Prosecutors accused Robinson of urging his partner to delete his ‘incriminating’ texts
Liberal reporters gushed over Tyler Robinson’s texts confessing to his transgender lover that he killed Charlie Kirk, describing the messages as “touching,” “wrenching,” and full of “affection.”
“It was very touching in a way that I think many of us didn’t expect. A very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect’s roommate and the suspect himself, with him repeatedly calling his roommate, who is transitioning, calling him ‘my love’ and ‘I want to protect you, my love,’” ABC News reporter Matt Gutman said Tuesday. The network has already suspended Gutman twice, once for inaccurately reporting on Kobe Bryant’s death and again for violating its COVID-19 policies.
MSNBC anchor Katy Tur and legal correspondent Lisa Rubin expressed similar sentiments.
“You can see even in the exchanges described with the family and the exchange that they posted between the roommate and Robinson, there was affection there,” Tur said.
“When we talk about, though, the family of Tyler Robinson and his partner, you can see how wrenching this must have been for his parents and his roommate in their communications here,” Rubin responded, though she acknowledged that the Kirk family suffered the greatest loss.
Utah County district attorney Jeffrey Gray laid out seven charges against Robinson, including aggravated murder, during a Tuesday press conference. Other charges were related to Robinson telling his partner and roommate, a biological male who identifies as a woman, to delete their “incriminating” text messages and not to talk to the police.
According to the charging document, in one text shortly after the assassination, Robinson told his partner to read a note he left under his keyboard, which read, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” When his partner questioned if he was “the one who did it,” Robinson replied, “I am, I’m sorry.”
Robinson also joked about the alleged murder weapon, his grandfather’s rifle. “[J]udging from today I’d say grandpas gun does just fine idk. I think that was a $2k scope,” he wrote.
The text exchanges also paint a clear view that Robinson was motivated by Kirk’s conservative politics. “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” he wrote.
Still, some reporters are left mystified by Robinson’s motive.
“I don’t know why this young man did this,” New York Times Washington, D.C., correspondent Glenn Thrush said.
CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem said it was possible “left, progressive trans rights animated his greater interest in politics, as we’ve seen.”
“But it does not explain the violence because, remember, lots of partisans, most partisans are not violent,” she added. “Lots of people change their minds about politics.”
