The MeidasTouch Podcast - GOP Makes Dramatic Shift After Identity of Killer Surfaces

Episode Date: September 13, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on how GOP messaging has shifted now that Charlie Kirk’s killer has been identified as a 22-year-old white man from a Mormon family of Trump voters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's been a major tone change in right-wing media by MAGA Republican Congress members and senators, and even by Donald Trump, now that the identity of Charlie Kirk's killer has been made public and the fact that it was a white 22-year-old Mormon from a family that were Trump supporters, Tyler Robinson, the murderer, his political affiliation. is really unknown at this point. There are some people who are saying, well, he's a griper, he's a right-wing guy. It's so obvious.

There are other people saying, no, he's a left-wing person and whatever. But at the end of the day, he did not fit the profile or the narrative that the White House wanted. I guess they wanted it to be what a purple-haired, Latino, transgender person and that they were spreading that as the character of who the killer

was going to be. But unfortunately, rather predictably, the killer here is actually fit the pattern of what we've seen over and over again in school shootings, what we saw in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where there. Same thing, right wing was pushing a narrative and it turned out that it was a Trump supporting family, very familiar with guns, very similar to what we are seeing here. So just look at the change in the language that we are seeing. So Nancy Mace was all on TV and she was saying, we know that the killer, her words, I know it's offensive, but our words is a tranny. And it's a tranny killer on the loose.

And this was the Democrat leftist tranny plot. She literally used those words. Here's what she's saying now. Basically, we need to pray for the killer. That's the stage. Now that it's a 22-year-old, white kid, white family, Mormon, Utah, families close with the Mormon church there. Oh, my, we got to pray for them. I mean, look what she's.

says, we truly believe if Tyler Robinson had ever sat down across from Charlie, the great debater, the man of faith and grace he was, Tyler would not have pulled the trigger. And then she goes, we know Charlie Kirk would want us to pray for such an evil and a lost individual like Tyler Robinson to find Jesus Christ. We will try to do the same. Or is it because here are the photos of him. Here are the photos of him. He dressed up on Halloween in a Donald Trump costume.

Here are the photos of him. He posed as Pepe the Frog in that meme. Here's what the mugshot of him looked like. This is what Nancy Mace was saying yesterday. today. Here's what she said. Play this clip. This shit ends. Like, enough is enough. And now I have to deal with real safety concerns. It sounds like the shooter was a tranny or pro tranny. And just because I want to protect women that I'm worried about getting murdered, are you fucking kidding me? This is, it's out of control. And enough is enough. And I'm going to double down on this. I'm going to be more

vigilant than ever. I'm going to be louder than I've ever been until this shit stops. It's got to stop. Now we must pray for him now that she knows the identity. Let's just stick to the facts, folks. Here's the latest of what we know. Jennifer Jacobs recounts the facts. The Midas Touch Network, I just want to give you the facts. The father of the 22-year-old charged in Charlie Kirk's killing, saw the photos released by authorities and confronted his son. Law enforcement sources told CBS, Robinson admitted to his dad that he was the person in the photos. His father urged him to turn himself in, but the son said he'd rather commit suicide. The sources said, the father called a pastor who knows the son.

The pastor called the U.S. Marshal and other law enforcement agencies. Tyler Robinson is being held on aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, felony discharge of a firearm. CBS reports he is a third-year-year. student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College. He briefly attended Utah State University for just one semester when he was just one semester when he was 21, I think, for one semester. The father owns a business, oh, in 2021 rather, for one semester. The father owns a business installing kitchen countertops and cabinets.

His mother is a licensed social worker. The Robinson's are Mormon and active in the church. Tyler is the oldest of three, I believe a family of three boys, three white boys. Grandma of Charlie Kirk's assassin breaks her silence to reveal why the FBI must have the wrong man. It's a headline from the Daily Mail, but Daily Beast also reports the following. The grandma spoke to the Daily Mail. mail on Friday after news of Robinson's arrest broke. So this is the grandma. She goes, My son, his dad is a Republican for Trump. Debbie told the outlet, most of my family members are

Republican. I don't know any one who's a Democrat. According to the outlet, Robinson's father, Matt 48, was the one to turn Tyler in. Debbie has not been able to get in touch with her son since the news of her grandson's arrest went public. I'm just so confused. Debbie said of her grandson's arrest. Tyler's the shyest person. He has never ever spoke politics to me at all. She insisted that Robinson has never, ever got in trouble in his life.

Well, maybe you didn't know all of that. And maybe there's a deeper issue that we need to talk about young men, particularly young white men who are getting drawn into this internet culture and they're being pulled in to these extremist websites and extremist views or just being radicalized in general and I don't even have to say radicalized to be extremist rights or radicalized to be this but just generally radicalized to envision themselves as these want-to-be, vigilante, revolutionary accelerator types with this language that's taking place. I'll talk about that in a moment as well.

