The legacy media are fighting the motive narrative battle with the intensity of the last Japanese soldier in the Philippine jungles after the end of World War II. CBS, in particular, is insisting on a lack of motive in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Watch as anchor John Dickerson sets up the longform interview segment on CBS Evening News Plus with both statements dismissing a finding of motive, and an alternative theory: Nihilistic, violent extremism:
JOHN DICKERSON: Five days after Charlie Kirk's murder, the shooter's motive remains elusive. No writings left behind. Vague, secondhand testimony. That uncertainty, and the risk of drawing sweeping conclusions, suggests the murder may share similarities with recent violence not driven by an obvious political ideology. The FBI recently recognized a new category: nihilistic, violent extremism.
This was followed by four minutes with the head of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, who also and quite conveniently found that there was no clear motive in the Kirk shooting. In order to get to the interview, Dickerson has to dismiss the trove of circumstantial evidence showing at least some transgender motive to the shooting, beginning with the timing of the shot fired shortly after a question on transgender school shooters.
Additionally, as the The Washington Free Beacon reports, there appears to be evidence of multiple persons having foreknowledge of the assassination:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating social media posts by at least seven different accounts that appeared to indicate foreknowledge of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, according to three people familiar with the investigation and screenshots obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The posts—one of which referenced the date of Kirk’s assassination, September 10, more than a month before it took place—were all deleted in the days following the killing. Several of the accounts appear to belong to transgender individuals, and at least one of them followed suspect Tyler Robinson's roommate, with whom Robinson was allegedly in a relationship, on TikTok.
This report was published well before the 7PM newscast, and yet Dickerson is still talking about no clear motive. The intent seems evident enough, but alas.
The interview offers not much in the way of substantive analysis beyond the alternate nihilist theories. Anything to stay off of transgenderism as a motive.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on CBS Evening News Plus on Monday, September 15th, 2025:
JOHN DICKERSON: Five days after Charlie Kirk's murder, the shooter's motive remains elusive. No writings left behind. Vague, secondhand testimony. That uncertainty, and the risk of drawing sweeping conclusions, suggests the murder may share similarities with recent violence not driven by an obvious political ideology. The FBI recently recognized a new category: nihilistic, violent extremism. For tonight's interview we are joined by Matthew Kriner, the executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism. Matthew, thank you so much for joining us. So leaving aside this incident, what is nihilistic or nihilistic violent extremism?
MATTHEW KRINER: So nihilistic violent extremism is extremism that is driven by a lack of singular ideological framework. It's individuals who are fed up with the world, believe there's no political solution to what they hope to see accomplished in their own goals and their actions. And as the Department of Justice has said, it's conduct and activities that they hope will further societal collapse, generally aligning what we've called neofascist accelerationism, the hastening of societal collapse through violence, and specifically terrorism.
DICKERSON: Why does it help the FBI to use this categorization? Or where does the categorization come from?
KRINER: So about a year and a half ago, the Department of Justice approached me and asked me to help them understand what is this new form of digital extremism that's emerging and what they were really trying to understand is how does it distinguish itself from previous waves of terrorism activity that we've seen? ISIS has used the online space very heavily, and they really wanted to understand what is this space where no one seems to have a clear ideological guiding post. And so this allows them to put things that don't have a clear structure to them into a bucket that nonetheless is seeking to use violence to gain and inform their actions in a politically political goal.
DICKERSON: Are there examples? Again, leaving this assassination out because we just don't have enough data- are there recent examples that- where some act would fit into this category?
KRINER: Yes. In fact, two of the more recent school shootings, including the individuals in Antioch in Tennessee and Samantha Rupnow in Minnes- as well, both had hallmarks of activity around nihilistic violent extremism. They were connected to the ndividuals and networks online that promotes the idea of societal collapse, and using any and every means at their disposal. We've also seen a number of individuals be arrested in recent months by the Department of Justice for engaging in what's called sadistic extortion online. And it's meaning to groom and recruit youth, individuals that are the age of 12 to 18, into conducting acts of self-harm, including suicide, and sometimes even what's called in real life activities or terrorism. And that's going out and conducting stabbings and ultimately school shootings.
DICKERSON: Matt, as somebody who knows this world and has spent time thinking about it, give us the best, most hygienic way to think about all of this information that's coming out about a culture and a world and the kinds of things being posted. Tell us how to think wisely about this.
KRINER: This space is occupied by a lot of young individuals who are disaffected with society, don't have a strong understanding of where they fit within society, and ultimately believe that their political solutions can't be met in a normative way. They don't feel that they have a pathway forward. And so they're turning towards these very online, online niche subcultures where people can find any idea of, of merit and they will run with it to the most extreme forms. Once they're in there, they start to become indoctrinated into these really unusual and scary concepts about recreating school shootings, trying to become the next Columbine perpetrator, becoming very infatuated with satanism in a way that doesn't really align with the religious understanding of it, but instead is a very extremist, terroristic frame. And ultimately, these individuals are really unclear as to what they're hoping to accomplish, but they know they want to accomplish harm. And so they're engaging in violence and activities in that respect.
DICKERSON: Matthew Kriner, the executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism. Thank you so much.
