Spin Cycle: Charlie Kirk Breaks The Cycle

The assassination of conservative commentator and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk prompted at least one major network television host to do what they all should have been doing from the start: follow Kirk’s example and listen to the people with whom you disagree.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

Just four days after Kirk’s murder — which took place while he was speaking at a Utah Valley University campus event in Orem, Utah — much of the conversation was about him and how everyone would move on in the wake of such a horrific act of political violence. And after four days of comments — on social media and on the air — that essentially blamed Kirk for supporting policies that facilitated his assassination, an unexpected and unlikely respite came from ABC News host Martha Raddatz.

After speaking with Governors Spencer Cox (R-UT) and Jared Polis (D-CO) about the shooting, Raddatz brought in a panel of three young conservatives who had been a part of Kirk’s campus organization, TPUSA.

WATCH:

“Charlie Kirk was one of these towering figures of my youth.” @MarthaRaddatz sat down with a group of college students to discuss Kirk’s legacy, the shock of his assassination, and the future of conservative youth activism. https://t.co/2kfzutVElM pic.twitter.com/fcwrk8W8wA

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 14, 2025

“Charlie Kirk’s influence with young conservatives was far-reaching, galvanizing supporters in person and online like few others,” Raddatz began. “But he had plenty of critics who viewed him as using hateful and inflammatory language. In the wake of Kirk’s death, I sat down with three politically active, conservative college students to understand more about Kirk’s impact and his complicated legacy.”

Philip Vayntrub, a student at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, recounted the moment he saw the horrific video of Kirk being shot, calling it absolutely “sickening.”

“Just to hear that something terrible had happened to him was just like, honestly, tragic,” added Katie Caldwell, a student at James Madison University in Virginia.

Kieran Laffey, a George Washington University student, said that he’d first learned of Kirk’s assassination while he was in a history class — and that for the first time in his college career, he’d had to step out of the classroom to process what he’d just learned.

“Charlie Kirk was one of these towering figures of my youth,” Vayntrub said, recalling videos of Kirk that he’d watched long before he ever went to college. “I’d watch these videos as a kid of him standing up, and being so articulate, but him being also so kind to everyone around him and I said I wanted to emulate that.”

Caldwell said that she’d grown up in a conservative home, and saw in Kirk a representation of the family ideals she’d known as a child. “I think that’s kind of why it hurt more,” she said.

“As a conservative on campus whose outspoken, who like Charlie Kirk likes to speak his mind and stand up for what I think is right, I have to tell you, Martha, I’m frightened,” Laffey added, his voice breaking a bit as he added, “Because people think he deserved to die because he just voiced his opinion.”

Raddatz referenced remarks from Governor Cox, who said that the younger generation had an “opportunity” to come together instead of driving each other further apart, and asked the students to weigh in on that.

Laffey voiced concern, given the current climate: “I think unity is very imperative, and, look, I want to see people come together. I want to see the First Amendment thrive. I want to see conversations, I think most Americans do. And look, the reality is, I think it’s going to be hard to come together. Martha, I just don’t understand how a large population in this country could celebrate something like this.”

Vayntrub noted the corrosive nature of political violence, declaring, “The reason I’m here today is to reject that.”

He noted that there had been students on his campus cheering and celebrating, and vowed to take a different approach. “That should be totally condemned. But if we become as bad as them, if we act with just as much hate, then Charlie Kirk died for nothing,” he said.

When asked who might pick up the mantle and carry on Kirk’s mission, Laffey said it was incumbent on everyone to “continue the conversation and stand up for what’s right.”

“What’s ‘right’?” Raddatz asked, and Laffey said that continuing to champion free speech — and encourage honest and rational debate “without violence, without being shut down, without being censored” — was of the utmost importance.

“If we as Americans can’t come together and assemble and have debates on what we believe is right or wrong, we’re never going to get anywhere, we’re never going to be able to see the other side, and we’re going to live in this polarized country and that needs to stop,” Caldwell said.

Those on the political left routinely call for Americans to have a “national conversation” about some topic or another, whether it be gun violence or education reform, and what’s abundantly clear is that Charlie Kirk was having that conversation – and doing it to great effect. What Raddatz’s guests made equally clear is that they intend to keep having that conversation.