Scott Jennings Exposes How Charlie Kirk Assassin Failed In His Ultimate Mission

Regular CNN commentator Scott Jennings exposed what he believed was the accused assassin’s flaw in targeting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

In a speech that was originally given in February and posted publicly by Hillsdale College on Friday, Jennings told a crowd at Hillsdale College’s National Leadership Seminar in Amelia Island, Florida, that he thought the gunman’s ultimate goal was not just to kill Kirk himself, but to put an end to the movement he’d started — and that he’d failed because the ideas Kirk stood for could never be killed.

WATCH:

💥Scott Jennings👏

“I think when the shooter pulled the trigger in Utah, he thought he was ending a movement. He thought if he could kill someone like Charlie Kirk, he could kill what Charlie stood for.”

“That the rest of us would get the message, that we would heed the… pic.twitter.com/FfDgeh6wTs

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) May 17, 2026

Jennings began by pointing to some of the things being taught on college campuses across the United States — namely that the nation was built on racism, the traditional family unit was a tool of oppression, and capitalism was rooted in evil — and commended Kirk for seeing that and trying to make a difference.

“I think when the shooter pulled the trigger in Utah, he thought he was ending a movement. He thought if he could kill someone like Charlie Kirk, he could kill what Charlie stood for,” Jennings continued. “That the rest of us would get the message, that we would heed the warning: ‘Silence yourselves or we will do it for you.’ That’s what they thought.”

“But in trying to silence one voice, I believe they’ve created thousands. And in trying to end one conversation, they have started millions,” he added, and applause began to break out around the room. “Ultimately, what Charlie stood for was faith and freedom. And here’s the thing about those two items: You can’t kill them. You can try to suppress it, and throughout our history people have tried to silence it, but they always find a way, like water finding cracks in a dam.”