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Quest Means Business
22-Year-Old Suspect In Custody For Shooting Of Charlie Kirk; Suspect Arrested In Charlie Kirk Murder, Turned In By Father; NATO: Initiative To Respond To Russian Drone Incursions; Authorities Say They Believe Suspect Acted Alone In Charlie Kirk Killing; Donald Trump To Meet With Qatar's Prime Minister After Israeli Strike; Nepal Swears In New Prime Minister After Deadly Unrest; Klarna: We're Growing Very, Very Fast. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired September 12, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:15]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing. There you are. On Wall Street, it is a Friday, markets coming to
an end. Bit of a down day, down all pretty much the whose session, in many ways, it is the reverse of yesterday where we were up the whole session,
now, we are down.
Interesting questions about pharmaceuticals. One of the reasons. Oh dear! Oh, that is what I would call a wimpy gavel. Yep. Sorry, mate! A wimpy
gavel bringing trading to a close. Those are the markets and the main events that you and I will talk about.
A suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk is now being held without bail in a Utah jail. A family friend first contacted the authorities about the 22-
year-old man.
NATO is reinforcing its defenses on Europe's eastern flank. It is a response to the Russian drone incursion into Poland.
And the South Koreans that were caught up in that immigration raid in the U.S. are home, back on home soil.
Live tonight from New York, end of the week. It is Friday, September the 12th. I am Richard Quest and I mean business.
Good evening.
We begin tonight with the suspect accused of the shooting of Charlie Kirk and the events that led to that suspect being taken into custody. The
suspect is 22-year-old, Tyler Robinson, now being held in a Utah jail on multiple charges, including aggravated murder, more charges likely to
follow.
The Utah County Attorney's Office expects Robinson to be formally charged on Tuesday, and that would make his first court appearance. Law enforcement
says Robinson's father recognized him from the photos that were shared by the FBI. The Utah Governor, Spencer Cox, says that was the break the police
needed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. SPENCER COX (R-UT): On the evening of September 11th, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the
Washington County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.
I want to thank the family members of Tyler Robinson who did the right thing in this case and were able to bring him into to law enforcement as
well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Now, as to the motive, Cox discussed the possible motive, saying investigators recovered a bullet with casing inscribed, "Hey, fascist,
catch!" Voting records show that Tyler Robinson has no party political affiliation, did not cast a ballot in the last two elections.
Cox said a family member told investigators Robinson had become more political in recent years and deeply critical of Charlie Kirk.
Ed Lavandera is in Utah.
So insofar as the authorities putting out those photographs yesterday, that sort of did the trick in a sense. The father -- one can only imagine the
horror for the father realizing it was his son in the photographs.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And then using that photograph to confront his son about what had happened from what we've been
able to learn so far and trying to convince him to turn himself in.
Apparently, from what we've learned, the son did not want to do that, and the father reached out to a family friend, and it was that family friend
that put them in touch with or alerted law enforcement as to what was happening, and all of this happening very quickly after that latest round
of video footage and images from the shooting scene were released by authorities late last night, and then within just a few hours after that,
the 22-year-old suspect was brought here to the Utah County Jail, where he is now being held without bail.
This is about nine miles away from the shooting scene, and where the suspect, the 22-year-old lives is actually almost a 3.5-hour drive from
where we are. He lives in the far southwest corner of Utah.
But it is along that interstate that runs by the university campus, which we've talked about over the last few days, Richard, is that him being able
to escape the scene, flee from the scene, clearly able to get on that interstate and get back to his hometown. Anyway, that is some of the
details that we are learning.
Investigators also say that they've heard from other family members. They've had conversations about his dislike for Charlie Kirk. We are
missing some context as to what exactly that dislike was centered on, what was that based on, but that his family members say that he had become
extremely political in just the last couple of years.
Although we have seen evidence that, there is no indication that he has voted in any of the last two general elections here in the U.S.
[16:05:07]
QUEST: Right, but Ed, what of course, we are going to be focusing on is, yes, he had a deep dislike of Charlie Kirk. And, you know, many of us have
deep dislikes of one thing or another, but we don't go and get a very powerful rifle and shoot and murder someone. So that is going to be it is
either just wanton evilness or, you know, there is mental instability. We just don't know any details on that far yet.
LAVANDERA: No, we don't know all of that, but there is clearly -- and this is something that investigators and prosecutors will point toward when it
comes if there is a question of mental incapacity here, that there was a great deal of planning that went into this and an awareness of what was
happening in the days before leading up to this shooting as well.
