CNN Panel Discussed Charlie Kirk’s Comments on Race 38 Hours Before Shooting

CNN anchor Abby Phillip and three network analysts called out Charlie Kirk — activist and co-founder of the pro-Trump super PAC Turning Point USA — on race just 38 hours before the shooting that claimed his life.

The political and media world were stunned when news broke Wednesday afternoon that Kirk had been shot during an event at Utah Valley University by a shooter who remains at large. Hours later, news broke that Kirk died from the injuries he sustained in that shooting.

Kirk was the subject of some sharp criticism on Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, as Phillip hosted a panel comprised of Van Jones, Brad Todd, Neera Tanden, Arthur Aidala, and Kara Swisher.

Jones, Swisher, and even GOP analyst Todd joined Phillip in calling Kirk out for bringing race into the story of murdered Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska:

ABBY PHILLIP: So, certain people have been looking for an opportunity to find a case like this, to make a point like this. I want to play, this is Charlie Kirk, why he says this hasn’t gotten a lot of attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE KIRK: A white Ukrainian refugee was murdered just because she was white. Everybody knows that obviously. If a random white person simply walked up to and stabbed a nice law-abiding black person for no reason, it would be an apocalyptically huge national story used to impose national, sweeping political changes on the whole country. Instead, Meghan Basham, no one seems to care when a white woman gets stabbed to death. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KARA SWISHER: Wow. He said white a lot.

ARTHUR AIDALA: Well, we are talking about it here. So, I guess —

SWISHER: It’s true.

AIDALA: I don’t think that’s fair. Look, being in the system, because I have represented people who are mentally ill. And here’s the balance. The balance is taking away people’s freedom versus evaluating their mental illness. In New York City, there are a lot of programs for people who are mentally ill, but they have to want to be there. It’s about forcing to be there.

PHILLIP: When you are mentally ill, you have a hard time knowing that you are mentally ill. But also, I mean, people like Charlie Kirk, Van, they’ve been looking for opportunities to make this some sort of like reciprocal George Floyd situation. And that’s the part that I think he’s almost giving away the game. It’s sad to see a lot of people going along with it.

VAN JONES: You know, let me just say a couple things. One is, I mean, what happened to that young woman was horrible, and it’s everybody’s nightmare. If you’re in any public space, a subway, whatever, that something bad is going to happen to you or somebody you care about. So, it does strike a chord.

We don’t know why that man did what he did. And for Charlie Kirk to say, we know he did it because she’s white, when there’s no evidence of that, is just pure race mongering, hate mongering. It’s wrong. Then he says that if something like that had happened the other way, there would be sweeping changes imposed on society.

Where is the George Floyd Policing Act? It didn’t pass even when you had a white police officer murder a black man on live television, the whole world saw, there were no sweeping changes. In fact, not one law was passed at the federal level. So, I think that’s an important thing to point out.

The other thing is you mentioned the thing about cashless bail. I think this is a big challenge that we have. Would you have felt better if there had been cash bail and the mom had come and put down a thousand dollars to let him out? It’s not about cashless bail or no cashless bail. It’s about the fact that we don’t know how to deal with people who were hurting in the way this man was hurting. Hurt people, hurt people. What happened was horrible, but it becomes an opportunity for people to jump on bandwagons.

And then for someone like Charlie Kirk, he should be ashamed of himself. No one mentioned the word race, white, black, or anything except him. What people mention is the horror of what happened to this young woman.

TODD: Van, I’m going to agree with you, that I don’t care who was white and who was black. And I don’t know how Charlie Kirk got into it. I agree with you on that.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.