The gun recovered by authorities in the assassination of Charlie Kirk was a bolt-action rifle — a common hunting weapon valued for its reliability but limited to a single shot before reloading.

Unlike a semiautomatic, the shooter must manually operate the bolt handle to cycle the weapon: lifting and pulling it back moves the spent cartridge, while pushing it forward chambers a new round from the magazine. Lowering the bolt locks the round and seals the chamber, making the rifle ready to fire again — a simple, durable design that has kept it popular among hunters and target shooters.

‘This process limits the rate of fire, you can only take one shot at a time,’ explained retired Marine Lt. Col. Hal Kempfer in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Kempfer noted that with a bolt-action rifle, the spent cartridge often remains in the chamber rather than being ejected, meaning shooters don’t leave behind shell casings or ‘brass’ that investigators can use for forensics.

‘That’s just one of those things where you, if you’ve thought it through, you know that you can’t leave any forensic evidence for investigators to work with,’ he said.

On Thursday, authorities said they recovered the rifle used to assassinate Kirk in the woods near the scene, where investigators believe the shooter abandoned it while fleeing to evade law enforcement.

‘They’re gonna be doing a lot of work on the forensics of this weapon as these firearms tend to have a history,’ he said, adding that investigators will try to trace where it was sold and how it changed hands. 

‘It’s possible the shooter used a straw buyer or another method to conceal their identity — but that’s the kind of legwork investigators will now have to do to track the shooter,’ Kempfer said.

Kempfer, who served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, said that the fatal shot was ‘not a particularly difficult’ one but does take planning.

‘You wouldn’t have to be some expert sniper or something, hunters take this shot all the time,’ he said, adding that the distance, clear weather, and elevated position all worked to the shooter’s advantage.

Last-minute closed-door talks between Senate Republicans and Democrats failed to prevent a ‘nuclear option’ in the upper chamber, as frustrations on both sides killed a deal to move ahead with President Donald Trump’s nominees.  

Lawmakers were inching closer to a deal that would have allowed sub-Cabinet-level nominees to be voted on in bunches, but neither side could reach a final agreement.

Senate Republicans argued that a majority of their counterparts agreed with the new proposal, but that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was still standing in the way.

‘I think the majority of Democrats are on board with it,’ Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. ‘And Schumer is blocking it from actually having consent to come to the floor.’

The failed deal was a modified version of a proposal first unveiled by Senate Democrats in 2023, and would have allowed 15 nominees to be batched together en bloc and voted on while still requiring two hours of debate for the group.

But when Lankford brought the proposal to the floor for consideration, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, blocked it.

Schatz argued that Senate Republicans were trying to rush through the negotiating process ahead of their plan to leave Washington for the weekend.

‘What they’re asking for is unanimity, and we don’t have it,’ he said. ‘And so, if you’re interested in enacting this on a bipartisan basis, the process for doing that — It is available to you. But again, it’s more a matter of running out of patience than running out of time.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., fired back ‘how much time is enough?’

‘Give me a break,’ he said. ‘Two years. Not long enough. How about eight months? Eight months of this.’

With the prospects of bipartisan deal to move nominees through Democrats’ blockade, Senate Republicans are expected to continue down the path of the ‘nuclear option.’

That means that their initial proposal, which would allow for an unlimited number of sub-cabinet level nominees to be voted on en bloc with 30 hours of debate tacked on, is expected to pass with a simple majority, and effectively change the confirmation process in the Senate.

‘We are achingly close to doing this like adults,’ Schatz said.

The fifth day of trial is slated to kick off in Fort Pierce, Florida on Friday for the case of Ryan Routh, who faces charges for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club in September 2024.

On Thursday, then-Secret Service Special Agent Robert Fercano testified on behalf of the government that Routh pointed a rifle at his face while hiding out in shrubbery at the golf course. 

Fercano, currently assigned to Homeland Security Investigations, said he was scanning the sixth hole while Trump was playing the fifth when he ‘noticed several abnormalities on the fence line.’ 

‘There appeared to be a face, a barrel of a weapon and what I perceived to be plates, like Humvee plates like I saw in the Marine Corps,’ Fercano told Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Medetis Long on Thursday. 

Fercano said that he initially thought he may have spotted a homeless person, but then noticed the barrel followed him and that the weapon was ‘pointed directly at my face.’ 

