TV host Bill Maher shut down noted right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro with a comment about how news is spread in connection with the shooting death of fellow conservative Charlie Kirk.
It started with Shapiro saying we "know" that the suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, was "of the political left." Shapiro cited a report from the Guardian, which was later partly retracted.
"How are you so sure?" Maher asks Shapiro as Maher explains various examples of initial reports that later fell flat. Maher then brought up other reports that Robinson could be right-wing, and Shapiro was stopped in his tracks before admitting that was a possibility, too.
After the retraction of part of the Guardian piece, ex-MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan chimed in, "This was Ben Shapiro’s big source last night on Bill Maher for claiming it had been proved the shooter was a leftist."
According to a report from David Lynch of the Washington Post, the president has about 14 months to course-correct the economy or face the prospect that the Republican party will get blown out in the 2026 midterms if he doesn’t get prices down and employment up.
As Lynch wrote, “Consumer prices rose 2.9 percent over the past year, the fastest annual pace since January. Shopping for groceries, in particular, is becoming a traumatic experience,” before adding, “The combination of price pressures and employment worries is reminiscent of the double-whammy that kneecapped Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid last fall and threatens Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress in the 2026 elections.”
Should Republicans lose majority control of one or both of the House and the Senate, Trump will find himself handcuffed as a lame duck president for the last two years he is in the Oval Office, which has the White House concerned.
Despite the Trump White House claims that Biden’s economy was a “disaster” for workers, Lynch wrote, “what the new [job] numbers actually showed, economists said, was that the labor market last year was starting to downshift to a level where fewer new jobs were needed each month to prevent the unemployment rate from rising — a development that has intensified under Trump.”
According to former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein, “The problem with this affordability crisis is that every incumbent gets blamed for it, and not just here, but in lots of other countries as well.”
He then dryly added, “And that’s Trump’s problem now.”
FBI Director Kash Patel’s parting words to slain right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, that he would see him “in Valhalla,” the utopian realm from Norse mythology, may end up jeopardizing the prosecution of Kirk’s suspected killer, one former prosecutor said Saturday.
“You have to be careful when you're running an investigation as a law enforcement officer,” said Robert James, former district attorney for DeKalb County in Georgia, speaking on CNN Saturday.
“Impartiality is very important when you're looking at facts and determining who did what, what the motivation was and that sort of thing. So you never want to put yourself in a position where lawyers get involved and then you open yourself up to cross examination in a courtroom about your perception or perspective, and it happens in high-profile homicide cases all the time.”
Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, with the suspect, 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson, being apprehended on Friday. Also on Friday, Patel, speaking during a press conference following Robinson’s arrest, made the remarks in question: “To my friend Charlie Kirk, rest now brother, we have the watch and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”
Patel’s comments sparked confusion online, largely over the use of Norse mythology given that Patel is Hindu, and Kirk, an evangelical Christian. On the legal side, however, Patel’s comments could raise questions in court as to whether the FBI’s investigation was compromised – or at least, impacted – by impartiality, James warned.
“For instance, I've prosecuted cases where police officers were killed, and the same police department investigated those cases and it's always a question when the officers are on the stand, whether or not their opinions are slanted or motivated by the grief or anger of what happened, and so it's the same type of scenario here, so you have to be careful,” James said.
Reviewing what has transpired since far-right conservative Charlie Kirk was gunned down on a Utah college campus on Wednesday and his alleged killer was taken into custody on Friday, one MSNBC host pointed to comments made by Donald Trump in the aftermath and what was missing.
Discussing what followed after 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was taken into custody, “The Weekend “ co-host Jonathan Capehart engaged Politico’s Rachel Bade on what to make of criticism of FBI Director Kash Patel’s performance and if the controversial Trump appointee still has the confidence of the White House.
“He's [Patel] absolutely seen an erosion with support with the base,” Bade remarked and later added, “People are not happy and you can see it if you look on Twitter, a lot of conservative commentators on Twitter who are saying it's time for us, people who support the Trump administration to have a discussion about whether he's the right person to lead the FBI.”
“So what will it matter, I guess is the question,” she continued. “It didn't matter with Attorney General Pam Bondi. I mean, we saw even more heat from her on [Jeffrey] Epstein and the president stuck with her. So all that really matters is what Donald Trump thinks and it's not yet clear if Trump would be displeased with him at this point. They're still putting out statements for a lot of these stories saying that they're with him.“
Noting a New York Times story on Patel’s shaky status, Capehart pointed out, “In that story that it was noted that when the president was talking about, I think it was the capture of the suspect, he talked about, he mentioned everybody, particularly Pam Bondi didn't mention the FBI director. “
A prominent New York Times reporter said President Donald Trump seems to be struggling with the killing of MAGA ally Charlie Kirk, and acknowledged that fellow ally Steve Bannon was right about one big thing.
