Title: The Deep Focus Show
Show: The Deep Focus Show
Date: 2025-09-12
URL: https://youtu.be/xtXIFRvv_xY
Duration: 21:00

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[00:03] The situation was very heartbreaking. People were there with signs and they were just crying and you know asking God to um help Charlie. And what said about this is that I already knew that he was dead. I just I just couldn't bring myself to tell them that he's already gone. So they were asking for God to save him uh for a miracle and I just couldn't tell him that he was gone. Hi, I'm John Kuryaku and welcome back to

[00:34] Deep Focus. A series of new polls released today and compiled by Stanford University's Center for the Study of Extremism says that 34% of college students say that violence is justified, violence is justified to silence speech that they don't agree with. That's up from 20% just 3 years ago. The number is astounding, especially in light of yesterday's grizzly assassination of Turning Point USA founder and conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk

[01:04] was speaking at Utah Valley University and was just minutes into the event when he was shot apparently by a man with a 306 mouser rifle. Police have no idea yet who committed this crime, but the information released so far is that the shooter was likely a college-aged man and was perched on the roof of a closed building about 200 yards from Kirk. Now, remember, Kirk was not a moving target. He was sitting in a chair uh on a stage and so uh this was a shot that a lot of

[01:35] people could make, especially if they had experience hunting. We also know at this point that police have recovered what they believe is the rifle used in the crime and the gun has handprints, palm prints, and what appears to be sweat from the gunman's cheek where he held the gun up. That sweat includes DNA. Charlie Kirk's murder has shocked the political right-wing in the United States.

[02:06] It's not unusual for people on the left or for people who are baby boomers of baby boomer age not to really know who Charlie Kirk is. But if you are between the ages of 16 and 30 and especially if you are conservative or Republican, Charlie Kirk was a god, a god in the movement. Uh I've heard him just in the last uh 24 hours described as a Martin Luther King type figure for

[02:37] conservatives between the ages of 17 and 30. I think that's probably true. I disagreed with probably 90% of what Charlie Kirk said, but I respected his his right to say it. And we can and we should never blame the victim. Uh when I was in college, my freshman year, the first week of freshman year, we had Abby Hoffman come to campus. Abby Abby Hoffman was a was an important uh hippie

[03:07] in the 60s and 70s. He had been arrested a million times and and was famous across the country. Um the college Republicans realized that those of us in the college Democrats who had who had requested uh this speech uh they thought they would uh come and see what it was all about and they did and they sat there respectfully and then at the end the Republicans had questions, the Democrats had questions and Abby Hoffman answered them all. Nobody pulled

[03:38] out a gun and shot him in the neck. We've really moved far away from where we used to be in this country. I'm not saying it's always been great. 1968 was a year of murder. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in in June. People were in the streets. Killing was taking place all all over the country. There were riots in almost all major cities after Martin Luther King was killed. It was bad. But it got better until it didn't. And

[04:11] now we're in a place where you've got Fox News on the right, MSNBC on the left, and the two shall never meet. Well, we're going to talk about this with Elizabeth Lane. I had the chance to interview Elizabeth earlier today. She's a well-known investigative journalist. She's a television producer and documentary filmmaker. and she happened to be in the hospital in Orin, Utah when Charlie Kirk died yesterday. Elizabeth,

[04:41] I want to begin with this horrific attack on Charlie Kirk yesterday. I I have a very strong stomach. I've served for years in war zones over the years and and I came out of that without any PTSD, but the graphic attack on Charlie Kirk has left me deeply unsettled. You were at the hospital yesterday when he died. tell us about that. What what happened? What what was it like and what was your experience there? It had to be surreal. >> Absolutely. And John, um I want to start

[05:13] with, you know, it's been 24 years since 911 and we still don't have questions. It's funny that today is 911 and we are here talking about Charlie Cork's killing and you know um with this mysterious circumstances of a sniper and FBI releasing two witnesses and so on. I'll tell you what happened at the hospital when I showed up. What I saw there first and foremost were people who were absolutely disillusioned like they they they were just done with with