‘This appeared to be a textbook ambush scenario,’ Fercano said. 

Routh also questioned Fercano – and used his time to ask a series of questions regarding sniper tactics. 

‘As far as being a sniper, what would be the best stance to shoot people? Standing, crouching, laying down?’ Routh asked. 

‘I wasn’t a sniper … it depends,’ Fercano said. 

Others who testified Thursday included Tommy McGee, a government witness and a civilian who heard gunshots break out the day of the alleged assassination attempt and took a photo of Routh and his car. 

‘He looked frantic,’ McGee said Thursday. ‘He ran right in front of me. We looked at each other… it looked like he was trying to get away.’

When Justice Department prosecutor John Shipley asked McGee if Routh was the same man he saw the day of the alleged assassination attempt, McGee said yes. 

According to prosecutors, Routh laid out the groundwork to kill Trump for weeks, and hid out in shrubbery on Sept. 15, 2024, when a Secret Service agent, Fercano, identified him pointing a rifle at Trump while the then-presidential candidate played golf. Although Routh pointed his rifle at the agent, he then abandoned his weapon and the scene after Fercano opened fire.

Routh was later apprehended by the Martin County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office on the I-95 interstate in a black Nissan Xterra. 

According to the Justice Department, he is charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Routh also faces state charges related to terrorism and attempted murder. 

Routh, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, was previously convicted of felonies in North Carolina in 2002 and 2010. 

Routh, 59, is representing himself in his trial – a process known as ‘pro se.’ Routh sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in June notifying her of his decision to represent himself. 

‘I will be representing myself moving forward; it was ridiculous from the outset to consider a random stranger that knows nothing of who I am to speak for me,’ Routh said in the letter. ‘That was foolish and ignorant, and I am sorry-a childlike mistake.’ 

Cannon approved the move in July, although she said that she believes it’s not a good idea for Routh to represent himself in this case. Routh has said he went to college for two years after receiving a GED certificate and told Cannon he was prepared to navigate any challenges that could come from representing himself. 

Despite Routh’s decision to act singularly, court-appointed attorneys are still on call to provide standby counsel. 

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph, Jake Gibson, Olivianna Calmes, Heather Lacey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

After an attempt to secure a bipartisan deal failed, Senate Republicans went nuclear for the fourth time in the Senate’s history Thursday to speed up confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Republicans had threatened turning to the ‘nuclear option,’ which would allow for a rule change with a simple majority vote, to blast through the blockade from Senate Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 

Lawmakers were frustrated that, through the first eight months of Trump’s presidency, not a single nominee had moved through fast-track unanimous consent or voice votes.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Democrats what Republicans intended to do. 

‘I’ve been saying all week, ‘We’re going to vote on this on Thursday, one way or the other,” Thune said. 

‘We’re going to change this process in a way that gets us back to what every president prior has had when it comes to the way that these nominees are treated here in the United States Senate — by both sides, Republicans and Democrats; both presidents, Republicans and Democrats.’ 

The GOP’s rule change, which was born from a revived Democratic proposal from 2023, will now allow lawmakers to vote on Trump’s nominees in batches.

Senate Republicans’ rule change, which has been pitched as beneficial to the current and future administrations, would only apply to nominees subject to the Senate’s requirement for two hours of debate, which includes sub-Cabinet-level positions and executive branch picks.

Judicial nominees, like district court judges and district attorneys, don’t fall under the rule change. Lawmakers are expected to plow through dozens of nominees early next week under the new rules with the intent of clearing the backlog of Trump’s picks, which grew to more than 140 and counting. 

With the change in place, it will only take a simple majority vote to confirm the picks. Still, the decision to do bloc packages will require 30 hours of debate before a final confirmation vote. 

Schumer panned the move and contended Republicans had turned the Senate into ‘a conveyor belt for unqualified Trump nominees.’

‘This is a sad, regrettable day for the Senate, and I believe it won’t take very long for Republicans to wish they had not pushed the chamber further down this awful road,’ he said. 

However, before resorting to the nuclear option, lawmakers were close to a bipartisan deal that would have allowed for 15 nominees to be voted on in groups with two hours of debate.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, blocked the new proposal on the floor and argued that Senate Republicans were trying to rush through the negotiating process ahead of their plan to leave Washington for the weekend.