We are going to learn a lot more about that as the legal process continues, and as you mentioned right now, he is being held without bail. There is a
court appearance, his initial court appearance scheduled for next Tuesday afternoon. But right now, there is no indication that he will be able to
get out of jail while he awaits this trial.
QUEST: Do we know anything about the family? I mean you know, the -- well, you tell me. Do we know anything?
LAVANDERA: No. We are still obviously working through a lot of that. Other than the indication that it was this -- the conversation with the father
and clearly investigators have also been speaking to some other family members as well. That's how they've shared the details of his dislike for
Charlie Kirk and his kind of going into and getting -- becoming much more political.
QUEST: Right.
00:00:07 Other than those details, exactly which relatives that is coming from, we don't know yet, so we are trying to piece all of that together as
you can imagine.
QUEST: You have many hours ahead of you of work. Thank you. Ed, I am grateful as always.
Now, it took the authorities 33 hours to get that identification of Robinson and take him as a suspect into custody.
The Governor said Robinson was delivered into custody in Southwest Utah. One source says he was initially talking to law enforcement and then went
silent, of course, after getting a lawyer.
Jonathan Wackrow is with me. Our law enforcement analyst, in the Secret Service under President Obama.
Hey, look, this is -- at one level, this is textbook. I mean, it is absolutely, you know, you have the CCTV coverage, you put the picture out,
somebody unfortunately, in this case, the father recognizes and the arrest follows.
This has worked in a sense, as it was supposed to do.
JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. No, you're absolutely right and I can't stress this enough.
The public's role, particularly in the form of the tips that resulted from the release of both the video and the images played a major role in this
case, and if you just put some metrics around this, you know, prior to last night's press conference, the FBI and law enforcement had received 7,000
tips.
Now, every single one of those needed to be reviewed and assessed for actionability whether or not they were valid, they could send law
enforcement to follow up, but from the moment after that press conference last night, another 4,000 tips came in.
So a total aggregate in 36 hours of 11,000, you know, tips coming into law enforcement around this singular matter is a real important metric to just
show how powerful reaching out to the public can be.
QUEST: I think criminologists and, and people like yourself who study this will also be interested to see of those 4,000, how many subsequently would
have proven to be right and identified him.
Now, we know in this case it was the father who did it, but one imagines that buried somewhere in those 4,000 there are potentially others who say
we think it is what is his name -- Robinson -- who lives in 43 whatever it is, Acacia Garden, whatever it might be.
WACKROW: Yes, listen, the challenge with, you know crowdsourcing and reaching out to the public is you're not going to get a clear picture or,
you know, clear information every single time someone reaches out. And by example, what someone might be reporting is, hey, I saw a car speeding down
this roadway. That looks strange to me, right? So, it is not always going to be like, hey, I know who this -- you know, this hostile actor or the
shooter was. It is really painting a mosaic of data points that law enforcement then has to put together. And again, you know, luckily, in this
case, you know, something reached the father or the relative of this shooter that actually, you know, was the catalyst for him to approach his
son, have that conversation, which ultimately led to him going into custody without incident.
QUEST: I mean, when we look at the photographs that we are looking at now, I can't imagine that any father wouldn't recognize their son in that sense.
[16:10:11]
So because on the photograph that we've got, you can actually sort of see the face, you can see the body, the form. You can see the clothing to that
extent.
The interesting thing you raise, of course, is what I was talking yesterday about is the overwhelming information and the speed with which you can sift
it quickly to be able -- because, you know, as we were just saying, somewhere in those 11,000, there may well be five, ten, 15, 20 people who
all have come up with the right name, but it would have taken quite a while to get to them.
WACKROW: No, that's actually a great point and it just -- it speaks to the challenge that law enforcement, both at the state and local and federal
level -- the state, federal and local levels, the challenges that they face when they are, you know in the early phases of these investigations and
they're reaching out to the public for assistance.
Again, you think about the totality of 11,000 tips coming in. That meant that FBI agents, State Patrol officers, every single law enforcement
officer that had a nexus to this case, were actually trying to follow up and triangulate and see where there is commonality across all of those.
So it becomes a big data issue at the end of the day for law enforcement actually to assess, you know, when you talk about that volume and velocity
of information coming in, how do you manage that?
QUEST: We will talk more. I am grateful, Jonathan. Thank you.
Its QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight.
WACKROW: Thank you very much.
QUEST: Now NATO sends a message to Russia, keep your drones out of our member states and it is not just a message, it is backing it up with teeth
by reinforcing the borders.
