WDYM What Do You Mean?
WDYM What Do You Mean?
When Politics Turns Deadly: The Charlie Kirk Assassination
The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk has ripped open America's deepest wounds, exposing the raw nerve endings of our political divisions and raising urgent questions about violence, responsibility, and our shared future. What happens when political rhetoric crosses from passionate debate into dangerous territory? And why do we respond to tragedy by pointing fingers instead of finding common ground?
This episode dives unflinchingly into the aftermath of Kirk's killing, examining the immediate political blame game that erupted before the shooter was even identified. Politicians like Nancy Mace instantly condemned Democrats collectively while refusing to acknowledge similar violence against Democratic figures. Meanwhile, the Utah governor's troubling comment hoping the shooter "wouldn't be one of us" revealed how deeply partisan thinking has infected our response to human tragedy.
While condemning the violence in the strongest possible terms, we also explore the uncomfortable reality that public figures bear responsibility for their words. Kirk's controversial statements about civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr., and other sensitive topics didn't justify violence against him, but they remind us that inflammatory rhetoric carries consequences in an already divided society. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction – a principle that applies not just to physics but to our social dynamics as well.
America's gun violence epidemic forms the backdrop of this tragedy, raising questions about why school shootings receive mere "thoughts and prayers" while political assassinations spark talk of civil war. The ease with which Americans access deadly weapons remains a significant factor in political violence, yet meaningful discussions about solutions consistently fall victim to partisan entrenchment.
As we witness Erica Kirk's raw grief transform into militant language about continuing her husband's mission, we're left wondering: Can America ever move from the divisive language of "they" to the unifying concept of "we"? This episode challenges listeners to recognize our shared humanity and acknowledge that political violence damages the very foundation of democratic governance, regardless of who the victim might be.
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Welcome to the WDYM, the what Do you Mean? Podcast. I'm your host, michael Gillespie, and there will be no intro today. I want to take this a little serious because this past week we had assassination of Charlie Kirk and to see that is just wild to me, that we can't express ourselves in 2025 and not get shot Period. It's sad. First and foremost, it is sad. It is sad that this happened to somebody who was just speaking his mind right. That should not have happened. Um, he leaves behind a wife, two kids, two small kids, and you know it's just a very tragic event in america and I hope you know that his wife and his family and his friends and his colleagues all find some peace from this and that you know that something comes of it.
Speaker 1:This episode we will be talking about Charlie Kirk, the assassination and the things that come with this. I see a divide, of course. I see a divide between people when it comes to this man, because the way Charlie Kirk was, he was, let's see. Let me find the actual text Christian nationalism and pro-Trump, which is kind of convoluted and confusing at the same time, but nevertheless, um, he was assassinated september 10th of 2025 in utah and again, first and foremost, we shouldn't be doing that. You know we should be doing that in 2025 because we should be evolving and getting better, but yet we're still doing silly stuff and everything and when you and it shouldn't be. It really, really shouldn't be at this juncture you know, we shouldn't be killing each other for things we've said.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to talk about that for a little bit. I'm going to talk about some things surrounding that. As far as people, their reactions, uh, from government to internet, to local people and everything, and and just discuss that. So that's what we're going to do today. I want to say this nobody deserves to be shot, period.
Speaker 1:I've always had an issue with guns, and to do that who's someone who is not in the military is bothersome, because we always talk about how good it is to be an American and how prideful and proud we are as Americans. But let's be honest, man, let's be honest. We have a gun problem here. We've always had a gun problem and it's just escalated to, uh, the nth degree with Charlie Kirk. Well, my question is my question is why are we never outraged like this when it comes to a school shooting? You know, we always say you know, thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers to everybody that happens at a school shooting. When school shootings happen, that's what, that's the best we get. We don't talk about reform or gun control or anything like that. It's always.
Speaker 1:You're trying to take our second amendment away from us. When is it? When is enough is enough. Again, I'm not trying to make this about me or anything like that, not today. I'm just letting you know that, hey, when I was in the military, I had guns on me when I went deployed in Afghanistan and everything, and I hated the idea of shooting my gun and and hurting somebody, let alone killing somebody. Who am I to play God right? I never liked that idea. I never liked the idea of me killing somebody despite me signing up for the military. How weird is that. Those two don't go together. But the thing is, is that where do we draw the line at? I'm going to draw a quick timeline of what happened and the reaction of people, especially from our government, and people in our government and what's going on, what's going on in the future.
Speaker 1:So he got shot on a wednesday and I think the guy was captured. He was captured on friday early morning on friday come to find out this guy was named tyler robinson. Again, all the information has not came out as far as you know who he is and everything like that. But before any of that came out, the discussion was it was a Democrat's fault or it was this Tyler Robinson guy? We're pointing fingers at a whole group of people let's just say 50% of America or 49 or whatever percentage was, when we had our election.