‘What they’re asking for is unanimity, and we don’t have it,’ he said. ‘And, so, if you’re interested in enacting this on a bipartisan basis, the process for doing that — it is available to you. But, again, it’s more a matter of running out of patience than running out of time.’

A frustrated Thune fired back, ‘How much time is enough?

‘Give me a break,’ he said. ‘Two years. Not long enough. How about eight months? Eight months of this.’

The nuclear process began earlier this week when Thune teed up 48 nominees, all of which moved through committee on a bipartisan basis, for confirmation on the floor.

‘It’s time to move,’ Thune said. ‘Time to quit stalling. Time to vote. It’s time to fix this place. And the ideal way to fix it would be in a bipartisan way.’

Both parties have turned to the nuclear option a handful of times since 2010. In 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used the nuclear option to allow for all executive branch nominees to be confirmed by simple majority.

Four years later, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., went nuclear to allow for Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed by a simple majority. In 2019, McConnell reduced the debate time to two hours for civilian nominees.

The first day of opening statements in Ryan Routh’s federal trial ended with Judge Aileen Cannon noting the case was ‘moving at a pretty fast clip,’ after a lengthy day of testimony that put the Secret Service agent who spotted Routh in the bushes, a civilian witness who chased him down, and FBI agents on the stand.

Routh is accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last year while he was golfing.

The morning began with Routh’s own rambling opening statement, which lasted just seven minutes before Cannon cut him off for going off-topic.

‘What is intent? … Why are we here? What is our intent? To love one another … Is this so difficult?’ Routh asked. He went on to reference Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, Sudan’s civil war and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘We have limited patience, and you don’t have unlimited license to go forward and make a mockery of the dignity of this courtroom,’ Cannon told him.

Federal prosecutors opened their case against Routh on Thursday, telling the 12 jurors he had come ‘within seconds’ of assassinating Trump during a round of golf in West Palm Beach last year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley read Routh’s own words to the jury — ‘Trump cannot be elected’ and ‘I need Trump to go away’ — before laying out what he described as a ‘deadly serious’ plan to kill a major presidential candidate.

Shipley said Routh had traveled from Hawaii to the mainland with a Chinese military-grade assault rifle, 20 rounds of ammunition, 10 burner phones, three aliases, stolen license plates and ‘a trail of lies from Honolulu to Florida.’

Jurors then heard from Special Agent Robert Fercano, who testified he was five feet away when he saw Routh’s face and the barrel of a rifle pointing directly at him on the sixth hole of Trump International Golf Course. ‘

‘This appeared to be a textbook ambush scenario,’ he told the jury, describing how he fired while walking backward to cover. Prosecutors showed the Chinese-made SKS rifle and played Fercano’s radio calls, where ‘shots fired, shots fired, shots fired’ could be heard.

Routh, representing himself, opened his cross-examination with: ‘Good to see ya. First question, is it good to be alive?’ Fercano replied, ‘Yes, it is good to be alive.’ The agent repeatedly identified Routh as the man who smiled at him from the bushes.

Later, jurors heard from Tommy McGee, a mental health professional who testified he saw a frantic man running from the golf course and later helped authorities track down Routh’s black Nissan Xterra. McGee identified Routh in court and in video shown to the jury. Routh’s cross-examination drew objections after he asked McGee if he supported Trump and whether ‘Madea, Beyoncé and Michelle Obama will be mad’ if he did.

Additional agents who testified described recovering the rifle and other gear, and processing Routh after his arrest. One FBI agent displayed the clothing Routh allegedly wore the day he was captured, along with a debit card in his name.

Routh’s questions grew increasingly odd as the afternoon wore on — at one point asking an agent whether ‘someone who loses things’ might drill a hole in a debit card to keep it on a key ring.

Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer. Prosecutors say he had been armed with an AK-style rifle when Secret Service agents stopped him near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach in September 2024. The attempt came just months after Trump had been shot and narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The trial resumes Friday morning in Fort Pierce federal court.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the U.S. would respond after former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after his loss in the 2022 election, although the secretary did not go into detail about what a U.S. response would look like.

‘The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil’s supreme court have unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro,’ Rubio wrote on X.

