Latest on the Kirk Investigation, Who Was Charlie Kirk?, Russian Drones Over Poland

0:02The governor of Utah addresses the person who fired the shot that killed Charlie Kirk. To whoever did this, we will find you and we will hold you accountable. Where does the investigation lead? I'm Michelle Martin with Steve Inskeep and this is Up First from NPR News. Coming up, how did Charlie Kirk build a right-wing youth movement? We hear the background of a social media figure who also had a real-world presence. He publicly debated critics and made polarizing statements. His group, Turning Point USA, had chapters on hundreds of campuses, including the one where he was shot. Also, why did so many Russian drones fly into Poland's airspace?

0:41Fighter jets from a NATO ally scrambled to shoot down the intruding aircraft. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:25And state authorities want help in finding the person who fired a shot that killed the activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk was speaking on a college campus in Utah. Several thousand people were on hand when the bullet struck his neck. The FBI is asking anyone with photos or videos of the event at Utah Valley University to share it on their online tip forum. Kirk was an ally of President Trump and co-founder of Turning Point USA, a political youth organization. Utah's Governor Spencer Cox called his killing a political assassination. To whoever did this, we will find you. We will try you. And we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law.

3:07And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah. NPR's Kirk Sigler is covering the story in Orem, Utah. Kirk, good morning. Good morning, Steve. I just want to note there have been a lot of conclusions jumped to and accusations on social media. But after every breaking story, we emphasize that a lot of what seems clear at the beginning turns out not to be true. And a lot is unknown. So bring us some facts. What is known about who did this? Well, to your point, very little right now. You know, I'm across the street from the campus of Utah Valley University.

3:38It's a fortress, as you can imagine, Steve. Police cars are barricading most all the entrances. It's hard to get in anywhere. And yesterday, police here took two different people into custody but released them both pretty quickly. And it seems like there's been confusion among law enforcement agencies. You know, last night, FBI Director Cash Patel tweeted that a suspect was in custody. And then a short while later, he tweeted again that that person of interest was released. This is a large campus I'm across from. There are lots of cameras and lots of eyewitness video to go through. Police say the gunman fired from the roof of a building down onto the event.

4:12We do know that. And we also know, Steve, that, you know, these graphic videos from social media show it a very chaotic scene. And now we have a manhunt in Utah or possibly beyond. What's it like to be in the middle of that? Well, it's safe to say the entire Salt Lake City region here is waking up, I think, on edge with a suspect on the loose. You know, remember, this is Utah. Someone on the run could pretty quickly get out of this city and into very remote desert country. So the manhunt has everyone on edge. You know, people are mourning, people are rattled. Isaac Davis is a student we talked to at Utah Valley University.

4:47He told us he skipped class yesterday and went to the Kirk event because he was curious. And he said, you know, there was a lot of energy on campus about it. And just a few minutes after he got there, he says it turned chaotic. Let's listen. There was a huge shot. It sounded like it came from behind me somewhere. It took a second to kind of register, but once I saw people start to kind of go into kind of a hysteric state, and I saw Charlie go kind of limp, I knew that something was wrong. And you know, Steve, these eyewitness videos that are now viral just show chaos. You know, people running away, one man screaming, carrying his small son with him.

5:23And Davis told us that he ran into the nearest building and hid in the classroom for a few minutes, And then he decided to make a run for his house, which is about a mile from campus. Davis thought it was a mass shooting, and I think a lot of people did initially, but it was just one shot. You mentioned the FBI director already. It sounds like this is both a state and federal investigation. Yeah, there's a lot of pressure on the FBI. It's safe to say the president himself referred to the investigations in a video. The authorities do not know who fired the shot on Kirk or what the motive was, as we've been saying.

5:54But Trump, in this video, talked of finding, quote, organizations. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it. So a lot of eyes on this investigation and the manhunt now underway, Steve. That's NPR's Kirk Sigler in Orem, Utah. Kirk, thanks so much. You're welcome. OK, we heard about Charlie Kirk as an ally of the president. He was an activist who drew both loyal followers and fierce critics through confrontational public events, similar to the one he was hosting when he was killed.

6:30Through his group Turning Point USA, Kirk amassed a large online following among young people. He turned that following into action that helped Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign. NPR's Stephen Fowler covers the Republican Party, and he's next. Stephen, how did Kirk fit into the political ecosystem? It is impossible to overstate the importance of Kirk to an entire generation of young conservatives and to Republican politicians that benefited from those young conservatives showing up to vote. You could call him many things, an influencer, grassroots organizer, business executive, author, radio show host, and all around avatar for politically active online and offline Gen Z Americans.

7:10When he was 18, just months before President Obama was re-elected, he co-founded the group Turning Point USA as this sort of college campus free speech nonprofit. Here's how he described it last year. I had the crazy and wild idea as I was driving home from Rockford, Illinois. A lot of things went into this and I said, that's it. I want to try to start a youth organization to try and save Western civilization. In the years since, it's grown to be an integral part of the Republican Party with annual summits, expanded outreach to faith leaders, voter registration initiatives, and a big seat at the table when it comes to shaping discussion about policy and its impact on young people.

