Tyler Robinson Fatally Shoots Charlie Kirk at Campus Event, Slate Says

The Slate Magazine account of Charlie Kirk’s death says the leader of Turning Point USA was fatally shot in September during a campus event by Tyler Robinson, and it adds that the story is backed by text messages from Robinson’s phone, a police investigation, and the fact that it happened on camera in front of thousands of people.

Slate Magazine then contrasts that account with Candace Owens’ podcast claims, saying Owens’ story involves possible betrayal by Kirk’s wife, Erika, and “a shadowy cabal of billionaires and government agencies and possibly even future-bending technology from ancient Sumeria.”

Mondoweiss

Slate Magazine also says Owens’ series Bride of Charlie put the Owens–Erika narrative “front and center this week,” after Owens released the first two episodes of the series.

In the same Slate Magazine piece, it describes how the series’ two-minute trailer, released Monday, “landed to outrage from much of the rest of the conservative pundit class,” including pushback against inflicting pain on a grieving widow.

The Times of Israël adds a different angle by describing Joe Kent’s remarks on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, where Kent insinuated that Israel would have killed Kirk to provoke a war with Iran, while the FBI opened an inquiry into whether Kent disclosed classified documents.

The Times of Israël says Joe Kent made his remarks on Wednesday evening during his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, “at the very moment the FBI opened an inquiry to determine whether Kent had disclosed classified documents.”

In that same account, Kent told Carlson, “When one of the president's closest advisers, who openly advocates that we not go to war with Iran,” is assassinated in public, “it's something to take into account.”

Slate Magazine

The Times of Israël also reports that Vice President JD Vance, speaking in Michigan on Wednesday, paid cautious tribute to Kent while stating, “I know Joe Kent a little. I like him,” and then added that if someone cannot implement administration decisions, “then it's better to resign.”

Slate Magazine, meanwhile, frames the Owens–TPUSA rift as a dispute that “matters for all of us,” linking it to “its relationship with Israel” and “whether the modern GOP opts to work within the existing system or tries to blow it all up.”

Slate Magazine further says the trailer’s release triggered outrage among conservative pundit class members who “balked at the idea of inflicting such pain on a grieving widow,” while on X Owens’ supporters hailed the documentary as a strike against “Zionist-controlled elements of the Republican Party.”

Mondoweiss describes U.S. colleges and universities using trainings, programming, and campus rules designed to “combat antisemitism,” and it says those efforts contribute to a broader Zionist, right-wing trend that normalizes racism, Islamophobia, and silences radical political thought.

“Charlie Kirk’s media empire and his right-wing activist organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), have come under the control of the Israel-directed forces he spent the last months of his life antagonizing”

The Grayzone

As an example, Mondoweiss points to June 5 and says The Guardian broke the story of the suspension and investigation of Savneet Talwar, a tenured art therapy professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, over an assignment that “asked students to develop an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer, Muslim woman living in the US.”

Mondoweiss quotes that Talwar’s assignment involved a character who “felt deeply affected by the violence against Palestinian civilians and was critical of the home government’s limited response,” and it says Talwar’s department was “mired in multiple complaints and investigations about alleged antisemitism” involving the same student.

Mondoweiss also says the school required faculty to take anti-bias training as it sought to address the “climate” in the department, and it argues that “anti-bias” trainings and “campus climate” concerns have been “co-opted” to transform campuses into “sites of indoctrination.”

In the same Mondoweiss account, it describes Hillel International’s role through projects including “antisemitism trainings” and the “Campus Climate Initiative” (CCI) programming for administrators on 108 campuses, and it says these efforts have restricted protests, limited programming about Palestine, and silenced dissent on campuses.