Speaker 1:We had our election and immediately politicians and people who follow the Republican Party and everything and who are on the right, whatever you want to call it Are immediately pointing fingers at the other side, saying this is your fault and we love Charlie Kirk so much, and we are ready to go to war, for they said civil war. And I'm confused about that. I'm confused about that because how do we declare who is what? You know? How are we going to go over with our neighbor on an assumption, right? You? You don't know what I vote for, you don't know what your neighbor votes for, and we've never really, you know, discussed that or been open about our political views. I mean, you could tell if you talk to people and everything people are talking about civil war or ready to start killing people. For what for a man like Charlie Kirk now, charlie Kirk, he was, that guy was.
Speaker 1:It's hard to express what Charlie Kirk was without being too nasty about it. I believe what his intentions were good until he went too far. He's, he's, he's. He said some crazy things in the past and I'm going to play some of the things that he said, but we got to hold somebody accountable other than the shooter as it as it's, weird as that may sound. Yes, tyler robinson is responsible for this. He should face the extent of the law for what he's done. But what about our politicians? What about the people that are supposed to represent the people? Yes, people are angry and fed up and upset, and rightfully so, rightfully so. I'm upset that someone died for discussing their beliefs and everything. That's one of the things that we love about America is that we can say what we want.
Speaker 1:There is consequences to our actions, though. That's the thing that I want to be crystal clear on. There is consequences to all our actions. Every reaction is an equal and opposite reaction, yin and yang. That's what it is. And when somebody goes way too deep and attacking people and saying the things that he said, there's going to be a reaction to it and that's the sad part.
Speaker 1:I learned my lesson about a year ago roughly a year and a half ago when I said something about somebody and it costed me my job. I learned that lesson that when I say something, I have there's a responsibility to what I say. That's why I try to keep things light, funny and, just in general, just chill. You know what I'm saying. I don't want to go overboard with the things I say because there's a responsibility to what I say. Doesn't matter how big I get, doesn't matter how small I am, there's a responsibility to your actions. In my opinion, mr Kirk failed In that. But first let's play A clip that a politician Was going on about. This one is from Nancy Mace. Nancy Mace is a representative Of the house, representatives from South Carolina News. Upon Charlie's assassination she goes on a tangent, she goes off and immediately started blaming Democrats. Listen to this.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say this Democrats, own what happened today. I am devastated. My kids have called panicking. They probably all the kids of every conservative in the country call panicking. Just because you speak your mind on an issue doesn't mean you get shot.
Speaker 1:So she's 100% right about that. If you speak your mind, you should not be worried about a bullet Period, right? But when something happened to a Democrat when Melissa Hortman, when something happened to a Democrat when Melissa Hortman, when something happened to her, when she was killed, nobody said anything about that. She was also a member of the House of Representatives and and she was shot, her whole family was shot, even the dog. So it's like why wasn't you know why?
Speaker 2:wasn't this brought up?
Speaker 1:This was happened on June 14th. Melissa Hortman, husband Mark Hortman, were killed in Minnesota. The shooter was impersonating a police officer when he decided to go crazy. So there's a problem. There's a problem where we're pointing fingers and we're asking people who are in the government, who are in control, to make changes. I'm I am highly confident. Most of america wants some some sort of better gun control period and it's not happening. And let's not.
Speaker 1:Let's not talk about the school shootings that happen. That happens all the time and you know, when I hear about these school shootings and everything, it's the most terrible. It's terrible that we're having this conversation in america. Right when I went to school long, long, long, long, long time ago, there was no worry of someone coming up in there wanting to shoot you. You know what I mean. We had, you know, I'll meet you at the flag pole three o'clock after school so we can fight. You would have that, but no, but you going home, you're gonna get your. You know you might get whooped or you might do the whooping, but you're not gonna die. So they're they're, you know, saying hey, the Democrats do this, the Democrats do that, and that's just not the way. That's not the expectation we have of our leaders to be pointing the fingers and all that stuff. But the reporters who were there, one of them was like, hey, if you're saying the Democrats own this, then what about Ms Hortman, the other side on that, and listen to how she words it.
Speaker 3:Do Republicans own the shooting of the two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota?
Speaker 5:Isn't this on both sides, are you kidding?
Speaker 3:me, no, I'm asking you a serious question. We don't know what condition Charlie Kirk is in right now. Some raging leftist lunatic put a bullet through his neck. And you want to talk about Republicans right now?
Speaker 5:No, no, I'm asking you. No, not at all. You said the.
Speaker 2:Democrats have the right to no. This is on.
Speaker 4:The.
Speaker 3:Democrats own this. Democrats own this.
