Kirk Investigation Expands & Operation Viper Greenlit | 9.17.25

The Charlie Kirk assassination suspect is hit with a wave of charges as chilling texts come to light.

We're also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat.

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Wednesday, September 17th.

This is Morning Wire.

President Trump slaps the New York Times with a massive defamation suit, saying the gray lady acted as a mouthpiece for the radical left.

It's such a dishonest newspaper.

It's such garbage.

It's a failing newspaper.

It's failing.

And the president is continuing his sweeping crime crackdown in major cities across the country with the next stop in Tennessee.

A person is four times more likely to be murdered in Memphis, Tennessee today than in Mexico City.

And you know Mexico City is not a cakewalk.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned.

We have the news you need need to know.

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Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin was formally charged on Tuesday as the FBI vows to crack down on left-wing violence and prosecute anyone involved in the murder.

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down the latest developments.

Hey, Cabot, so we saw the suspect appear in court yesterday.

Let's start there.

What did we see?

Yeah, as expected, the 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was charged on seven counts, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice, among others.

Utah County District Attorney Jeff Gray made clear again on Tuesday that Robinson had targeted Kirk for his political beliefs and announced that he would be seeking the death penalty.

Remember, Utah is one of just a few states that still employs the firing squad.

I am filing a notice of intent to seek the death penalty.

I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime.

At that press conference, prosecutors also released just chilling text messages between Robinson and his trans-identifying boyfriend, in which Robinson confessed to the crime, saying, quote, I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age.

I am sorry to involve you.

When the roommate and boyfriend asks why he did it, Robinson responded, quote, I had enough of his, that's Kirk's, hatred.

Some hate can't be negotiated out.

Robinson then described how he was still near the crime scene, waiting for an opportunity to retrieve the rifle that he had hidden in the woods.

Later on, he referred to his father, saying, quote, since Trump got into office, he has been pretty die-hard MAGA.

And then in the final message, he urges the boyfriend to avoid talking to the police and delete their conversation.

Robinson also appears to have confessed to a number of his friends on Discord.

That's an online messaging app.

Just two hours before he was taken into custody, he sent a message to that group saying, quote, hey guys, I have bad news for you all.

It was me at UVU yesterday.

I'm sorry for all of this.

Now, another development yesterday.

Robinson is not the only person facing charges because of this murder.

Walk us through what happened with this other suspect.

Right.

So immediately after the shooting and all that chaos, 71-year-old George Zinn was carried away by police in handcuffs, sparking confusion that he was the actual shooter and that the shooter was in custody.

But police clarified about an hour later that he was not the assassin and was being held on obstruction of justice charges.

Well, we just learned that Zinn, a well-known far-left figure in the Utah community, approached an officer on scene and said, quote, I shot him.

Now shoot me.

But it was only at the police station that Zinn confessed he was not the shooter and was only trying to, quote, draw attention from the real shooter, apparently to help him escape.

FBI agents who later interviewed Zinn also discovered child sex abuse material on his phone.

So he's now facing four additional charges in addition to that obstruction of justice charge.

Alarming sequence of events there.

So let's talk about the response from the DOJ, in particular Pam Bondi.

A lot of buzz about this yesterday.

Tell us what happened there.

Yeah, the Attorney General came out this week and vowed to crack down on what she called hate speech, which she says contributed to Kirk's killing.

There's free speech and then there's hate speech.

And there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie in our society.

We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.

But it's worth noting there have been a number of conservative lawmakers and commentators who immediately pushed back on that move from the Attorney General.

They argue that the right has been pushing back on these sorts of hate speech measures for decades now, and that the solution is not more government intervention on the First Amendment.

And Bondi, for her part, seemingly did hear that criticism.

She walked back her claims a bit on Tuesday, clarifying that, quote, hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is not protected by the First Amendment.

It's a crime.

For far too long, we've watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence.

That era is over.

Still a lot of people on the right alarmed by her comments there.

Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

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President Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against the New York Times.

He's accusing the paper of a years-long campaign to destroy his reputation and undermine his political success.

Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the details.

So, Megan, just to start, what exactly does this lawsuit claim and who's named in it?

So Trump filed this lawsuit at a district court in Florida.

And what he's alleging is that the New York Times has personally defamed him and that it's acted as a mouthpiece for the radical left and the Democratic Party.

Specifically, this complaint targets four of the Times' most prominent journalists, and that's Suzanne Craig, Russ Buetner, Michael Schmidt, and Peter Baker.

And now this suit also names Penguin Random House because they published a book based on some of this Times reporting.

So Trump claims that these defendants orchestrated a malicious effort to portray him as a fraudulent businessman and also as a dangerous leader, and that this was all time to sabotage his 2024 reelection campaign.

So at the core are a couple of key pieces of reporting here.

So first, an investigative series and a book titled Lucky Loser, How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.

That series was written by Craig and Buetner, and Penguin Random House released it just before the 2024 election.

Kind of think of it as a September surprise.

It alleges that Trump committed tax fraud in inheriting his father's real estate empire and that he built his wealth on deceptive practices.

Now, the suit also targets an interview by Schmidt with retired General John F.

Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff.

And he warned in that interview that the president met the definition of a fascist and posed a dictatorial threat.

Well, you can see why Trump would not be happy about those comments.

Yeah, he's definitely not.

He calls the claims quoting here repugnant distortions and fabrications.