7:49And then what brought him to the campus in Utah? This was the first stop of 15 planned American comeback tour events at college campuses around the country. And one of the signature things he did were these big outdoor debates where Charlie Kirk would actually face off against people who were ideologically and in some cases morally opposed to his views that were sometimes provocative and inflammatory. And he would make content out of these dialogues. Kirk and Turning Point were the smash mouth front line on the Republican Party's culture war. And at times he did weather controversy. He courted far-right figures on his podcast and made comments denigrating transgender people, vaccines, the 2020 election, and so much more.

8:29He also delivered a made-for-social-media rebuke of President Biden's economic vision at last year's Republican National Convention. The basic things our parents enjoy are increasingly out of reach for Gen Z and millennials. You see, the American dream has become a luxury item for the wealthy elite. He was close with President Trump and actually remained one of the president's advisors and figures who stayed by his side when Trump was out of power. Well, what does the president say? We've already heard a little bit, but let's listen here. What did the president say about the news of Kirk's death?

9:04Well, Trump did announce Kirk's death on his social media site and quickly ordered flags to be flown at half-staff. That's something that's typically utilized for figures of national importance to signify a period of mourning. Here's some more of that video message from last night. It's a long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible. But the president went on to blame, quote, radical left political violence, though we don't know anything about the shooter or the motive.

9:43He also listed a number of attacks against Republicans, including the assassination attempt on his life last year, and didn't mention violence against Democrats like this summer's assassination of the Minnesota House Speaker. NPR Stephen Fowler, thanks so much. Thank you.

10:07Officials in Poland and with NATO say they're awaiting results of a military assessment before deciding on a response to more than a dozen Russian drones that flew into Polish airspace early Wednesday. Some of the drones were shot down, and it was the first time in the history of NATO that Alliance fighter jets engaged enemy targets in Allied airspace. NPR Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz is on the line. Hi there, Rob. Hey, Steve. What are you hearing? So Polish authorities say this morning that they found the wreckage of at least nine drones. They were all Shahed-style attack drones that Russia uses in its attacks on Ukrainian cities.

10:42A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in Lublin City near Ukraine says that all of the drones found so far were unarmed so-called dummy drones, which are used by Russia to fool Ukrainian air defenses. Okay, so let's think this through now. We're talking about a NATO ally that was attacked. Poland's government invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, not the most famous one. This calls on all member states to hold an emergency meeting if one of them is threatened. This is not the more famous Article 5, which calls on a member state response as if they're all attacked. But this still represents an escalation.

11:18How is NATO responding? What does it mean to hold a meeting? Yeah, so NATO Secretary General Mark Rucha after the meeting came out and spoke to reporters yesterday. And he said that NATO's response was swift. It was decisive. NATO fighter jets were quickly scrambled. Rucha said the response was exactly what NATO forces spend much of their time preparing for. He said this incident should remind European member states to invest more in their militaries. And he also had this message for Russian President Vladimir Putin. To Putin, I mean, my message is clear. Stop the war in Ukraine. stop the escalating war, which he is now basically mounting on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure, stop violating Allied airspace and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.

12:06Okay, he says, to Putin, this is my message. Has Putin responded? Not directly. And Russia's response here has been a little confusing. Early on, a general from Russian ally Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian forces have been holding military exercises recently, called this whole episode an accident. And he said it was caused by errant drones that had encountered electronic interference. Later on, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the drones, but he used the opportunity to accuse European leaders of leveling accusations against Russia on what he called a daily basis. And then Russia's defense ministry finally weighed in, saying it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland and suggested that Poland was out of range of its drones, which is not true.

12:50Well, if the drones got there and got shot down, clearly not true. So a variety of explanations or at least statements. How are people taking all of this in Poland? Yeah, I think the situation is pretty tense. You know, there's a lot of history between Poland and Russia and a fair amount of bad blood that continues to this day. In recent years, Russia has launched a variety of hybrid attacks on Poland, including weaponizing migrants and busing them to the Belarus-Polish border. Poland has spent billions on building a new fence, on putting up military barriers. It even pulled itself out of an international treaty that bans landmines.

13:21Poland is now spending nearly 5 % of its GDP on its military. No other NATO member spends that much on its GDP on defense. So it's clear Poland is preparing to defend itself. And Piers Rob Schmitz, thanks so much. Thank you.

13:38And that's up first for this Thursday, September 11th. I'm Steve Inske. And I'm Michelle Martin. There's an easy way to stay connected to news and podcasts from the NPR network. It's the NPR app. You can hear community coverage from your local station, stories from around the world, and podcast suggestions based on what you like. Download the NPR app in your app store. Today's Up First was edited by Eric Westervelt, Megan Pratz, Kate Bartlett, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Wengenhoven.

14:11And our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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