Maggie Haberman joined CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on her show, "The Source," to discuss the fallout of Kirk's killingon Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University.
Collins played clips of Trump and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), in which Trump said "radicals on the left" are "vicious" and "horrible," while Cox used his speech to urge Americans to "find an off ramp" rather than point fingers at "the other side."
"I mean, the contrast there is evident," said Collins.
I think it depends on when somebody catches him as to exactly what he is going to say," said Haberman.
She noted that Trump and his circle were very close to Kirk.
"President Trump faced two assassination attempts, one near miss last year. And so all of that is a lot of the context for how people in the White House and the president are responding to this. I think that he is struggling with this in terms of how to deal with it," she said.
She added: "I think that we have seen moments when President Trump has, over time, episodically, been calmer and more of a traditional leader at various points in term one. I think that he is never going to be the person who is going to be sort of the clearest talker about this. I don’t think you’re ever going to hear him say something like what Governor Cox said. I think that he is saying what he thinks, and he is who he is. And I think that people knew that before they voted for him."
Haberman noted that Kirk was as "close as a sibling" to many in Trump's orbit.
That includes Donald Trump Jr., who said Kirk was like a brother.
Collins played a clip of Steve Bannon bashing Patel.
"I don’t know why Kash flew out there — you know, thousands of miles — to give us, hey, working partnerships and our great partnership in Utah. Okay, I got that. No offense to the law enforcement guys and the future of this. The public assumes that you’re working together as partnerships. Charlie Kirk was assassinated in cold blood by a left-wing, Antifa-affiliated or aligned person. Okay, we want to find out about him. We want more details about him," Bannon said in the clip.
While authorities haven't mentioned anything about Antifa, Collins asked Haberman her thoughts on Patel's unusual actions. Patel flew to Utah and shared "confusing messages" about a suspect in custody and a person of interest, which contradicted what other authorities were saying.
"You have somebody like an FBI director who is very online, who comes from an online world and is pretty new to law enforcement from this side. And there is a lot of frustration among Republicans that I have heard, and with administration officials, that there was such a lag time in capturing this person who, as we said earlier, was not caught by law enforcement directly or by their work," she said.
Haberman added, "A lot of time lapsed between the shooting and the first claim that there was somebody in custody, which was all over the internet. And then that wasn’t the person. Then Kash Patel posted on X, 'We have the person in custody.' And then two hours later it was actually, 'That person is released.' There is a reason that things like that don’t happen. There is also a reason—Steve Bannon is correct — that usually you see the FBI director kind of head down, trying to figure out what's what, not flying around this way."
President Donald Trump's Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte has been on a tear accusing various critics of the administration of mortgage fraud — most recently Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom he claimed improperly took out mortgages on two separate properties as primary residences. However, a new Reuters report throws this in serious doubt, by revealing that preliminary loan documents indicate she had disclosed to her credit union one would be a vacation home.
The apparent misfire, which could significantly complicate Trump's attempts to fire Cook from the Fed, resulted in an explosion from commenters on social media, who broadly mocked Pulte — particularly since separate reporting suggested his parents had in fact committed the same fraud he tried to pin on Cook.
"Wait, so the entire claim that Cook claimed two primary residences was…false?" wrote Maryville College history professor Aaron Astor.
"I’ve been saying all along, as someone who’s handled extensive mortgage litigation, that these loan files are very complicated and can be thousands of pages," wrote veteran and former trial lawyer John Jackson. "Now it appears Lisa Cook did nothing wrong and was actually defamed by @pulte. What an idiot."
"So the bad faith pretext was also just fake?" wrote Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.
"Wowow, @pulte!! Is this why even right wingers think you're a loose canon [sic]?" wrote national security journalist Marcy "emptywheel" Wheeler. "Will you go to prison for lying to the FBI?"
"I really do hope she sues every single person possible, so that there is as much discovery as can possibly be provided, and that she keeps right on suing even after that," wroteMSNBC columnist Kali Holloway.
"Catching up on FHFA Director Bill Pulte's efforts, it sounds like Lisa Cook did not claim two primary residences at the same time, but Pulte's dad did?" wrote Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman. "Tough week for that guy."
" Trump fired a Black woman economist from the Federal Reserve based on a lie pushed by a Twitter influencer, and the documents prove it," wrote investment banker Evaristus Odinikaeze. "Lisa Cook did not commit mortgage fraud. There was no double primary residence. Just another smear campaign used as political cover. Will there be accountability for the people who lied? Or does character assassination now pass as policy?"
"So, the only mortgage fraud discovered in all of this was Bill Pulte's family? May she sue the hell out of everyone," wrote former congressional staffer and Democratic campaign strategist Rhonda Elaine Foxx.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox offered some clarity about markings discovered on ammunition recovered with a rifle that investigators believe was used to kill Charlie Kirk.