‘The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt,’ he continued.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry argued that Rubio’s comment represented a threat that ‘attacks Brazilian authority and ignores the facts and the compelling evidence in the records.’

The ministry said Brazilian democracy would not be intimidated by the U.S. government.

Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison when he was convicted by the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday on charges of plotting a coup to stop President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office in January 2023.

The former Brazilian leader was a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump during the first Trump administration.

‘Well, I watched that trial. I know him pretty well. I thought he was a good president of Brazil, and it’s very surprising that could happen very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it at all,’ Trump told reporters, noting the legal cases against the U.S. president in recent years at the state and federal level, which included his conviction in New York.

‘But I can always say this: I knew him as president of Brazil. He was a good man,’ he added.

Trump has criticized the Brazilian judicial system and threatened tariffs on the country for its case against Bolsonaro.

In July, the U.S. president placed 50% tariffs on most Brazilian goods in response to a ‘witch hunt’ against Bolsonaro. He later exempted some Brazilian exports, including passenger vehicles and numerous parts and components used in civil aircraft.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, his unspecified allies on the court and his immediate family members will face visa revocations, according to Rubio, who criticized what he called a ‘political witch hunt’ against the former president.

That same month, Rubio announced visa revocations on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over Bolsonaro’s criminal case, and his unspecified allies on the court after the court issued search warrants and restraining orders against Bolsonaro.

The U.S. Treasury Department had also sanctioned the judge over allegations of authorizing arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppressing freedom of expression.

Bolsonaro’s son, Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, said he anticipates additional U.S. sanctions against Brazilian justices following his father’s conviction.

‘We are going to have a firm response with actions from the U.S. government against this dictatorship that is being installed in Brazil,’ he told Reuters on Thursday.

He warned that justices who voted to convict the former president could face sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, which was previously used by the Trump administration against de Moraes.

‘If these Supreme Court justices keep following Moraes, they also run the risk of facing the same sanction,’ he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The horrific assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk Wednesday is the latest entry in a grim and growing tally of conservative figures and institutions being targeted for violence, vandalism and murder.

The fatal shooting follows a lengthy recent history of conservatives and Republicans facing violence, a Fox News Digital review of the last four years found, including two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump in a roughly two-month span in 2024. 

Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University as part of his ‘American Comeback Tour’ when shots rang out and he collapsed on stage. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.  

The 31-year-old husband and father was a staunch ally of President Donald Trump’s, and toured the nation promoting right-of-center ideology to youths, most notably on college campuses. He founded his conservative group more than a dozen years ago.

Conservatives and pro-life nonprofits have been targeted with shootings, arson, and vandalism in just the past four years.

Trump himself has faced two assassination attempts, including on July 13, 2024, when he was shot in the ear while joining a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting rocked the election cycle as Trump rose, bleeding and defiant, and urged the crowd to ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ The assassination attempt came just two days before the Republican National Convention was set to kick off in Milwaukee. 

Trump appeared at the convention while wearing a bandage on his ear, and noted how he ‘had God on my side’ during the attempt. The motive of the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper, remains unclear. The FBI has pointed to a complex web of personal grievances, mental health issues and a desire for notoriety as leading to the act, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Just weeks later on Sept. 15, 2024, Trump was rushed off of his golf course in Florida when shots rang out. The suspect in that assassination attempt case, Ryan Routh, posted prolifically about Trump, the 2024 election and politics in the lead up to the attempt, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Routh is going on trial Thursday over the case, and described the president as an ‘insecure ego idiot-mad fool’ in court documents in September, the New York Post reported. 

Attacks on conservatives have unfolded at the grassroots level, as well, including this year when the New Mexico Republican Party’s headquarters faced an arson attack. The attack destroyed the entrance to the headquarters, while graffiti reading ‘ICE=KKK’ scrawled on the building. 

The suspect in that case, who also allegedly attacked a Tesla Albuquerque Showroom, was hit with federal charges as Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed to the incident as a disturbing case of political violence.

TPUSA chapters around the nation have also faced other incidents of violence this year, including when a group of students with Turning Point USA at UC Davis were attacked by masked individuals in April, Fox Digital reported at the time. 

