Part-time Newport resident Jay Leno condemned the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, calling it “the death of free speech” during an interview last Wednesday.
“It’s not a random shooting,” Leno told The Tim Conway Jr. Show on KFI 640 AM. “It’s the death of free speech, to think that you are so illiterate and so stupid you can’t answer verbally, and you have to shoot somebody with a gun to win the argument.”
Authorities said Kirk, 31, was fatally shot Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Police identified the suspected gunman as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Leno, 75, reflected on past eras of political debate, citing his college years when public intellectuals like James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. drew large crowds. “This is a political assassination of a man who I didn’t necessarily agree with, but I certainly enjoyed listening to,” he said. “We’re at a point in this country where, if you don’t agree with everybody on everything, you take out a gun and you shoot them?”
Conway, the host, lamented that Kirk’s two young children could grow up encountering viral videos of their father’s murder online. Leno agreed, saying that Kirk’s talks, even when controversial, at least got people “thinking about what’s going on.”
The former Tonight Show host compared the tragedy to historic campus violence, mentioning the 1970 Kent State shootings. “Especially on a college campus,” Leno said, “this should never happen.”
Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, co-founded Turning Point USA and became a fixture on college campuses and in Republican politics. Despite disagreements, Leno said Kirk’s voice sparked debate that America can’t afford to lose.
“Those days of debate are gone,” Leno said. “And that’s the death of free speech.”
Conway predicted the violence would backfire. “I think this is going to have the exact opposite effect that the shooter wanted,” he said. “I think this movement of Charlie Kirk’s is going to explode.”
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