Speaker 4:But is there a problem with political violence across the spectrum?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're talking about Charlie Kirk right now. That's the subject of this that we're talking about right now. Democrats own this 100%.
Speaker 1:So how crazy is that she refuses to acknowledge what happened to the Hortmans but quickly wants to blame the Democrats, and it's like that's part of the problem in my book. We can't be doing that In 2025, we can't be doing that and you know, know, pointing of the finger and everything is that. You know, we've lowered our standards when it came to the election. Now you know my opinion. My opinion is that we don't elect somebody that's a felon, because if he's a felon as president, but felons can't vote, make that make sense to me. I don, it doesn't make sense to me, but we're beyond that and we have to move on. We have to move on. We don't have a choice but to move on. So that's what happened. That's one of the things that happened. The reaction, the reaction of people online, is no better, is not better. When you hear this, they, this, they who is they?
Speaker 1:Another clip from the Daily Show.
Speaker 4:By the way, who's they? No one knows who the shooter is or what his motivation was, and even if it was political, he doesn't represent half the country. But some of these MAGA guys are acting like this is a liberal declaration of war.
Speaker 2:If they can do this, they are capable of anything. I think that was the message. I believe that was the message. It's really hard to radicalize Republicans. Yeah, you know it's like we're not the radical type.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry. First off, it's not that hard to radicalize Republicans. You guys almost burned down the country because Cracker Barrel changed its font. And also, once again, who is they? Does anyone want to specify who they is? Or are we just going to keep talking about all that they do?
Speaker 7:They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. They are at war with us. Trump gets hit in the ear, charlie gets shot dead. They came after Kavanaugh with a rifle to his neighborhood.
Speaker 4:Look, I'm sure people in the media would love to talk about how they are responsible for what they've done and how they had better watch out or else they'll get what's coming to them. But I think it would be better if we as a country understood that we have a problem with political violence and we need to start thinking less in terms of what they should do and more in terms of what we have to do. That the last time it felt like we thought in terms of we was on 9-11, when we all came together as a nation and we did. We did, even if it was just for one day. You know, sure we turned pretty quickly to scapegoating Muslims and blogging about how Bush did it, but on that one day we were united as a country.
Speaker 4:And I don't know what you do to get back to that. Obviously not another 9-11. I want to be very clear about that. But what about I don't know an alien invasion? You know, maybe if UFOs suddenly appeared over every important US city and also Los Angeles, that's the thing that would jolt us off our phones and bring us back together, or the aliens take over and enslave us all. But at this point that might be worth a try.
Speaker 1:So very good points brought up by the Daily Show is that when is they turn back to we or us and everything, but we have problems. The thing is that before, before we found out it was Tyler Robinson, we got you know the liberal, this Democrat that, and then the own freaking governor of Utah went in on it again, said the quiet part out loud.
Speaker 5:I was praying that that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn't be one of us, that somebody drove from another state.
Speaker 1:Somebody came from another country. Sadly that that that prayer was not answered the way I hoped for what did he say? Exactly like. Why would you even say something like that period it? It boggles the mind why they're saying the quiet part out loud, Like what was his prayer like? And you know, you know the WDYL. Today is a serious day. Today is a serious episode. But when I see something like this online, you know it cracks me up, because why would that be your reaction as a governor?
Speaker 2:Please, heavenly Father, let it be Latino, or maybe a black person, possibly from Atlanta. Heavenly Father, it could be anybody Venezuela, dominican. Dear Lord, we'll take anything.
Speaker 4:He's white, from Utah.
Speaker 1:His parents, Exactly the point. Tyler Robinson was from Utahah, caucasian male. You know, everything is not out yet as far as what was his motivation for it, at least as far as I know. I mean, I'm not going to dig too deep because it'd probably get more and more depressing as I fall down that rabbit hole. But we have, we have to, we have to be accountable for everything we say, our actions and everything, including mr kirk. Right, he would speak about any and everything and some of the things that he said would rile people up and again. You could say what you want, but there's an ebb and flow to everything. Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. You are responsible for what you say and do.
Speaker 1:OK there's no mistaking it If you drive a car and you hit somebody, you are responsible. If you try to drink six, seven, eight, nine beers and get behind the wheel, you are responsible. Why are we not holding people responsible with the words they say? Here's some of the things that Charlie Kirk has said.
Speaker 5:This were a truth sinking show, but I can say declaratively this guy is not worthy of a national holiday, he is not worthy of Godlike status, in fact, I think that is, in reference to martin luther king it's real. Kirk describes king as quote a bad guy. It's true, and kirk self-described very, very radical view that the country made a mistake when it passed the civil rights act. Also true.