And then I want to show you some hard data. Again, I just want to stick to the data here. but so then fox has to adapt its narrative right because oh my god the leftist liberal transgender purple-haired killer that they were saying existed to try to again bully a marginalized community as they always have to scapegoat the other people just trying to live it's the transgender community trying to live love breathe constantly being bullied by right wing over and over again and scapegoated for things. They have to change it. So now what do they go with?

Now they go with, well, he did attend one semester at college. So let's blame that one semester at Utah State University as radicalizing him. So that's what Fox goes with. As Max Steele writes, oh yes, the hotbed of leftist militancy, the electrical apprenticeship program at Utah's Dixie Technical College. That's where he's been spending the last few years. But no, they go. It was that one semester in 2021 where he attended Utah State University.

That changed. Come on. But this is what Fox is going with now. Play this clip. It is a good point. I want to point something else out. You heard the family members say that this man became more political. This young man became more political in recent years.

Well, what did he do in recent years? He went to college. that's where kids are getting radicalized. It's not just online. Our campuses are where a lot of radicalization, hate, and intolerance starts from. And so when he says it's an attack on all of us, I'm going to say this. No, it's an attack on conservatives. It's an attack on Christians.

Okay. And now also you have, you know, these MAGA Republican senators like John Curtis from Utah. He goes on and he's like, you know, it would be. very nice that we had, you know, leadership from the top down spreading these messages of bringing people together. But, you know, it really should be a bottom up movement. So in other words, what he's saying is let's just give Trump not only absolute immunity from his actions the way the Supreme Court does, but Trump can be immune from acting with moral clarity or moral authority this must come from the bottom up now i agree that we the people need to be more empathetic we need to

get out of our internet bubbles and see people and show love and respect each other and that starts with respecting what make this country great diversity other people's rights and their independence they're right to be who they are and live their lives with dignity let me be very clear about that but also people in leadership positions should lead by example and not be bullying and spreading division and hate as Donald Trump does from the Oval Office and as we see right-wing leaders do over and over again. But here's the tone change now from John Curtis, play this clip. So let me tell you, and I've actually written on this a number of years ago, when I feel like I saw this coming. And at the time, I said, look, in a perfect world, this would be top-down. This would be coming from our leaders.

But I also have great hope in what I would call a bottom-up approach. And I think every one of us, every one of us, every morning you should wake up, look in the mirror and see what we are doing with our own personal relationships and our family and with our neighbors, what our comments are, how we're responding. I think both, Jim, are critically important. I would love it if we had both, but I actually think if we don't have both, we start with a bottom up. And each of us, including myself, constantly ask ourselves what we are doing to improve the situation. Now, the tone shift from Nancy Mace. She then goes on CNN and then she plays the victim. And she goes, you know, it's just I get so much hate.

I mean, they're all going after me. Let's make this Let's make this about me Watch her do that After you heard what she said in the first clip Play this clip Well, certainly, but right now It's very one-sided right now

The way that we've been I have never called one of my colleagues The kind of names that we've been called I've never dehumanized my colleagues In fact, when I've agreed with a Democrat I've said so I'm actually regardless of the press Actually covers me

I'm the 22nd most bipartisan member of Congress If you're willing to work with me I'm willing to work with you. That has always been the message. But because I'm outspoken about rape, because I'm outspoken about survivors, I face a different kind of threat. It is all the time.

It's imminent. And I fear just walking around trying to be a normal person, trying to be a good, hardworking member of Congress. And I have real deep-rooted, realistic threats that are coming through every single day. And I fear just walking out in public is dangerous to my life. to my life. No one should have that fear. But I always appreciate you coming in and have the conversation with me.

Thank you. Always. Thank you. Thank you. John. You then have, I mean, this scene right here will never cease to amaze me. Cash Patel, the completely unqualified podcaster, maybe he was qualified to be a podcaster, probably unqualified for that too, turned FBI director, the head of the FBI. And what does he think he's like acting in a freaking movie here? He goes, Charlie, my brother. I will see you in Valhalla, Vahala.

What are we even doing here? Here, play this clip. Lastly, to my friend Charlie Kirk, rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I'll see you in Valhalla. And then you saw the shift of Trump even developing a little bit before we even knew the identity. But I think as it became clear that the killer was not fitting the narrative that MAGA wanted out there, I think Trump and others started to know.

And then when Trump was asked a question, so how are you handling Charlie Kirk's law? How are you coping? Donald Trump's response, I'm building a ballroom. Do you see the ballroom I'm building? Here play this clip. Over the last three and a half three. I think very good. And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks.

