charlie.

00:36:29.200 That's a big part of it for a lot of people.

00:36:31.100 A big part of it for a lot of people is Facebook and the comments that co-workers are making at the water cooler

00:36:37.300 and the comments that teachers are making in the classroom.

00:36:40.840 The fact that we can't even agree that it's wrong to murder an innocent man for trying to talk it out. 0.78

00:36:48.100 The recognition that some of your cousins would murder you, would dance on your grave.

00:36:54.240 That is a surprise to millions of people, actually.

00:36:58.180 I agree.

00:36:58.520 Okay, so Pam Bondi makes these remarks that raise eyebrows all across the country. 0.99

00:37:05.860 And then she goes on to explain a little bit more about what she means.

00:37:10.660 That's horrific.

00:37:11.620 It's free speech, but you shouldn't be employed anywhere if you're going to say that.

00:37:15.240 And employers, you have an obligation to get rid of people.

00:37:17.680 You need to look at people who are saying horrible things.

00:37:20.180 And they shouldn't be working with you.

00:37:22.480 Businesses cannot discriminate.

00:37:23.520 If you want to go in and print posters with Charlie's pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that.

00:37:29.940 We can prosecute you for that.

00:37:31.360 I have Harmeet Dillon right now in our civil rights unit looking at that immediately that Office Depot had done that. 0.98

00:37:37.460 We're looking at that.

00:37:39.060 Okay, okay.

00:37:40.220 So the first part of what she says is right.

00:37:42.640 Businesses not only can, but really should fire people for celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk.

00:37:50.800 I totally agree with that.

00:37:51.920 100%.

00:37:52.360 That's right.

00:37:52.860 But then she goes on, she says, we're going to prosecute or you can sue Office Depot for refusing to print a flyer that, you know, they don't want to print or something.

00:38:06.160 This is a little bit murkier because we have just spent years and years defending Jack Phillips who said that he didn't want to participate in so-called gay weddings.

00:38:16.520 Or transgender transition rituals by creating custom baked goods to participate in those. 0.96

00:38:23.220 And the right has vigorously defended Jack Phillips who's finally exonerated after 12 years of harassment.

00:38:29.480 There was a distinction here because Phillips said, look, someone who identifies as a homosexual or a transgender or whatever can come into my bakery and purchase anything that they want.

00:38:41.660 And I'm not going to refuse service, and I'm not allowed to refuse service, but I wouldn't want to even if I were.

00:38:47.700 However, what they cannot do is compel me to use my artistic skill to participate in something that I find morally objectionable.

00:38:56.600 You see the distinction?

00:38:57.900 In the case of Jack Phillips, it's basically you can buy the pre-made cake, but I'm not making you a custom cake to celebrate the thing that I find immoral.

00:39:04.620 And that is immoral, in fact.

00:39:07.620 Here, it's a little less clear.

00:39:09.240 If you're just talking about printing something, you know, you go up to the printer and you print something, it's not clear to me that the federal government has the right to prosecute or that plaintiffs have the right to sue if Office Depot doesn't want to do that.

00:39:28.760 Maybe, I mean, I'm not like totally, but certainly if it were a client going to a print shop and saying,

00:39:35.900 I need you to design me some kind of poster that I want, that the design shop finds morally objectionable.

00:39:42.680 There, now you're completely undercutting the right-wing argument on religious liberty that we've had for over a decade now.

00:39:50.440 She's really confused.

00:39:51.740 She's right about employers firing people for celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk.

00:39:56.680 She's right about that, but it's just so imprecise.

00:39:59.160 This really, the whole day was really unhelpful, these sorts of comments.

00:40:03.880 And they've since walked them back and they said, no, we're not going to go after hate speech.

00:40:07.580 Okay, but it's just tone deaf.

00:40:10.860 And I don't mean to beat up on the attorney general too much.

00:40:14.200 It's a tough job, whatever.

00:40:17.080 We cannot afford to be imprecise right now.

00:40:20.500 We cannot afford to be tone deaf right now.

00:40:22.720 This is a major national trauma with very, very clear political lines, with very, very high political stakes.

00:40:34.760 And what we do now and what we do tomorrow and the tone that we set and the concrete actions that we begin to take

00:40:41.700 and the arguments that we make right now matter tremendously.

00:40:46.660 And they are going to shape our political order for decades to come.

00:40:50.120 And we can't be making these kinds of mistakes.

00:40:54.680 So we need to figure it out, get on the same page, be precise, be unified, and move forward together.

00:41:04.720 The toleration that we would have for these kinds of political fumbles, unforced errors that we might have had three weeks ago, four weeks ago,

00:41:13.420 we cannot tolerate those things anymore.

00:41:16.060 Okay?

00:41:17.060 Got to get it together.

00:41:18.020 We need consequences.

00:41:21.580 This is the thing that the attorney general said that's totally right.

00:41:24.840 There need to be consequences from employers as well as from schools.

00:41:28.720 There's a young man at Texas State who, during a vigil for Charlie Kirk, a memorial service,

00:41:35.280 decided to mock him and his assassination.

00:41:38.820 For those just listening, he not only mocks Charlie's being shot,

00:42:08.760 but he climbs up onto a statue at this vigil and mocks it, acts it out up there.

00:42:15.080 I'm very, very pleased to report that Texas State has said that he has been expelled from the school.

00:42:21.720 This from the Texas State President, Dr. Kelly Damphaus, follow-up to a message I sent earlier.

00:42:30.360 The university has identified the student in the disturbing video.

00:42:33.480 I will not tolerate behavior that mocks trivializes or promotes violence on our campuses. 0.99

00:42:38.000 It is antithetical to our Texas State values.

