Veteran Journalist on Young People After Kirk Assassination: 'They Are the Revolution'

Political journalist Salena Zito was only four feet away from Donald Trump when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, striking the then GOP presidential nominee's ear, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, and seriously injuring others. Zito, invited by Trump himself, was there to interview him. Instead, she ended up writing a book about the events that day. Despite her front-row seat to history, she told Salem radio host Hugh Hewitt that she never shed a tear and to this day can’t really put a finger on why, other than she had a job to do and continued to do it as the events unfolded. But for Charlie Kirk’s assassination? That’s a different story. She told Hewitt she has cried every day since Sept. 10, when suspect Tyler Robinson fired a single shot that killed the Turning Point USA founder, husband, and father of two.

It just really, really gutted me. I've known that kid since he was 18 years old—a really bold and brassy kid that was going to change the world. And he did. And when you read “Butler,” you see all of these young people. I kept reporting this throughout the campaign last year. I'm like, “y'all paying attention?” There are a lot of young people out here, young women, young men. They're excited, they're happy, they feel purposeful, and a lot of that came from Charlie. And so he had a very direct impact on this younger generation…. They are going to be bold and purposeful and in carrying forward what he inspired them to be part of.