And he also says that the Times deliberately minimized his contribution to the success of his hit show, The Apprentice, instead of highlighting the fact that he was the star.

They instead have really given all of the credit to producer Mark Burnett.

So Trump argues that all of these things meet the legal definition of defamation.

He says the paper's coverage was engineered to inflict enormous economic losses on his business and his personal brand.

And how are the defendants responding?

Well, as you might expect, they are certainly firing back.

They are not holding back.

A spokesman for the New York Times said the lawsuit lacks any legitimate legal claims and is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting.

Penguin Random House is also out similarly calling it meritless, and they argue that this lawsuit is part of an effort to stifle free reporting and the First Amendment in the U.S.

Well, one thing that we should acknowledge is that lawsuits against the media are notoriously difficult just because there's such a high bar with the First Amendment.

What are Trump's chances of success here?

Yes, it definitely is a high bar, and you're already seeing a lot of legacy media outlets out there saying something similar.

But I do think if you look at Trump's record, particularly with ABC and CBS and some similar lawsuits where he did find success, we can't count him out here.

So when he sued ABC for defamation over comments that were made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, ABC did agree to pay $15 million to his presidential library, and Stephanopoulos was obligated to read a sort of apology on the air.

But what Trump is going to have to do here is prove not just bias, but malice, meaning that the Times knowingly reported something that they knew was not true or that they had reckless disregard for the truth.

A lot of conservatives, though, are out there saying that with the Times record, they don't actually think that's going to be that hard.

They're pointing to the fact that just this week, the paper had to retract some claims it made about Charlie Kirk making anti-Semitic comments when, in fact, he was simply quoting those comments and went on to criticize them.

So, you know, a lot of conservatives pointing to things like that with the Times.

Right.

That was a very egregious error just then.

Well, we'll be keeping an eye on where this suit goes.

Megan, thanks for reporting.

My pleasure.

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President Trump has officially directed a crackdown on crime in Memphis using a strategy similar to the one deployed in Washington, D.C.

Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo Hayamanda.

So Trump signed an order on Monday directing this new effort here in our home state, actually.

What exactly will the feds be doing in Memphis?

So the memo establishes the Memphis Safe Task Force.

The objective there is going to be to end street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent.

And that'll be through hyper-vigilant policing, aggressive prosecution, and other efforts.

There's going to be coordination between federal, state, and local officials.

And a lot of federal agencies are going to be involved in this.

And that includes the FBI, ATF, DOJ, HHS, HUD, Department of War, you know, you name it.

Long list there.

Right.

And, you know, on this matter of National Guardsmen, P.

Hexeth is basically going to get the word from GOP Governor Bill Lee, and guardsmen will stay there as long as the governor wants them to.

Here's President Trump talking about the dire situation in Memphis.

There were 249 murders, 429 rapes, 5,616 burglaries, and 12,522 violent assaults.

in just the last little while in 2024 and in pieces of 2025.

This is all going to supplement Operation Viper.

That's an FBI-led mission with a task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement meant to target violent offenders.

Before Trump signed this memo, Operation Viper was responsible for hundreds of arrests.

And Trump said at the signing that the recent decrease in crime in Memphis is actually because of this operation.

Now, we know Governor Lee is on board with this.

He was actually at the signing of this order.

What about the locals?

How do they feel about this?

Well, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, he's a Democrat.

He doesn't want the National Guard in his city, but he understands that this is not his call, and he said he will be working with authorities on this matter.

As mayor, my goal is to make sure that if they are indeed coming, that we have an opportunity to drive some of the decisions around how they engage in our community.

Some local Democrats have also expressed opposition to this intervention.

But, you know, that being said, there does seem to be a lot of support for this, too.

CBS recently spoke to some business owners in the area and reported that they welcome the National Guard and they're excited to see some changes.

Here's one resident sharing her thoughts.

You know, it's just so dangerous that you can't get out of your car.

You can't go to the grocery store.

You can't go to the market or the service station.

So yeah, I want to see the crime stop.

And if the National Guard is going to stop the crime, bring them out.

All right, so some enthusiasm in Memphis for this effort.

Now, what about other Democrat-run cities where Trump is not being welcomed by the governor like he is here?

Are those still on the table?

Yeah, I mean, that seems to be the case.

Trump said on Tuesday that Chicago is probably next to get the D.C.

treatment.

He said it's a great city and will be great again.

He obviously made those comments despite opposition from both the Democrat governor, J.B.

Pritzker, and the Democrat mayor, Brandon Johnson.

Now, while Trump is determined to crack down on crime in these cities, he did mention on Friday that, you know, him going into a Democrat-run place like D.C.

is different than going into a city like Chicago where there is opposition.

We have actually more power in D.C.

because it's, you know, I can change the mayor if I want.

I can do whatever I want.

I haven't had to.

We've had a great relationship with the mayor.

We've had a great relationship.

Everybody's happy.

Trump, though, he's already cracking down on illegal immigrant criminals in Chicago with Operation Midway Blitz.

This was launched on September 8th by ICE and DHS, and they're targeting illegals with criminal backgrounds, including those involved in violent crimes like assault, domestic violence, and sexual offenses.

Well, like you said, definitely a very different situation in Chicago than D.C.

So it's going to be interesting to see how Trump handles this moving forward.

Amanda, thanks for reporting.

You're welcome.

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