00:42:40.540 Very good.

00:42:41.240 The individual is no longer a student at Texas State.

00:42:44.000 Federal law prevents the university from commenting further on individual student conduct matters.

00:42:47.780 Okay, good.

00:42:48.360 I'm really glad to see this, and I'm glad to see this explanation.

00:42:51.760 This is really precise.

00:42:54.060 The president says, I will not tolerate behavior that mocks, trivializes, or promotes violence on our campuses

00:42:59.900 because universities are supposed to be places for the exchange of ideas, sure,

00:43:07.440 in pursuit of the discovery of truth.

00:43:12.460 They're places for truth.

00:43:13.720 They're not even just places for the exchange of ideas.

00:43:16.060 That's a mistake that some people make, too.

00:43:17.460 That's not primarily what the university is for.

00:43:19.460 That's not ultimately what the university is for.

00:43:21.220 The university is ultimately for the promotion of truth.

00:43:26.020 And one way that we arrive at truth in some universities is the open exchange of ideas.

00:43:32.480 However you think of it, what this student did totally undercuts that.

00:43:38.380 So he's got to go.

00:43:39.760 From a basic level, if you watch that video for three seconds, 0.85

00:43:43.160 you realize that this guy is a savage. 0.56

00:43:46.620 This guy has absolutely no business being at a university. 0.98

00:43:49.860 It is a national disgrace that a university would have admitted him.

00:43:53.260 Something tells me the warning signs were there.

00:43:56.440 Something tells me this is not exactly a Rhodes Scholar, okay?

00:43:59.840 Something tells me he wasn't valedictorian and president of the student body. 0.96

00:44:04.040 This guy is a savage. 0.98

00:44:06.300 He is a barbarian. 0.98

00:44:08.180 He can do things in life.

00:44:10.140 There are places for him in society, not polite society, not really public society, but he can do things.

00:44:16.460 There are things for him to do.

00:44:18.260 Going to college is not one of those things.

00:44:20.260 And really anyone who encouraged this kid as a senior in high school to go to a university or college is culpable in my view.

00:44:29.560 It's not for him.

00:44:32.920 Anyone who engages in this kind of behavior should be expelled.

00:44:37.220 They can go do something else in life.

00:44:40.620 Anyone who engages in this kind of behavior should be fired from, certainly from public-facing businesses, businesses involving education and service and healthcare.

00:44:52.900 Anyone who engages in this kind of behavior should be deplatformed.

00:44:59.760 There is no hypocrisy here in any way.

00:45:02.280 You'll see some people on the left, very ignorant people on the left, say, well, this is the right turning on free speech.

00:45:09.520 This is the right changing its tune on free speech. 0.60

00:45:11.420 I have not changed my tune on free speech one little bit.

00:45:14.980 And serious people on the right are not changing their tune on free speech one little bit.

00:45:19.040 Free marketplace, all marketplaces require rules, and all liberty requires order.

00:45:27.860 And all society requires responsibility and duties and consequences.

00:45:35.420 There are prominent left-wing streamers.

00:45:37.720 I talked about them yesterday.

00:45:38.540 One guy who calls himself Destiny, his name is Stephen Bunnell.

00:45:41.680 And then another guy, Hassan Piker.

00:45:43.420 These are pretty prominent left-wing streamers who have encouraged violence repeatedly against conservatives.

00:45:49.040 They should be fully deplatformed from social media.

00:45:53.780 Fully deplatformed.

00:45:55.140 Stephen Bunnell, I believe was some time ago, deplatformed from Twitch.

00:45:59.260 That's fine.

00:45:59.820 That's a good start.

00:46:00.780 He should be deplatformed from X.

00:46:03.080 He should be deplatformed from Meta.

00:46:05.300 He should be deplatformed from Instagram and Facebook, as should Hassan Piker. 0.82

00:46:09.060 They should be fully deplatformed from the public square.

00:46:12.760 They have no business being in the public square.

00:46:14.540 Their presence there undermines the public square and the exchange of ideas.

00:46:19.200 That is not authoritarian.

00:46:20.960 That is not contrary to the American tradition of free speech.

00:46:24.020 That is a defense of the free exchange of ideas.

00:46:28.680 Because their presence there undercuts all of those things.

00:46:32.240 And conservatives need to get with the program and need to pull themselves out of utopian false ideologies and get back to the reality of politics and the reality of the American tradition and the reality of what free speech has meant for the periods during which our country has flourished.

00:46:55.300 But this is an easy test.

00:46:58.220 This is not pie in the sky.

00:46:59.600 This is not dime store philosophy.

00:47:01.180 Here's an easy test.

00:47:02.520 Are you serious about defending the robust exchange of ideas?

00:47:07.540 Are you serious about political reform in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the widespread left-wing celebration of that assassination?

00:47:15.000 Are you serious?

00:47:16.140 Then deplatformed Stephen Bunnell from everything.

00:47:18.740 Deplatformed Hassan Piker from everything.

00:47:20.980 Simple as.

00:47:21.560 And big tech platforms that will not do that, it seems to me, are quite clearly not serious about it.

00:47:27.320 Okay.

00:47:28.120 We will be chatting a little more in the member room segmentum.

00:47:30.320 The rest of the show continues now.

00:47:31.520 You do not want to miss it.

00:47:32.460 See you in the member block.

00:47:33.780 See you in the member block.

The Michael Knowles Show - September 17, 2025

Ep. 1816 - Texts From The Charlie Kirk Assassin And His Trans Boyfriend REVEALED

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript