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Trump's Speech at Kirk's Memorial in Direct Contrast to His Widow's; Trump: Ellison, Dell & Murdochs Part of U.S. TikTok Deal. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired September 22, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:07]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: What did Charlie Kirk's memorial tell us about today's MAGA movement and the path forward? CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIKA KIRK, WIDOW OF CHARLIE KIRK: That young man. I forgive him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A remarkable moment from Kirk's widow. Will that help our nation heal?
And the path to a Palestinian state. More U.S. allies pile on Israel as it plows forward into Gaza City.
And what causes autism? The White House promises to reveal one possible answer later today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: This is not America. And so, we are pushing back firmly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Is it a lesson in resistance? How California is standing up to the White House.
And a natural gas pipeline ruptures. Huge flames spotted nearly 60 miles away. Now there's a heightened risk for people in the area.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have great American patriots that are buying it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Could the new TikTok algorithm be brought to you, in part, by the people who run FOX News? It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at Capitol
Hill. Good morning, everybody. It's Monday, September 22. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish.
And here's where we begin: with Sunday's memorial service in Phoenix for late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
A service that was a memorial, but also a kind of political rally for President Trump and his allies. The event featured many of Trump's cabinet members who vowed to carry on Kirk's legacy, along with Kirk's widow. They said the assassin who tried to silence the activists would not silence the movement Kirk created.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: He sought to engage those he disagreed with because he understood that we were not created to isolate ourselves from one another, but to engage.
J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today, and instead, my friends, we have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk and of his lord, Jesus Christ.
KIRK: On the cross, our savior said. "Father, forgive them, for they not [SIC] know what they do." That man, that young man, I forgive him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: While Erika Kirk's speech marked the emotional high point of the day, the tone shifted with the final speaker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry. Erika.
But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that's not right. But I can't stand my opponent. Charlie's angry, looking down. He's angry at me now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter for Axios; Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; and Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for USA Today.
All right, you guys, it was a very faith-driven, emotional memorial with a lot of speakers. One that stood out to me, however, was the vice president, J.D. Vance, because he actually hosted Kirk's show after his death.
And, Francesca, I know you've talked to him in the past. What did you notice in his speech?
FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "USA TODAY": Well, and actually, I interviewed Charlie Kirk for a profile that I did on Vice President J.D. Vance very early on, on -- in the administration. I mean, they were -- you know, they were very close.
He personally credits -- Vice President Vance credits Charlie --
CORNISH: Trump mentioned that, as well.
CHAMBERS: And Trump credits Charlie Kirk for helping him get in the United States Senate, for helping him get on the ticket with Donald Trump in the first place.
And Charlie Kirk was very supportive of a potential J.D. Vance 2028 presidential bid, as well. And he told me that outright.
At the memorial service yesterday, Vice President Vance brought up the fact that they wouldn't be in office essentially, if it weren't for Charlie Kirk and his youth movement.
[06:05:05]
I mean, when you look at the influence of Turning Point, not just on college campuses, but on high school campuses, as well, around the United States, they have, you know, a significant amount of chapters. And they were very influential in the ground game for President Trump last cycle.
CORNISH: On stage, people talked about how many more chapters there are. We were talking about Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika, and how she presented herself, because she mentioned that she'd be the next CEO of Turning Point USA.
SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, this is a very important milestone for TPUSA. If Erika's speech came out and wasn't well received, people wouldn't have seen her as a leader.
But that's not what happened. I mean, she definitely carried this moment, carried the day. And it leads me to believe that TPUSA is going to have far more momentum coming out of this unfortunate assassination than it would have before.
One thing I just wanted to call out. Charlie Kirk, when we think about him, so many people think about his First Amendment, free speech legacy. That's not really what yesterday was about. It was about his commitment to faith, family, even just, you know, guiding the youth.
I thought that was an interesting moment, because Turning Point USA, for so long, free speech was the core tenet.
CORNISH: Yes.
FISCHER: I think that you can see from what we heard from Erika Kirk yesterday and everyone yesterday, that now Turning Point might be moving and shifting, not just about free speech, but to family faith values, as well.
CORNISH: I want to add something that President Trump said. He was talking about the shooting and what led to it. And obviously, he's talked a lot about the radical left and his concerns. But this point stood out to me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There's one part of our political community which believes they have a monopoly on truth, goodness, and virtue and concludes they have also a monopoly on power, thought, and speech.
Tragically, atrocities of this kind and the kind that we saw in Utah, of all places, are the eventual consequence of that kind of thinking. If speech is violence, then some are bound to conclude that violence is justified to stop speech. And we're not going to let that be justified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I think a lot of people could watch what Donald Trump is saying and think that he was talking about himself and what he and his administration have been doing in response to the Charlie Kirk shooting.
It -- that speech, which was the last speech, was, in a lot of ways, stark opposition to what was coming out of the mouths of many of the other speakers, including the clip that you played earlier of when he says he's apologizing to Charlie Kirk's widow and to Kirk himself in heaven for saying something which is antithetical, again, not just to the other speakers who were up there, but to the kind of Christian values that they were talking about.
And that plays into what we have seen from the president and from a lot of members of -- of his administration in the wake of the shooting: to weaponize the -- the situation into going after political opponents --
CORNISH: Yes.
DOVERE: -- of the president and doing it in every way that they can.
CORNISH: Can I add to that, in the context of this faith conversation, though, I was interested in the idea of, in the president's speech, him saying the left, for a long time, had cornered the idea on things being moral, right? And that certain ideas were moral goods that the rest of society -- and that they were the pious ones and all this stuff.
And now that's over. And in this huge stadium of people speaking in context of their faith about the family and all these other things, what I heard is, You guys don't have the monopoly on being good anymore.
FISCHER: I agree with that. I think that's exactly the message that he was trying to send. And that's why, by the way, coming out of the entire incident, I think there was a huge push to make sure that there was a blame associated with that shooter's political ideology. That was the start of this conversation that sort of, you know, the left is to blame. The left is bad. The left is no longer --
CORNISH: Yes.
FISCHER: -- the party of good morale [SIC].
CORNISH: Using a left turn like "words are violence."
FISCHER: Yes.
CORNISH: It just felt very targeted.
FISCHER: Very targeted.
DOVERE: And a lot of, like, "they." "They don't know what they've done. You don't know what you've done." Very much pointing this in one direction, which is -- look, the shooter, we're still figuring out exactly what was going on there. It does seem like he was, for the most part, in his own world on this.
CORNISH: Yes. We're looking more from the --
DOVERE: And not part of a "they" or a "you" or whatever that is.
(CROSSTALK)
CORNISH: -- for sure. All right. Well, there's a lot to talk about. I think we're going to feel the fallout from this from - from some time, even the conversations we heard on Sunday.
So, you guys stick around.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the Pentagon demands a press pledge. Is it just an intimidation tactic? Some people think so.
Plus, a big cat handler with ties to Joe Exotic killed during a tiger show.
And it's time. President Trump is ready to fulfill this campaign promise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It is the enemy from within. And they're very dangerous. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled.
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[06:14:35]
CORNISH: It's now 15 minutes past the hour, and here is your morning roundup. A tiger handler linked to "Tiger King" Joe Exotic was killed by a big
cat. The tiger was part of a traveling show which housed retired circus animals. The handler was killed during a show.
He reportedly got his tigers from Joe Exotic. That's according to PETA.
And a natural gas pipeline in Wyoming burst into flames early Sunday morning. Now, these flames are so high they actually could be seen some 60 miles away.
A freight train carrying hazardous material did catch fire, as well.
There was no threat to the public. Fire crews got the flames under control.
And the Kansas City Chiefs finally got their first win of the season over the New York Giants. The game was locked in a stalemate for much of the first half. But the Chiefs found their momentum in the third quarter.
Kansas closed out the game 22 to 9.
And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, a TikTok takeover, brought to you in part by the guys that run FOX News.
Plus, he's got a list, and he's checking it twice for political foes President Trump wants Pam Bondi to go after.
And good morning to Chicago, where for the first time in nearly 100 years, around 300 people jumped into the chilly Chicago river for a swim.
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[06:20:09]
CORNISH: So, will your "For You" page be run by the guys behind FOX News?
Well, the White House is trying to complete a deal to take over TikTok's U.S. operations, and here are some of the potential owners: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison; the CEO of Dell technologies, Michael Dell; and media billionaire family Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, all expected to be, in some way, part of the deal to control the platform and its algorithms.
Now we are getting -- But wait, here's how President Trump described it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're moving along. We have great American patriots that are buying it. Very, very substantial people. People that love our country. And they're very smart technologically. And they will not let anything bad happen. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said TikTok will have seven board members, six of them American. Questions remain about whether Trump can actually seal the deal.
