Charlie Kirk Suspect was "Extremely Online" | Pivot

1. KSKara Swisher0:04

   Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

2. SGScott Galloway0:09

   And I'm Scott Galloway.

3. KSKara Swisher0:11

   So, we have a special, uh, emergency, uh, video episode because of, uh, Utah authorities have arrested a suspect accused of assassinating, uh, conservative activist Charlie Kirk after a two-day manhunt. 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was taken into custody late Thursday and is believed to have acted alone. Officials say Robinson made incriminating statements to relatives and sent Discord messages about retrieving a rifle from a drop point. Uh, investigators also say they found, uh, on messages, messages on the ammunition, the bullets, including anti-fascist slogans and references to video games and online memes, and also an anti-gay, uh, remark. Uh, Robinson is registered voter in Utah, but doesn't have a party affiliation. His family is, seems to be Republican, uh, Christian, uh, gun-oriented, uh, as many people in Utah are. Uh, Scott, what are your initial thoughts when you heard about this suspect?

4. SGScott Galloway1:07

   Well, my initial thoughts are how disappointed Representative Mace, President Trump, and Jesse Waters-

5. KSKara Swisher1:11

   Mm-hmm.

6. SGScott Galloway1:11

   ... might be that it's not a transgender, uh, woman with blue hair working on immigration for AOC.

7. KSKara Swisher1:18

   Yeah. Exactly.

8. SGScott Galloway1:19

   They have all promised us that in exchange for this needless death, that they were gonna declare war. And so my question is this, are they going to declare war on young, white, heterosexual men who come from Mormon families who traditionally have voted Republican or gun owners?

9. KSKara Swisher1:35

   Mm-hmm.

10. SGScott Galloway1:35

    So, the notion somehow that they are trying to pin this on, quote unquote, "The radical-"

11. KSKara Swisher1:40

    Yeah.

12. SGScott Galloway1:40

    ... left-

13. KSKara Swisher1:41

    Yeah.

14. SGScott Galloway1:41

    ... is just so insane and... Well, I'll let you respond, and then I have some thoughts about solutions.

15. KSKara Swisher1:49

    Well, here's the deal. Um, uh, I, I, I think saying something before we knew anything, uh, I was hoping, you know what I mean? We all are, like, hoping that this-

16. SGScott Galloway1:57

    Right.

17. KSKara Swisher1:58

    ... doesn't give them what they need. But particularly, two people, that, well, besides President Trump, who absolutely abrogated every one of his responsibilities as the Commander in Chief by immediately accusing people of things, and then front-loading the entire thing. He gave a, uh, speech this mor- I mean, uh, interview this morning on Fox News that was insane, actually. I've ne- I've, I've always thought that he is batshit crazy, but this was, even by those standards, it was batshit crazy. Um, and it was, uh, it was violent. It was, it was vi- uh, talking about, uh, war, et cetera, et cetera. I found two people in part- two, well now three, Mike Lee, the Utah s- uh, senator, um, three people are just terrible. Jesse Waters of Fox News. You know, if, if Matthew Dowd was fired from MSNBC, he should be fired from Fox. Secondly, the way he talked about war, world war. Um, uh, Nancy Mace calling it a tranny killer is, as usual, as unhinged as ever. Uh, listen, this is... We don't know why this guy did this. We don't actually know a lot about him. We know his family background. We know, you know, obviously, uh, a little bit about him from what's written, but really, we don't. All we know is one thing that I would say, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, is that he's extremely online. He is obviously-

18. SGScott Galloway3:17

    100%.

19. KSKara Swisher3:17

    ... s- the, the stuff on the bullets. Anyone who has any m- minute... I was trying to figure out is he Groiper, which is sort of the Nick Fuentes gang. I can't tell.

20. SGScott Galloway3:27

    Right.

21. KSKara Swisher3:27

    There's so many different memes going on here.

22. SGScott Galloway3:29

    Yeah.

23. KSKara Swisher3:29

    And they're all dank, by the way, so I couldn't even say. Was it Nick Fuentes? Is he... You know, there was a bit of ANTIFA in there. There was all kinds of nasty shit, um, that he was... But I do know he was steeped in dank memes of the internet that are, uh, radicalizing young people, you know? Especially, mostly men, uh, mostly young men.

24. SGScott Galloway3:50

    That's right.

25. KSKara Swisher3:51

    Mostly young white men, right? Um, and I think it's really troubling. And, uh, you know, you've just r- you're about to come out with a book about this, but, so I'd love to hear solutions. But it's eminently clear this kid was online, deeply and unfortunately online, I would say.

26. SGScott Galloway4:09

    There are two fairly obvious commonsense solutions that unfortunately cost a lot of money or diminish the shareholder value of key companies that are driving our entire economy, uh, and get in the way of the political narrative of special interest groups in charge right now. The first and most obvious solution is that Australia and the UK just don't have cultures that much different than us. The last time they had a mass shooting, they put in place sensible gun control. What do you know? No mass shootings. Since Charlie Kirk was murdered, more people have been shot and killed in the US than will be shot and killed in the UK over the next year. Uh, uh, UK will lose 30 people to gun violence in the next 12 months. We lose 120 people a day.

27. KSKara Swisher4:46

    Yeah, that's a lot. Their numbers just

28. NANarrator4:47

    Mm-hmm.

29. SGScott Galloway4:47

    ... right? So, if, if you wanna take down political violence and all gun violence, you just have to have sensible gun reform. And we like to think that we live in a democracy. No we don't. We have a passive majority that is bested by well-organized special interest groups. Gun control. Number two, every one of these political assassinations, almost all heroic acts of people trying to regain social capital through heroics a- acts of violence, are young men. And 40% of the market cap of the S&P in our entire economy right now... The US is increasingly, it used to be a platform for prosperity and rights. It's become increasingly a platform for shareholder value, full stop. 40% of the S&P is now 10 companies, and the primary objective of those 10 companies-

30. KSKara Swisher5:34

    Mm-hmm.

Episode duration: 11:07