[05:45] everything with government with everything. They were angry. They had science. They were praying. They It It was It was a very heartbreaking scene. And I'll I'll talk about the statistics of it too, like what happened and what should have happened that didn't happen. But what really got me was like this people's reaction to how they kind of accepted this fact that the government is going to lie to them. Um and there's nothing

[06:18] they can do. And you know it's just it's just a thing now like we have assassination attempt after assassination attempt um and we just roll with it and we don't know anything about crooks. It's okay right like this the nation we have become now. So um to tell you about what happened with the hospital. So my producer alerted me about this whole thing as soon as it happened when Charlie got shot. I got a text message right away that uh Charlie got shot in Utah. So the first thing I did, I got in my car and I started

[06:50] driving. I didn't know what condition he was in. Um I was getting my information on a fly. I was texting other journalists as well. Um I was asking if they are going to show up there so I could get more info. As soon as I showed up, I saw ton of cops. Um and the whole hospital was well I shouldn't say under lockdown, but they wouldn't let me in from the main entrance. The security staff of the hospital stopped us right there. Um, I told them, "Hey, I'm a journalist. I want to know how Charlie is. I'm trying to get the information." They told us that we are not giving out

[07:22] any information and you guys can stand in that spot. Like showed us what spot was designated for the journalists and they sent us there. They told us that they would do a conference for us and tell us what's going on and update us with the situation. 45 minutes we waited. No one came in with any info. No one bothered to do a conference. Nation was waiting. No one said anything. So, I started kind of getting stuff, you know, on my own. Um, I started walking up to police officers. I knew that

[07:52] Charlie was there for because one of the police officers actually confirmed uh that he was taken in the hospital, but I didn't know if he was dead or not. And um I found out from a friend of mine who had direct information from the hospital that he had passed. Um, and this is like somewhere around 10 minutes after I showed up after I showed up. And then I had to wait for 45 minutes for people to come to us and tell us that we've got nothing for you guys. You can keep shooting, you know, in in like shooting the hospital in the situation, but we're

[08:22] not going to make a conference and there will be no uh information for you. So after that, we kind of dug in our own uh we tried to investigate as much as we could, but the situation was very heartbreaking. people were there with signs and they were just crying and you know asking God to um help Charlie and what's said about this is that I already knew that he was dead. I just I just couldn't bring myself to tell them that he's already gone. So they were asking for God to save him uh for a miracle and

[08:53] I just couldn't tell him that he was gone. As I said in the introduction, the Stanford University Center for the Study of Extremism came out with a poll today that confirmed four previous polls. All of which found, get this, that 34% of college students say that violence is justified to silence speech that they don't agree with. That's up from 20% 3 years ago. I'm I'm stunned by these numbers and I'm deeply worried about

[09:24] them. Universities supposed to be bastions of free speech and now there's a sizable minority fully a third o of all college students who think it's perfectly okay to murder somebody because you disagree with them. How do you think we got to this point? And and and how do we get back to mutual respect? Well, getting back to mutual respect would be really hard because we conditioned new generation that we told them this lie that if you're different, if you are a slightly awkward or if

[09:55] you're transgender or if you're you know what you're suppressed, your voice is suppressed. >> Yeah. So obviously they are trying to retaliate and you know everyone would when they are conditioned into believing that somehow they have less rights or we are suppressing their rights if they are not out there with the flags and screaming at us how gay they are or how you know non-binary they are or so on. So we created this situation where we put these ideas in their head that they are somehow suppressed and of course

[10:27] suppressor should be punished and that's how they see the situation that if I'm suppressed and my speech and my rights are suppressed then why should you get to speak that that is how I see it. I might be wrong. I honestly don't think that Charlie Kirk situation was this particular situation. I think there's much more involved in here than just transgender person that didn't like Charlie. I don't think that Charlie Crook was uh killed because he challenged certain um ideologies or challenged certain culture in the in the