Law enforcement sources had told the Wall Street Journal that messages engraved on unspent casings in the .30-caliber hunting rifle indicated the shooter, now identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, expressed support for antifascist and so-called "transgender ideology," but the Republican governor offered new details after the suspect's arrest.
"Investigators discovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a dark-colored towel," Cox said. "The rifle was determined to be a Mauser model 98 .30-06 caliber, .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle. The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it. Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found with the rifle."
Inscriptions on a fired casing read, "Notices bulges, OWO what's this?" and inscriptions on the three unfired casings read, "Hey, fascist! Catch," "If you read this, you are gay, lmao," and "Oh, bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao," while another was inscribed with a series of arrows that appear to be a reference to a maneuver in the video game Helldivers 2.
"We are indebted to law enforcement across the state who has worked seamlessly together," Cox said. "Local law enforcement, state law enforcement and our federal partners with the with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We're grateful for everyone who worked together in such a short amount of time to to find this person and to and to bring justice. I want to thank the public who has been so engaged reviewing, reviewing videos, helping us with sending in tips, and helping us get to this point. I want to thank the the family members of Tyler Robinson who did the right thing in this case and were able to to bring him into to law enforcement, as well."
"I especially want to thank the family of Charlie Kirk, [his wife] Erica, Charlie's parents, his children," the governor added. "I want us to be thinking of them as we bring justice in this case. They will be involved in that justice. We will be working very closely with them as we move through this process as well. This is a very sad day for, again, for our country, a terrible day for the state of Utah."
President Donald Trump broke the news Friday that the suspected killer of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk had been apprehended after leading investigators on a manhunt lasting two days, and as of Friday morning, law enforcement has released some key details on the alleged assassin.
The suspected killer is 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a resident of Utah, according to law enforcement sources who spoke with the New York Post.
Trump revealed that the suspect was identified after investigators received a tip from someone “who was very close to him.” He also suggested that the person who tipped off investigators was the suspect’s father, who he said was “involved with law enforcement” and “a person of faith, a minister,” and had turned the suspect over to a United States marshal.
Reporting from the Daily Mail also corroborates Trump's claim that the suspect confessed to the killing to their father, who the outlet identified as Matt Robinson, a 27-year veteran of the Washington County Sheriffs Department, according to sources who spoke with the outlet. The Daily Mail goes on to identify the suspect's mother as Amber Robinson, who works for a company that provides care for people with disabilities that is contracted by the state o Utah.
Robinson was also a student at Utah State University, lived in a $600,000 six-bedroom home in Washington, Utah, and was taken into custody at around 11 p.m. Thursday night, according to "insiders" who spoke with the Daily Mail.
Kirk was killed Wednesday while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University by a shooter, who police believe had fired on Kirk with a bolt-action rifle from 200 yards away atop the roof of a campus building. Law enforcement scrambled to track down the shooter but stumbled repeatedly over the next two days, including with premature claims from FBI Director Kash Patel that the suspect had already been caught.
Trump went on to say he hoped Robinson received the death penalty, and when asked if he believed the assassination to be part of a broader plot, he indicated there was no evidence to suggest the suspect acted with others.
“Well you don’t know, I mean, you don’t know,” he said during an appearance Friday on Fox News.
Internet sleuths have already begun digging through the suspected killer’s internet history, but as of Friday morning, no additional details on Robinson have been verified by media outlets.
Charlie Kirk's allies vowed vengeance against novelist Stephen King for summarizing the slain activist's political views, but social media users pointed out a flaw in their strategy.
The best-selling author reminded his X followers that Kirk, who was fatally shot Wednesday at a speaking event at Utah Valley University, held virulently anti-LGBTQ views, pointing out that "he advocated stoning gays to death. Just sayin’."
Kirk often spoke out against what he described as the “LGBTQ agenda" and described the Bible verse Leviticus 20:13, which calls for the execution of homosexuals, as “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters," but the right-wing influencer's supporters, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), demanded retribution.
"Please share if you agree that the estate of Charlie Kirk should sue Stephen King for defamation over this heinously false accusation," the senator posted on his person "Based Mike Lee" account. "He’s crossed a line. It will prove costly."
King ended up deleting the post in question, but legal experts and other social media users questioned the senator's call for accountability for criticizing the late Turning Point USA leader.
"Mike Lee allegedly went to law school and passed the bar," posted the popular Bluesky account "Kept Simple." "Aside from Stephen King's claim being true, a dead person's estate can't sue for defamation, on account of the fact that a dead person can't suffer an injury to their reputation, because they are dead."
"He pinned this tweet over there, too," said legal blogger Chris Geidner. "He’s so proud of his practiced stupidity."
"Mike Lee. Proof morons can pass the bar," agreed Bluesky user Common Sense Metalhead.
