On Wednesday afternoon, American political violence took a horrifying and scary turn as Turning Point USA founder, conservative talk radio host, and conservative icon Charlie Kirk was assassinated during an event at Utah Valley University.
While MSNBC was brutal in its despicable rhetoric, CNN was more mixed with even Brian Stelter demanding Americans come together in prayer for him.
CNN first arrived at coverage of the shooting at 3:50 p.m. Eastern:
As part of that, senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes denounced him as “a controversial figure” going to “college campuses” in search of “heated back and forth[s]”:
Political director David Chalian followed and lamented he’ll “be at the center of a conversation about political violence”:
As we mentioned, Stelter has been incredibly thoughtful and gracious, decrying this “appalling act of political violence” against a “new-era Rush Limbaugh”:
However, Sanchez then kicked back to noting Kirk “is not with controversy” and “it’s part of his brand” to hold “a lot of controversial positions when it comes to the culture war.”
Chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller — the guy who argued we might never know the motive of the Annunciation School shooter — put what we would later learn was Kirk’s murder alongside incidents such as the UnitedHealthCare CEO murder and the Run for Our Lives Molotov cocktail attack:
Host and legal analyst Laura Coates referred to Coates as a lightning rod:
Giving credit where it’s due, Stelter told said “prayers are so all consuming” and told “anti-Trump voices” to remember political violence is not the answer:
Chalian then opened begged CNN viewers to find compassion for him (with it being left unsaid they heavily lean...left):
He and co-host Brianna Keilar then doubled down:
Coates returned for more hot takes, including the usual call for gun control and also a fear President Trump will use this to further expand his crime crackdown:
Just prior to the top of hour (and while initial reports began surfacing he was dead), law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey lamented the country’s “gun culture”:
