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Two days before he was killed, CNN went on the offensive against Charlie Kirk

September 11, 2025 | | Print Article

Two days before Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination, CNN ran a segment during which the hosts bashed him for his response to Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska’s gruesome, race-based murder.

Speaking on his eponymous podcast, Kirk had argued that Zarutska was murdered because she was white, and that if the reverse had occurred and a white man had killed a black woman out of racial animus, there would have been nonstop national news coverage.

(Video Credit: CNN)

“A white Ukrainian refugee was murdered just because she was white,” he’d said. “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, no one seems to care when a white woman gets stabbed to death,” he’d added.

He likely based his theory on the undisputed fact that Zarutska’s killer, a black male, had muttered “I got that white girl” after killing her.

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Kirk’s observation nevertheless upset several hosts and guests at CNN, including Abby Phillip, who on Monday accused Kirk of trying to make a “reciprocal George Floyd situation” out of Zarutska’s death:

“People like Charlie Kirk, they’ve been looking for opportunities to make this some sort of, like, reciprocal George Floyd situation,” she said. “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.”

She was right in the sense that there’s no comparison between the murder of Zarutska, an innocent woman, and the fentanyl-related death of Floyd, a career criminal and substance abuser.

However, in her mind, Floyd’s death appears to be far more tragic, which speaks volumes about her distorted conception of right and wrong.

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CNN’s Van Jones then took things to the next level by shaming Kirk for allegedly race- and hate-mongering, the facts be damned.

“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,” he said. “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,” he added.

Perhaps it’s true that no federal legislation made it into the books, but over 140 state laws were passed. Also, Floyd had statues built in his honor, books written in his name, and more.

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Jones went on to empathize with Zarutska’s murderer, whom he said “was hurting,” before turning his attention to Kirk once more to shame him.

“For someone like Charlie Kirk, he should be ashamed of himself,” Jones asserted. “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.”

In fairness to CNN, after Kirk’s assassination, Brian Stelter said some kind words about him.

“He is one of the most prominent, I would say the most successful MAGA media personality of his generation,” Stelter said. “He is just 31 years old. He’s a little bit like a new era Rush Limbaugh, you know, of the digital age. But unlike someone like Rush, who hosted a radio show at his home, Kirk is out and about.”

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Vivek Saxena
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