☕️ TURNING POINTS ☙ Thursday, September 11, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

A nation plunged into tragedy; a lost political party relishing in death and destruction; and a resolution to transform this immeasurable loss into a new turning point in the history of freedom.

Good morning, C&C family, it’s a perfectly dreadful Thursday. Appropriately, it is also September 11th, a date marked by America’s grim refusal to let death fully erase its victims, the same way we mark Pearl Harbor Day every year. Today, in honor of a great man taken far too soon, I am compelled to interrupt today’s roundup for a short, pointed, hopefully uplifting but resolute memorial for Charlie Kirk.

Mild-mannered mega-influencer, married father of two young children, and unapologetic Christian, Charlie Kirk, 31, has been assassinated. As the news circulated late yesterday, I —along with many others— experienced a cascade of overwhelming emotions: stun and shock at the grisly shooting, horror and grief at the news he’d died, and unrelieved rage accompanied by an unclear, undirected sense of resolution. But … resolution to do what, exactly?

Though we do not yet know for sure, it seems self-evident that Charlie Kirk, though not a politician, was almost certainly killed for political reasons based solely on things that he said. Despite copy-pasta denunciations of violence from top Democrats, many liberals online were euphoric. “On social media,” one New York Times article reluctantly admitted in a rare moment of candor, “it was easy to find left-wing posters reveling in Mr. Kirk’s death and suggesting he got what he deserved.”

It was also easy to find evidence of twisted liberal joy right at the scene of the crime. At least one video shows a bearded young man at the scene joyfully celebrating Kirk’s murder seconds after the shooting. On corporate media, an older MSNBC anchor, grinning like a painted clown, blamed Charlie’s shooting on his “hateful thoughts” (the anchor was promptly fired, but still). Gleeful BlueSkyers are busy nominating the next target, suggesting names like JK Rowling, Matt Walsh, President Trump, Ben Shapiro, Libs of TikTok, Elon Musk, and Andy Ngo.

It bears repeating: Charlie wasn’t an elected official. He was assassinated for his beliefs, not any political office.

Though we do not yet know who killed Charlie, we can nevertheless find a cause. The only logical conclusion is stark, troubling— and clarifying: many “easy-to-find left-wing posters” believe that murder is justified as a response to unwanted speech.

And just like that, the Nation enters its next, profound crisis.

🔥 Early rumors the FBI claimed of an arrest were a hot take. Charlie’s unidentified killer remains at large and, as I write these words, a massive manhunt is underway. Last night, President Trump signed an executive order titled, “Honoring the Memory of Charlie Kirk,” which calls for US flags to be lowered to half-staff everywhere in the world through the weekend.

One can sympathize with the FBI’s error. There are a lot of potential suspects.

Social media is almost completely dominated by the story. The shooter is missing, and based on the aforementioned “left-leaning posts,” it seems clear that a large minority of progressives are dying to aid and shelter whoever it is.

All last night, I kept thinking about a great book I read recently, “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer.”

The book includes period headlines that sound like historical echoes of Charlie’s case, ringing across the decades. In 1865, the nation’s euphoria over winning the Civil War turned instantly to ashes in its mouth, after Democrats slew the President and fled toward the now-joyful South. The chase became a cat-and-mouse intrigue between the entire might of the federal government against two fugitives who were housed and supplied by a series of seditious Democrats trying to whisk them out of the Washington area and into the deep south, where they could be safely shipped to Europe.

After assassinating Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Booth fled and evaded capture for nearly two weeks. Union troops finally cornered him on April 26th in a tobacco barn on Richard Garrett’s farm in Virginia. Booth refused to surrender, so the soldiers set the barn on fire. Sergeant Boston Corbett shot through a gap between the barn’s boards and ironically hit Booth in the neck.

Booth was dragged out alive but paralyzed, and died a few hours later on the farmhouse porch. His last words were, “Tell my mother I die for my country” — by “country,” he meant the defeated Confederacy.

Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, and the victorious general turned next President Ulysses S Grant, somehow navigated the nation away from its righteous fury into Reconciliation. But that generous spirit of forgiveness was the byproduct of four years of brutal civil war, which had largely drawn the sting and poison out of the original conflict. By the time Lincoln was killed, both sides were exhausted and the fight was largely out of them.

I wonder whether we’re at a similar point now, or whether the real fight might be just beginning.

🔥 I met Charlie Kirk in the unlikeliest way, through a bizarre chain of coincidences that only happened because of the pandemic. I’d been hired to represent a reclusive billionaire targeted for destruction by the January 6th Commission. Let’s call my client “Bea.”

In any normal time, it would be completely unimaginable for a billionaire to hire a small-town commercial litigation lawyer to represent them in a high-profile, explosive, politically-charged witch hunt driven from the top of the federal government. And as you would expect, Bea’s advisors first hired the very best, Washington, DC-based, tall building lawyers at thousands of dollars an hour.

But Bea became suspicious after those high-priced lawyers recommended full cooperation with the committee, and —without permission— informed the committee that Bea would voluntarily surrender volumes of personal banking records and testify under oath before cameras at their star chamber inquisition.

