Robinson’s mother said he had become ‘more pro-gay and trans rights oriented’ over past year
Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, said he murdered the conservative commentator because he had “enough of his hatred,” Utah County district attorney Jeffrey Gray revealed at a press conference Tuesday laying out the charges against Robinson.
Robinson confessed to killing Kirk in a series of text messages to his roommate and romantic partner, a male who identifies as a transgender woman and is in the process of transitioning, Gray said. Shortly after Robinson assassinated Kirk on Sept. 10, Gray said, the assassin told his partner in a text to read a note he had left under his keyboard in their apartment. The note read: “I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it.”
“Why did I do it?” Robinson then texted his partner. “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Robinson’s mother told investigators that he had “become more political and had started to lean more to the left,” adding that the alleged assassin had become “more pro-gay and trans rights oriented,” Gray said.
“She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate, a biological male who is transitioning genders,” Gray said. “This resulted in several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and his father, who had very different political views.”
Gray also confirmed that Robinson accused Kirk of “spreading hate” during a family conversation before the shooting. “Robinson mentioned that Charlie Kirk would be holding an event at UVU, which Robinson said was a stupid venue for the event,” the prosecutor said.
Gray filed six felony charges against Robinson on Thursday, including a charge of aggravated murder with a “victim targeting enhancement” because of his “belief or perception regarding Charlie Kirk’s political expression.” Robinson is also charged with two counts of felony witness tampering for directing his romantic partner to delete his texted confession and another two counts of obstruction of justice for concealing his rifle and the clothes he wore when he shot Kirk.
The revelations at Tuesday’s press conference paint a clearer picture of Robinson’s politics and put to bed a left-wing conspiracy that Kirk’s assassin was a “groyper” who murdered the commentator because he wasn’t conservative enough. This conspiracy has been propagated by a variety of left-wing figures including Rep. Dave Min (D., Calif.), Atlantic contributing writer Norm Ornstein, Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.
MSNBC “misinformation reporter” Brandy Zadrozny fanned the flames of the groyper conspiracy on Friday, saying that Robinson could have been “trying to set up another ideological enemy for the shooting” by leaving anti-fascist references on the ammunition he used to kill Kirk.
Other news outlets attempted to cast Robinson as a conservative due to the political affiliations of his parents. That includes the Atlantic, which described Robinson as a “young man from a deeply pro-Trump corner of Utah, raised by registered Republicans.”
But Gray praised Robinson’s Republican family on Tuesday for the role they played in turning their son in. Text messages show that Robinson panicked after his father asked him to send him pictures of his grandfather’s rifle, the same gun he used to kill Kirk but abandoned as he fled the crime scene.
“My dad wants photos of the rifle,” Robinson texted his romantic partner after the killing. “He says grandpa wants to know who has what, the feds released a photo of the rifle, and it is very unique. He’s calling me [right now], not answering.”
Some outlets continue to insinuate that Robinson’s political leanings are a mystery. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Gray’s press conference offers no more than a “glimpse of a motive.”
Robinson scrawled messages reading “Hey fascist! Catch!” and the lyrics from a prominent Italian anti-fascist folk song on shell casings found in the rifle he used in the shooting. Another read: “notices bulge, OwO what’s this?”
Those messages, Robinson texted his romantic partner, “are mostly a big meme, If I see ‘notices bulge, OwO’ on Fox News, I might have a stroke alright.”
“Remember how I was engraving bullets?” Robinson added in the text messages to his roommate. The alleged assassin said he regretted leaving the rifle he used to assassinate Kirk when he fled the scene.
“I’m still ok, my love, but I’m stuck in Orem a little while longer yet” Robinson texted his partner, according to Gray. “Shouldn’t be long until I can come home. But I gotta grab my rifle, still. To be honest I hoped to keep this secret until I died of old age. I’m sorry to involve you.”