Our group chat is back. And we're going straight to you, Sara Fischer, because you actually have an update about these owners. What have you learned?
FISCHER: OK, so the consortium of owners is going to have a majority stake in this sort of U.S. entity. Remember, they said at least one of those board members is not going to be American. Presumably, it will be ByteDance.
Of those owners, the people we've confirmed -- So you've got B.T., MSD partners, which is where Michael Dell comes into play. You have Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a close ally of Trump's. You have Andreessen Horowitz, a very famous Silicon Valley venture firm. You have Silver Lake, a private equity giant.
So, these are all big-money people.
Now, we have also confirmed that FOX Corp, not Rupert and Lachlan themselves, but FOX Corporation, the publicly traded television company, would also be involved in this bid.
Now, how big would they be involved? That's a big question, Audie.
CORNISH: Yes.
FISCHER: because we don't know a lot about this deal. We do know that --
CORNISH: Well, can I ask you some questions --
FISCHER: Yes.
CORNISH: -- that everyone using TikTok wants to know?
FISCHER: Yes.
CORNISH: Do I have to down a new load --
FISCHER: No.
CORNISH: -- download a new app?
FISCHER: No.
CORNISH: Who owns the algorithm? And can they control it and change it? Like, people want to know that part.
FISCHER: ByteDance China would still own the algorithm. My understanding is that we would sort of create a copy licensing that technology. You would not need to redownload the app.
But in terms of what is the state of this deal, Audie, a lot is still unknown. For one, we still don't have a clear understanding of how much the U.S. government would own.
Remember, Donald Trump teased the fact that the government would have a piece of this. None of that has been made clear by the White House.
Two: what is the value of this deal? You have analysts that say that some sort of U.S. copy or U.S. version of an app could be valued anywhere between $20 billion and $100 billion. We don't know what China has agreed to and what value they'll agree to.
Now, the -- the White House is saying that this is basically a what -- they're -- we're understanding from the White House is that there's going to be 120-day delay to implement this new deal while they work out some of these kinks.
CORNISH: Wait. So, a new deadline?
FISCHER: A new deadline.
CORNISH: We've had deadlines, like, every couple of weeks.
FISCHER: Well, that's the thing here. Right? So, if you're going to delay 120 days, how do we not know 120 days from now that we're kicking the can down the road another 120 days for us to figure out a deal with China?
I will say, though, the people that are involved in this deal, the people I just mentioned, these are serious business financiers. And so, even though this algorithm is going to be, you know, overseen by this new entity, which Oracle and others that are Trump allies are in play, I'm optimistic that big money people do not want to come in and commercially kill a very successful app when they have a lot of money to --
CORNISH: By changing it up.
FISCHER: Correct.
CORNISH: Well, one last thing. Why would China agree to this deal? We're talking about it kind of like it's a done deal, but like they have to bring it to China, and they have to accept.
FISCHER: Correct. There's a couple reasons.
I mean, one, obviously we're still in a trade-off in terms of tariffs and a standstill with China. So, maybe they think that getting this deal over the finish line will help alleviate some of those tensions.
Two, they still are very eager for some U.S. supplies, particularly chips. Maybe they think this could help negotiate on that battle front. But really, Audie, my gut is they don't really need this deal. And
that, for all we know, they're agreeing. They just had a meeting in Madrid last week. They're agreeing to these terms. They're trying to make it seem like a deal is close to the finish line. But in reality, this thing just keeps getting punted as it's been getting punted for the past few months.
CORNISH: OK, so ignore your panic TikToks, basically. We're learning there's a lot more that needs to be done.
Group chat, stick around. We've got more for you to talk about, as well.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, there are calls for unity in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death. But is it exposing a deeper Republican rift?
Plus, has the Trump administration found the cause of autism? The announcement the president is expected to make.
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[06:29:27]
CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING. It's half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now.
This just in: a small earthquake jolting the Bay Area just a few minutes ago. It hit near Berkeley. Tremors were likely felt throughout the Bay Area.
Preliminary reports from the U.S. Geological Survey show it was a 4.6 magnitude quake, and that it hit around 3 a.m. Pacific Time.
No -- no reports of damage just yet.
And here's a live look at New York City, where world leaders will arrive for the U.N. General Assembly later this week. President Trump is expected to address the assembly and meet with Ukraine's president to talk security guarantees.