The conservative group was in the midst of hosting a ‘Prove me Wrong’ event with a guest speaker when protesters destroyed camera gear, a tent, event signage, flipped tables, and assaulted group staff, TPUSA said at the time. 

Looking back at 2023, former NCAA swimmer and conservative political activist Riley Gaines was also attacked and barricaded in a room at San Francisco State University following a speech to students promoting a ban on biological males from playing in women’s sports. The event was part of a Turning Point USA and Leadership Institute forum on campus. 

Churches and pro-life groups have also faced dozens upon dozens of attacks beginning in 2022 in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which effectively ended the recognition of abortion as a constitutional right. 

The attacks included a pro-life center that was ‘firebombed’ in Buffalo, New York, in 2022, Catholic churches that were vandalized and set on fire, and pro-choice protesters interrupting church services and Catholic masses. The attacks followed a radical pro-choice group declaring in a public letter that it was ‘open season’ on pro-lifers.

In 2017, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot along with three others when James Hodgkinson, a deranged supporter of Bernie Sanders, sprayed an Alexandria, Virginia, baseball field with gunfire as Republican lawmakers practiced for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Scalise nearly died, but recovered and remains in office.

The fatal shooting of Kirk on Wednesday has not yet yielded a suspect, with the FBI and ATF on the ground and investigating, according to Bondi. 

Trump, as well as members of his Cabinet, have offered an outpouring of support to Kirk’s family following the tragedy. 

‘The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,’ Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday. ‘No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!’

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano, Stepheny Price, and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report. 

The House of Representatives passed its version of Congress’ annual defense bill on Wednesday evening, albeit along stunningly partisan lines.

For decades, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has seen support from a majority of Democrats and Republicans. That’s changed in recent years, however, and the trend appears to have continued with the fiscal year (FY) 2026 bill.

The legislation passed 231-196 after a lengthy series of votes, with 17 Democrats voting in favor and 192 against. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other top Democrats opposed the bill.

Democratic lawmakers had spent hours beforehand railing against GOP-led amendments on mainly transgender issues, including several which were successfully voted into the bill.

Multiple amendments by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., for instance, placing limits on spaces that transgender service academy cadets can access, passed along mostly partisan lines.

Another amendment by Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., aimed at eliminating the preference for motor vehicles using electric or hybrid propulsion systems and related requirements of the Department of Defense, passed with mostly Republicans – although six Democrats joined in approving it as well.

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., introduced an amendment aimed at preventing pride flags or other ideological banners being displayed on military installations, which also passed along nearly partisan lines.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, announced on Tuesday that he would vote against final passage of the bill if certain GOP-led amendments made it into the final piece.

Smith also ripped Republicans for not allowing House-wide votes on solely Democrat-led amendments in the bill, all of which were filtered out when the House Rules Committee was considering the legislation earlier this week.

‘There are a number of problematic amendments included in the rule that focus on divisive topics rather than strengthening our national security. Should these amendments be adopted, I will vote against final passage of the bill,’ Smith said in a statement.
 
‘For 65 years, the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act has been a testament to shared respect for the duty of Congress to provide for the common defense and to place the needs of America’s national security and national defense above politics. The rule undermines this long-standing tradition by failing to include meaningful amendments offered by Democrats to address critical issues.’

Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., earlier spoke out against the amendments targeting transgender issues as well.

‘Many people in this body have received gender-affirming care. Filler is gender-affirming care. Boob jobs is gender-affirming care. Botox is gender-affirming care,’ Jacobs said.

It prompted an angry response from Mace, ‘That is ridiculous! You are absolutely ridiculous.’

Four Republicans voted against the bill in addition to the dozens of Democrats, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., longtime skeptics of foreign aid funding in the NDAA.

Democrats who voted in favor of the bill include Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., Don Davis, D-N.C., Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas.

The NDAA is an annually passed bill that sets defense and national security policy goals for the U.S.

The Senate is expected to consider its own version of the bill as well, after which the two chambers must compromise and consider them again before they get to President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature.

Lawmakers bridged the partisan divide on Wednesday after news that conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 31, was killed from a gunshot wound. 

Prayers for Kirk’s recovery on social media swiftly turned into condolences to his family and a widespread condemnation of political violence from both Republicans and Democrats. 