"Over on Xitter, the troll account of UT's senior senator has launched a campaign to encourage Charlie Kirk's estate to sue Stephen King for ... describing something Charlie Kirk actually said," added legal analyst Marcy Wheeler.
"Aside from having these two insurmountable defects, how is Kirk damaged by people thinking he's a capital punishment favoring bigot?" wondered Bluesky user J.D., who describes himself as a defamation lawyer. "Doesn't that cover a third of his material? Would anyone who liked Charlie Kirk think differently of him even were it false? Does Mike Lee ever think anything through?"
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused King of lying about Kirk's stated views, as well, calling the author "a horrible, evil, twisted liar, and he also faced blowback.
"Kirk’s murder doesn’t change that he said this or the fact Ted Cruz is a lyin’ dick," said Jeff Timmer, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project.
"Another Ted Cruz fail," added X user Darryl Livingstone. "Why don't you take another trip somewhere and maybe stay there permanently?"
President Donald Trump announced that a suspect in Charlie Kirk's assassination has been taken into custody.
The president sat down Friday morning with "Fox & Friends," where he disclosed that the suspected gunman who killed the right-wing influencer had been identified and arrested.
"Can I always say, I think, just to protect us all and so Fox doesn't get sued and we all don't get sued and everything else, but I think with a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody," Trump told the hosts.
The FBI is scheduled to hold a news conference at 9 a.m. where officials will presumably offer more information about the suspect and the arrest.
Trump also said an individual very close to the suspect turned him in after officials released photos from surveillance videos recorded at Utah Valley University.
Wilson went on to blame the media for not paying attention to Trump's physical health.
"Something is deeply wrong, and the press seems to take the 'He’s the healthiest, strongest, tallest President For Life evah' from the White House staff," according to Wilson, who has made political commercials for governors, U.S. Senate candidates, and more.
He went on to make a comparison to Trump's predecessor.
"I was told that when Joe Biden was President, everyone ignored and covered up a raging geriatric health crisis," he added. "It's strange how little media interest there is while Trump is falling apart before our eyes."
Horror icon Stephen King is being threatened with a lawsuit after a comment made about the late commentator Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was assassinated while doing a debate event at a Utah school, and authorities are still searching for the killer.
King first made headlines immediately after the Kirk shooting, when he said, "The motivation of the man who shot Charlie Kirk isn't clear (although he's probably mentally unstable--duh). What is clear is it was another example of American gun violence."
But King didn't stop there. He later doubled down with a post on his social media that said of Kirk, "He advocated stoning gays to death. Just sayin’."
That led to outrage from some in MAGA, including GOP lawmaker Mike Lee. He wrote on X, "Please share if you agree that the estate of Charlie Kirk should sue Stephen King for defamation over this heinously false accusation."
"He’s crossed a line It will prove costly," Lee then added.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham responded to that, saying only, "Stephen King is a sad, bitter man."
Conservative influencer Paul A. Szypula claimed that, "Stephen King is defaming the memory of Charlie Kirk."
"King wrongly claims Kirk advocated for violence towards gay people. The clip King is referring to actually shows Kirk illustrating how some people cherry-pick passages from the Bible. Shame on King. He should apologize," the influencer wrote.
In an unrelated post, King also targeted the killer of Kirk, writing simply, "Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, and the murderer of Charlie Kirk: Cowards who shot from ambush."
Ted Cruz also weighed in, writing, "You are a horrible, evil, twisted liar. No, he did not. Your party—which you shamelessly shilled for—sent $100 billion to the Ayatollah… who does routinely murder homosexuals. Why are you so dishonest & filled with hate?"
Kirk did indeed once say that it was "God's perfect law" to have homosexual men stoned to death.
President Donald Trump's base is starting to "turn on" some key players because of how the administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein files, according to one analyst.
Heather Parton, also known as "Digby," discussed the latest developments in the Epstein files saga with Sam Seder on a new episode of "The Majority Report" on Thursday. Parton argued that the divisions growing within the MAGA movement present a "problem" for the president.
Parton pointed to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) support for releasing the Epstein files as an example of MAGA's division.
"I think she's nuts, but nonetheless, on this particular issue, she is representing a fair number of MAGA people who see this as a cover-up and are beginning to see the cover-up is Donald Trump and the Republican party," Parton said.
"They're already hostile to Pam Bondi. They're hostile to Kash Patel, both of whom promised to release this stuff and didn't really do it," she continued. "They're starting to turn on members of Congress like Rep. James Comer (R-KY). And so, that tells you something. And that is why this thing is not going to go away."
Parton argued that it may be difficult for Trump to outrun the Epstein files story at this point.
"He knows that there is a problem for him among his own people," Parton said. "And so, I don't think it can go away. There's no way it can go away because these people will never be satisfied. I don't care what they put out at this point. They're not going to believe it."