[10:57] country. I think he was killed because he was very effective. >> Well, you know, this is something that I think is revoly for a lot of Americans. I I happened to be at a lunch today. Uh a a lunch that included three former congressmen and a bunch of professors. And I was shocked at how many of them, especially people that would identify as Democrats, had never heard of Charlie Kirk. I was sitting next to one and and he kept saying, "I I don't know who this

[11:28] guy is. I never heard of him." >> And um >> generational >> and I was going to ask that. Now, another friend of mine who uh is very political but also very conservative uh texted me last night and said that that he believes that Charlie Kirk will go down in history as a Martin Luther King type figure for conservatives between the ages of 17 and 30. I can see that happening most definitely. >> Do you? >> I mean, you know, President Trump called

[11:59] him a legend. >> Yeah. President Trump thinks that that's going to be the case. Now, I'm not someone who followed Charlie uh that closely uh because I'm already, you know, in this category where I'm not very red or blue or I'm somewhere in the middle and you like I'm a common sense person and I don't really follow these rallies or anything, but I know one thing that Charlie Kirk was definitely crucial for President Trump. uh when it gets to younger generation, President

[12:29] Trump would not have the support of young generation if not for Charlie K. And that's not my opinion. That's the number. >> No, that's fact. That's fact. I agree completely. >> Right, >> Elizabeth? I was thinking about writing an op-ed about political assassinations in the United States today because of the Charlie Kirk murder. And so I went to chat GPT to get some of the background and I said, "Give me uh information. Give me a list of

[13:00] politically motivated assassinations or attempted assassinations in the United States over the last 20 years." There were there were too many to to list. I mean, this just a partial list. There were too many. And a lot of them get coverage for a day or two days because we're talking about people like the head of the Arkansas Democratic Party or, you know, some some free speech uh activist

[13:32] or the the former speaker of the house of Minnesota or whatever, a gun rights uh activist. Charlie Kirk is different. Already we're hearing in the media parallels between 2025 and 1968 when Martin Luther King was killed and two weeks later two months later rather uh Robert Kennedy was killed and and people were in the streets with guns and and it was hideous.

[14:03] Are we are we looking at that kind of a situation again now? And if so, how do we dial it back? >> Honestly, John, I don't know. I I've been asking that question for a while now. And how do we dial it back? We dial it back by having honest media members because this is all coming from us from media and not like particularly me or you. That's what we are trying to change here me and you. But I mean look at the

[14:33] big media like this is all coming from there. And I I don't see a solution other than educating our journalists, our talk show hosts what the truth is, how to filter the truth from [ __ ] Uh maybe educate them about when certain agencies come out and tell you something is this way and cannot provide proof that they are right about this. Maybe this is where you kind of put your investigative skill to use and maybe double check if they are lying or not

[15:04] and get the uh get the society as much truth as possible. But I think that's that's what needs to happen. But like I said, I I feel like I don't know, Joe, like I feel like Charlie Kirk's case is slightly a little bit different. Um I mean I did you see the did you see the picture of the possible shooter? They really >> Yes, they've really enhanced the daylights out of this picture. There's no way. I'm going to go on record. There's no possible way this kid can get away. There's no way. We have pictures of him now, good pictures. They

[15:35] recovered the weapon. His DNA is all over it, >> right? >> It's just a matter of somebody recognizing the picture and making a phone call. >> I think the last picture they showed, it looks like a man, just a scrawny little man, but I don't think he's a he's a kid. I don't >> Well, the the FBI is saying a collegeaged shooter. >> Wow. College. >> I shouldn't say kid, but I'm 60. I'm 61. >> Could be. >> You know, I mean, looking at that picture, the first thing that I thought, and I could be wrong. I don't know. Maybe a special ops guy can help me here, but you know, I I have felt a high

[16:08] powered rifle in my hands, and I'm sure you have too. And >> many times. >> Yeah. And I think it's pretty damn heavy. At least it was was for me. But this was a 306 hunting rifle, >> right? >> It only held five rounds bolt action. >> Um, at 200 yard with a scope or even with with iron sights, this is a especially when your target's just sitting in a chair, >> this is this is a doable shot, which

[16:39] makes it even more >> definitely a doable shot. I'm not saying it's not. It's just, you know, the the way it was done with one shot and exactly in the artery knowing that the victim is not going to survive. I don't know. Like I >> Yeah, >> college kid. >> Although you have to ask, was he aiming at the head? Was he aiming at the chest? The the bullets on on a on a 30 odd six, the bullets are heavy and so they're going to arc down. >> Um I I I don't know. I'm speculating.