‘It’s devastating news,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. ‘The idea that political violence has taken one of the strongest voices on the conservative side is a great heartbreak. Charlie was a close friend of mine and a confidant, and he will be sorely missed, and we need every political leader to decry the violence and to do it loudly. The problem is in the human heart, and it’s gotten out of hand.’

‘This is beyond terrible,’ Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said. ‘Charlie Kirk was a husband, father, and son. Violence is never the answer. Sydney and I are keeping the Kirk family in our prayers.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., addressed Kirk’s death on the Senate floor and said that ‘political violence, which this attack seems to be, has no place in this country — none.’ 

‘I’m deeply disturbed about the threat of violence that has entered our political life, and I pray that we will remember that every person, no matter how vehement our disagreement with them, is a human being and a fellow American deserving of respect and protection,’ he said. 

President Donald Trump confirmed the news on Truth Social and said, ‘No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.’ 

Kirk was shot during an event on his ‘American Comeback Tour’ at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon. The university initially said that a suspect was in custody but later announced that the person was released.

Campus police on Wednesday afternoon asked students to call a hotline and be escorted off.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called Kirk ‘an American patriot, an inspiration to countless young people to stand up and defend the timeless truths that make our country great.’ 

‘This murder was a cowardly act of violence, an attack on champions of freedom like Charlie, the students who gathered for civil debate, and all Americans who peacefully strive to save our nation,’ he said. 

‘The terrorists will not win,’ he continued. ‘Charlie will. Please join me in praying for his wife Erika and their children. May justice be swift.’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., urged, ‘We must collectively find a way forward during these polarized times.’ 

His death follows a wave of high-profile political assassination attempts in an increasingly polarized political environment. 

Trump survived two separate assassination attempts within weeks of each other while running for re-election in 2024. Meanwhile, a gunman in Minnesota shot and killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, while critically injuring another state lawmaker, this past June.

Ryan Routh – accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump when he was a major candidate in the 2024 election at his Florida golf club last year – has chosen to represent himself in court, a decision one legal expert says could prove disastrous.

Cully Simson, a former prosecutor, defense attorney and judge, told Fox News Digital that while the Constitution guarantees the right to self-representation, it’s ‘almost always a mistake.’

‘It really makes no sense for somebody to defend themselves, especially in a serious case,’ he said. ‘They have the right to do it, but it’s not prudent.’ 

Self-representation creates risks and an unusual courtroom dynamic where the judge and prosecutor ‘have to pull their punches’ to protect the record, and essentially ‘protect the defendant from himself.’

A seasoned defense attorney knows how to put prosecutors to the test, forcing them to prove every element of the case and carefully laying the groundwork for potential appeals. When a defendant represents himself, Simson said, that kind of strategy is completely missing.

‘And so what ends up happening is the judge and the prosecutor has to play, in a weird way, a defensive role, in addition to the role of the judge being a neutral and impartial arbiter of the law, and the prosecutor just be the person who advocates on behalf of the government. You have to essentially protect the defendant from himself, and that is so much more difficult,’ he said.

Simson said defense attorneys typically ‘push the envelope’ and force the government to object, but when someone is representing themselves, lawyers hold back ‘because he’s not going to be smart enough or educated enough to object.’

This can sometimes create an atmosphere where a ‘right to a fair trial’ can become skewed – and it’s something law students study, too.

‘That’s that sophisticated point that law students talk about, and lawyers talk about. If you had a public defender or a private defense counsel who wasn’t very good and made a number of mistakes during the trial, if the guy’s convicted, one of the first things on appeal is you’ll claim ineffective assistance of counsel,’ Simson said.

‘You can’t claim ineffective assistance of counsel when you represent yourself.’

When asked if there were any pros to self-representation in a federal trial, Simson said, ‘I guess one pro would be to conduct his defense exactly how he wanted to.’

‘For example, in the Long Island shooter case, no criminal defense attorney was going to let that nut job act out in court and be the wacko he was,’ he said.

As in the notorious 1993 Long Island Rail Road case, convicted killer Colin Ferguson chose to represent himself and even took the witness stand to question his own victims. 

Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer. Prosecutors say he was armed with an AK-style rifle when Secret Service agents stopped him near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach in September 2024.

The trial is expected to last several weeks, but Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon urged both sides to keep proceedings efficient.

Opening statements are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 11, if the panel is seated on time.