Then, in early-mid 2021, I was becoming well-known for successfully fighting mask mandates in Florida. Bea complained about her legal qualms to a conservative activist friend who in turn asked me if I’d advise Bea by phone. I told them battling Congressional subpoenas wasn’t my wheelhouse, but they insisted, begging me to just provide my thoughts as a lawyer Bea could trust in a time when trust was a scarce commodity.

I was shocked and appalled after Bea explained the DC lawyers’ advice. My advice, even as a non-expert, was the exact opposite of Bea’s attorneys: Bea should resist to the utmost while carefully avoiding contempt. By the end of the call, to my great surprise, I was hired and the DC lawyers were out. (I assembled a team of trustworthy lawyers and we successfully navigated the perilous waters of that particular January 6th persecution.)

Maybe someday I will write a book about the culture shock of being picked up from Gainesville by a private jet and plopped into billionaire activist politics. But for today, while meeting with Bea at their palatial residence, I crossed paths with Charlie Kirk three times. (He was there in his fund-raising role.) One time, we had a chance to chat in depth at an extended lunch attended by just five folks (catered by Bea’s live-in cook).

🔥 Charlie Kirk was a goofy giant. He claimed to be 6’5”, but I think he was understating it. He seemed taller and bigger than life. But of all else: gentle. There was no menace at all in his vast physical presence. His default expression was the silly, welcoming smile of an excited puppy.

Thanks to my pandemic mini-celebrity, I’ve met a lot of politicians, influencers, Youtube scientists, and activists. Based on my experiences on stage versus back in the green rooms, I’d estimate that 90% of them have public personae starkly different from their private personalities. On video and on stage, they always seem pleasant, smart, and well, fun to be around.

But one-on-one, most of them seem cold, prickly, opinionated, impatient, and distracted. I’m not saying they are those things; that’s just how they come across in person. (For the record, I like them all, and each for different reasons.)

Charlie, though, was in the rarified 10%. He was exactly the same in person as he was on stage or on camera. He was as honest and genuine as anyone I’ve ever met. Meeting him makes it immediately obvious why he excelled at what he does, and why young people loved him so much.

I do not doubt that Charlie Kirk would one day have been President. Always a bridge-builder, he could have reconciled a divided nation.

As far as my inside observations: during that lunch, we touched on spiritual issues, and I shared my testimony. I have been deeply gratified to watch Charlie’s faith deepen and mature over the last few years. By the time he died yesterday, Charlie Kirk was fully prepared to be welcomed by his Creator. “Absent from the body, together with the Lord,” promised the Apostle Paul.

We’ll see you soon, Charlie.

🔥 As we, the living, stew in the chaos and uncertainty of the hot-takes phase, what should we make of all this unavoidable social tumult? Why does Charlie’s killing —and the Left’s deranged response— seem to hit so much harder than even last year’s assassination attempt on President Trump?

First, we cannot draw conclusions about the shooter (or shooters). Oh, conspiracy theories are tumbling out in heaping measure, and they will keep doing so, as people search desperately for meaning in the absence of information, but remember that the truth will almost certainly deliver some sort of surprise. It always does.

But we can begin to draw conclusions about how progressives are responding to this. Please don’t do this (you’ll regret it), but if you did visit BlueSky this morning, you’d be horrified. There can be no doubt that a shockingly large number of Democrats want to murder Republicans with whom they disagree. That’s kind of a problem.

Targeting Charlie Kirk was also a huge mistake. His death signals that the time for talking seems to have passed. They killed the guy whose mantra was, “let's talk about it.” So … where do we go from here? Are we supposed to now also say, “let's talk about it?"

🔥 Charlie prophetically predicted this. It was almost like God had prepared him. In another dark irony, in April, Charlie Kirk posted about what he called “assassination culture” and called the left a “ticking time bomb:”

That prediction, and its uncannily accurate aftermath, says we have entered uncharted territory. Charlie would have recognized these five verses of warning from the Book of Romans:

“As they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-32.

Put it another way. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is said to have warned, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Yamamoto’s quote perfectly captures how I feel this morning: I feel a sense of terrible resolve. It’s not yet clear what we must resolve to do, but it is clear we must resolve to do something. Talking isn’t working.

On November 19, 1863, Charlie’s fellow assassination victim Abraham Lincoln prophetically said this, which also feels perfectly appropriate this morning:

“It is for we the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Charlie, thank you for giving the last full measure of your devotion to the great cause of preserving liberty and freedom for all. I personally pledge to increase my own devotion that cause, and resolve to do whatever I can to ensure your death has meaning, that through it our efforts will produce a great new Turning Point in the endless battle between the Earth-bound forces of light and the forces of darkness in the high places.

— Jeff Childers, September 11, 2025.

Have a sober and reflective Thursday. Meet me back here tomorrow for a roundup of the essential news, and pray for Charlie Kirk’s young family, co-laborers, friends, loved ones, and even his enemies. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Don’t race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

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