Charlie Kirk was a well-known MAGA activist – Donald Trump has blamed the “radical left”

Today at 17:13

A shocking assassination has rocked American politics after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was gunned down while speaking at Utah Valley University.

The 31-year-old father of two, a close ally of Donald Trump and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was in the opening stages of his “American Comeback” tour when a sniper’s bullet struck him.

As the manhunt for his killer intensifies, Trump has already sought to frame the tragedy in partisan terms, fuelling anger on both sides of the divide.

But who exactly was Charlie Kirk — and why did his outspoken views on guns, rights and America’s future make him such a polarising figure?

Kevin Doyle is joined by Sunday Independent columnist and former CNN anchor Gina London, and also by Terry Sheridan, News Editor with WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut, to look at Charlie Kirk’s rise from small-town activist to right-wing commentator, and to explore the chilling reaction to his assassination that has spilled across social media.

Is America entering a new era of escalating political violence? And could Charlie Kirk’s murder mark a dark turning point for the USA?