Speaker 6:Once a week we talk about why the civil rights act was a mistake so if you had a daughter and she was 10 and she got raped and she was going to give birth and she would know wait oh, and she was going to give birth and she was going to live. Would you want her to go through that and carry her baby?
Speaker 5:That's awfully graphic.
Speaker 6:It's no, but it's a real life scenario that happens to many people.
Speaker 5:The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.
Speaker 6:We're trying to get the officer who murdered George Floyd pardon.
Speaker 5:And I just want to know what your reasoning was about that. Well, george Floyd didn't die because of the police officer.
Speaker 1:He died largely because of a drug overdose, but he had a so there is so much things out there that Charlie Kirk has said that is irresponsible, but all that he didn't deserve. He didn't deserve to die for that. And you see the reaction of our politicians, the people online, even the people that I know in my life that are saying this isn't about race or anything like that. Nobody brought up race, as far as I know. But I've seen people compare this to George Floyd and how people are reacting to Charlie Kirk's assassination, to George Floyd dying.
Speaker 1:Now let me remind you that George Floyd died with the police officer's knee on his neck and they always say, yeah, like he said, it's defending all the drugs or whatever, with that Applying pressure to a person's neck for a good 10, you know, I think it was seven to 10 minutes or something like that. And when he is saying he can't breathe or anything and he's, he's calling for his mama. Let's not forget that. And this man was supposed to be an officer of the law. The man was already detained and everything. So when people react, when people posting that online and seeing the rioting compared to the prayers that mr kirk got to me is not a comparison at all in my opinion. Let's just remember what happened those days and see how this person is. Charlie kirk had issues and, like I said before, he has to be responsible for what he said, period.
Speaker 1:We are responsible for our actions and everything. And again, I don't think he. I will say that till the till. I'm blue in the face. He didn't deserve to die, but we all have to be responsible for our actions.
Speaker 2:If you're going to be in anything in life, in any aspect of life, you have to be responsible for our actions.
Speaker 1:If you're going to be in anything in life, in any aspect of life, you have to be responsible for what you say and everything. Okay, say and do and everything. The last thing I want to touch on is his wife. Her name is Erica Kirk and you know she's probably going through a whirlwind of emotions right now, and rightfully so. I could not imagine how she's feeling and what is going through her mind and her kids, and how she's going to pick up the pieces and everything. The only thing that is bringing comfort to me is that her, their kids, are young enough, and I hate to say that their kids are young enough. So if you know, she does move on or whatever, or not, that they might forget, and I don't want to say it like that and I don't want to say it like that, but we have to move on with life and I don't, I don't, I don't want to say it like that, but we have to move on with life and I don't want to be in her shoes, period. I will pray for her family, hope for the best for them, but things are so weird with her.
Speaker 1:They returned to I think he lives in Arizona, if I'm not correct, like. This was just a couple days ago, ladies and gentlemen, and she has video of her kissing his hand in the casket and everything. Now, you know, we all grieve our own way and everything, and you know, maybe this is how she grieves, but you know, normally, normal people do that behind closed doors and not have that on social media and everything. It's just. It's just all around. Just a tragic event, sad event and condolences to to everybody. This affects to everybody. This affects.
Speaker 8:So, within a couple of days, erica put out a speech and this is what she said. You should all know this. If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, in this world. You have no idea. You have no idea. The fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow, will echo around the world like a battle cry to everyone listening. Tonight, across America, the movement my husband built will not die. It won't. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die. All of us will refuse to let that happen. No one will ever forget my husband's name and I will make sure of it. They should all know.
Speaker 1:I just I'm. I'm crediting this to grief, right? I think she's grieving so bad right now, and rightfully so, that I just don't want the finger pointing no more Like a battle cry. You know, when she's saying that type of stuff, what are you implying? Like the focus should be on the shooter and the person who did this heinous crime. I mean it just just I don't know. I'm just going to credit this to grief and that I hope that whatever she does to, you know, keep, keep his little tusa open, turning point, his little company open and everything you know, maybe that's, maybe, maybe that's what she's talking about.
Speaker 1:I maybe that's what she's talking about. I'm hoping that's what she's talking about, but you never know. So the last thing I want to say is make sure you tell people you love them period. You know that's, that's the number one. Make sure you tell your people that you care about them and everything, Because you know tomorrow's never promised. And be responsible. You know that's the end game. You got to be responsible for your actions and everything. And again, my thoughts and prayers go out to the Kirk family and whoever is attached to that Sad event, man, Sad event, and I hope that we can build upwards and, overall, do better, because this is the lowest of lows man. I'm going to tell you that much.
Speaker 5:But that's it.
Speaker 1:That's it. Hope you guys take care of each other. I always say it, take care of each other. I always say it, take care of each other. And I'm out, girl Scout, boy Scout, peace.