They just started construction of the new Bajaro for the White House, which is something they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years. And it's going to be a beauty. It'll be an absolute and I think it's instruction. And I just see all the trucks. We just started. So it'll get done very nicely, and it'll be one of the best anywhere in the world, actually.

as this account says. So Charlie Kirk dedicated a decade of his life to fueling causes that benefit Donald Trump activating the youth and converting them, being a soldier for the right, so on and so forth. Now in death after the shooter was identified and not somebody that can be politicized by his party, Donald Trump devoted half of a second to Charlie Kirk before plugging his. new White House ballroom right there. Again, let me stick to the stats right here just so you can see it. If we look at extremist-linked deaths from 2013 to 2022, for example, you'll see a much smaller portion of incidents and killings happen from the left wing, very small amounts. Overwhelming right-wing extremism from 2013 to 2022, and even if you extend that to the presence, significantly higher than left wing. Left wing is only a small amount there, and you see a very small amount

domestic Islamist extremism as well right there. Also, Trump basically got rid of our counterterrorism division in the FBI and put this guy Thomas Fugate, the third, a 22-year-old intern with no law enforcement experience, to now lead counter-domestic terrorism efforts, and they're not even focusing on any type of right-wing extremism. But look, You know, there are people who will read what's on the fuel, on the cartridges, you know, from the, from the murder weapon. And there are people who say, look, what is written on this? Notice bulges, O-W-O, what's this? That that's like a meme, online meme culture of like furries or something. Hey, fascist, catch up arrow, right arrow, three down arrows.

that's a code from a game called Hell Divers to activate a certain type of bomb in this digital game. Or, oh, Bella Chow, Bello, Chow, Chow, another expression that's frequently used. If you read this, you are gay, LMAO. Again, more references to kind of online meme culture right there. The phrase, hey, fascist, catch this. Some people say are associated with far-right internet-based movements. You see that on 14-10. But again, let's talk about an issue that's very important here that I don't want to ignore.

And it was data that I saw today. Joe Wisenthall posted this. Never looked at this chart before. But if you look at the University of Michigan consumer sentiment among people ages 18 to 34 versus the overall consumer sentiment, when it's green, it means younger people are more optimistic than the general public. In 30 years, we've never seen the sustainable. relative gloominess among the young. So when we're now dealing with a population of young people who feel that they don't have a future ahead of them, and they're not involved in healthy relationships, these young

boys and men, not, you know, getting everything from online, again, not interacting. in a healthy basis with people outside, not having relationships of people and the other sex, not having healthy interactions in general and going deeper, deeper, deeper down these paths very frequently when we're seeing, okay, who's the shooter in a sense like this, whether it's the person who was involved in the first assassination attempt of Trump and Butler, whether it's the individual right here, whatever. We're seeing that that fits the profile more frequently over and over again, and it's not a transgender shooter, as Donald Trump would say.

It's people who look and act like Tyler Robinson. And so when we talk about it, you know, it's like you can send your thoughts and prayers. Okay, well, that's not enough. MAGA is defunding mental health. We need mental health. Absolutely. Focus on that a lot. We also need to,

these families are often gun-toting. This was what this family, the mom, Amber, the mother, gun-toting, gun-toting. Okay, well, that's another commonality here. But I'm a second amendment. I believe in the Second Amendment. But we need to have common sense gun reform as well.

But I believe in the Second Amendment. But I don't think these weapons of war should be proliferating around our country, like the ones used in this. I just don't think those are the types of weapons that should be out there. I understand that for hunting and for other things, but I don't think for purposes like this. But I think we also have to understand and we have to address that specifically people who look like Tyler Robinson are very frequently the people involved in these incidents. And whether you say that's because they've been radicalized here or radicalized there,

they're getting they're getting radicalized and what i noticed here particularly is the very first thing that right-wing people leaders at the highest level wanted to do and say this is leftist liberal democrats and it's the political as leaders what we called for on the might as touch network is we condemned all types of violence we condemned this in the fullest extent and again i'll leave you with this because I remember during the Charleston church shooting where nine African Americans in Bible study were killed. It was clear that the motives were anti-black. Dylan Roof killed black people. That was part of the plan that he's wanted. And we've seen that happen quite frequently as well. And former President Obama didn't go, oh, well, at this point in time, we got to blame

Republicans. No, he brought the country together. He gave a speech of unifying. and that didn't happen here and when that doesn't happen there's there's a domino effect and more this begets more violence this begets more tyler robinson's that's what happens when you have from the white house this division and then they just move on to the next one boom move on move on create a new issue let's talk about this now and then and then they're done but the damage is long lasting so that's my overall perspective on this i'm not sure how many more videos i'll do on the charlie car this may help round it out but i'll let you that those are my thoughts on where i stand tell me what you think hit subscribe and let's get to six million subscribers