[17:09] I'm wondering if it was a lucky shot. Yeah, that's all we can do. I know that you're pressed for time. I want to ask you another question, and this is about media coverage. You've spent your entire adult life in media. >> Yesterday, well, this morning, MSNBC fired Matthew Dow. Um, Matthew Dow is a former George W. Bush White House official. He became a Democrat, ran for Lieutenant Governor of Texas, was defeated, and then went to MSNBC. He's been there for quite some time. He made two asinine statements yesterday during

[17:42] the course of speculation immediately after Charlie was was shot. First he said, "Well, the shooter could have been a supporter of Charlie Kirk firing into the air um in uh in with excitement about being, you know, near Charlie Kirk like this is Baghdad in in 1989. You just shoot into the air." That was a ridiculous and stupid thing to say. Two hours later, he blamed Charlie for the shooting,

[18:12] saying, "Well, when you go out there and you say these provocative things and you piss people off, what do you think is going to happen?" >> You're right. >> Almost immediately, MSNBC's president had to issue an apology and a retraction. Uh, Matthew Dow later issued an apology and this morning he was fired. Now, on the left, they're saying, "Well, what about when Paul Pelosi was attacked?" Uh, Fox News for days said, "Oh, this was a lover's spat with his homosexual

[18:44] lover, and they got into this fight, and the guy hit him with a hammer." No, he was a right-wing nut who broke into the house and tried to beat him to death with a hammer. Why are we so far apart from each other in the media? And is it possible to bring the two extremes closer to the center? >> Everything is possible, John. And I think Charlie Kirk's legacy was just that. Then you can't be fired because you bler stupid [ __ ] on TV. Like you can't it's it's not right to do so. I

[19:16] think if Charlie was alive, he would actually protected the guy and said like, "Hey, he's got the >> I think he would." >> Yeah. And they his constitutional right >> allows him to do that. I mean, I can give you my example that many people might not like, but I mean, you know how many people Lindsey Graham pisses off on daily basis? >> You know what I mean? Lindsey Graham has He's right. >> I'm I'm guilty. I'm guilty of doing that. >> Me, too. And if, God forbid something happened to Lindsey Graham, I'm not

[19:48] going to blame Lindsey Graham for getting shot somewhere. You know what I mean? He's he's a despicable human being, but he's got he's got rights. He's got rights. And and I don't think that it's it's it's a correct action to fire people that say something we don't like. Again, that was Charlie's um entire legacy that this country should uphold um its constitution. And coming from a ex-s Soviet country as I come from, this means a whole lot of big deal

[20:20] for me. like this is this is very important for me and I take this very seriously because I know what happens in the nation when your free speech >> is um in some shape or form restricted and I know what it leads to and it's it's it's a disaster. So >> yes indeed. Yes indeed. Elizabeth, uh tell us where people can see more of your work, watch your TV appearances. What are you doing these days? >> Absolutely. Well, I'm for um I I'm a

[20:51] journalist for Unified TV, but they can also find me on Instagram. They can also find me on X. Um but highly recommended uh Unifi TV 800 plus shows. >> Fantastic. Elizabeth Lane, thanks very much for joining us. Elizabeth is an investigative journalist. She's a producer and documentary filmmaker. Find her work both on Instagram and at Unified Television. And again, she just happened to be in proximity to the hospital. She finally got into the hospital in Orin, Utah when Charlie Kirk

[21:22] died yesterday. Thanks for being with us, Elizabeth. >> Thank you so much, John.