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: A major announcement by NATO launching what it is calling an Eastern Sentry to keep Russian drones out of NATO member states like Poland.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: NATO is launching Eastern Sentry to bolster our posture even further along our eastern flank. This military
activity will commence in the coming days and will involve a range of assets from allies including Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Germany and
others.
In addition to more traditional military capabilities, this effort will also feature elements designed to address the particular challenges
associated with the use of drones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[16:15:13]
QUEST: Now, the Secretary-General of NATO, Mark Rutte there making it clear how he feels about Russian drones falling onto Polish territory, calling it
reckless and unacceptable.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk also furious, saying it was an attack not by mistake by Russia after President Trump said it could have been an
accident.
Joining me now, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder.
All right, well, now, here we go. This is tricky because you want to react, but you don't want to overreact. You want to tell Russia, get back, but at
the same time, not overdo.
Do you think this -- do you think this does it?
IVO DAALDER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, I think it is an important step because clearly you do want to defend the borders of NATO
against any intrusion, particularly the kind of intentional intrusion we saw a few days ago with 19 drones clearly being directed at Polish
territory.
At the same time, I think a little more than just Eastern Sentry, which is basically, beefing up of the defense of Poland. Polish defenses were
already pretty good. I think a little more beefing up can be done by taking our militaries that are being deployed in Poland and not only shooting
those drones down that are coming across the border, but actually trying to shoot drones and ballistic missiles down that are reaching Ukraine.
Why not? Because we don't know whether those missiles are going to come, be diverted or the drones will fly towards NATO territory. So why not be a
little bit more aggressive and a little bit more willing to defend NATO territory forward?
QUEST: Now, you're a former U.S. Ambassador, so you can speak freely in that sense. It is not very helpful when President Trump talks about, well,
it could have been a mistake when just about everybody and their brother who knows about these things says there is no way this was a mistake.
DAALDER: It is not helpful at all, and in fact, the President's reaction over the past 48 hours has been unhelpful in many ways. As you quoted him,
here we go. I don't know what that means, but it certainly doesn't mean we have your back, Poland.
Yes, he did call the Polish President, but he did not repeat what his ambassador to NATO said, which is that the united states would defend every
inch of NATO territory. U.S. forces were not engaged in finding a way to get these drones out of the skies when they crossed the Polish border, even
though U.S. forces are in large numbers in Poland and many European officials I am talking to are deeply worried that the absence of the United
States at that point, the lack of a commitment to the defense of Poland and the lack of a strong statement from the President of the United States or
indeed the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of State, indicates that perhaps the United States is not committed to defending NATO, and that is a
sea change in the way in which the alliance has evolved over the last 76 years.
QUEST: Okay. Can I -- can we put this in more blunt terms? Do you think that Europe can basically say now that the United States is not a reliable
ally? It has changed policy on Ukraine. It has dithered and doddered. It has not come out strongly. Previous administrations would have absolutely,
if this had happened under Biden, Clinton, Bush, the statements would have been rock solid.
Can we now say that the United States is not a reliable ally?
DAALDER: Well, what we can say is that the United States does not believe, in contrast to every president since President Roosevelt, that European
security is fundamental to American security. You haven't heard this President making that case that the defense of Europe against a Russian
military threat is existential and essential for American security.
He thinks that is far away, that these are wars and problems that the Europeans need to solve, not the United States. That is a big deal. The
Europeans are slowly coming to understand that they cannot trust the United States, and that they will have to defend themselves because they can't
trust the United States.
QUEST: Aren't the real sort of baddies in all of this the Republicans in Congress, those who, you know, before January would have been the hawks
galore. They would have been the ones saying, no, we've got to et cetera et cetera et cetera. They were the ones forcing Biden to send more, if you
will, into the last year. Now, oh no. See nothing here. Nothing, nothing. Keep moving, keep moving.
[16:20:10]
DAALDER: Well, the hawks in Congress, the Republicans in Congress were already moving away in 2024. Remember how hard it was for President Biden
to get that last big package of some $60 billion to $30 billion military assistance and another $30 billion economic assistance through Congress
because the House, the Republican House did not want to vote for it, and in the end, it did.
So it has been there for a while. But yes, you're absolutely right, particularly in the Senate, particularly where people like Lindsey Graham
and others have been extremely hawkish on Ukraine, extremely hawkish on Russia, we don't seem to hear their voices as loudly and as clearly today
as when the Democrats were in power.
QUEST: Just to be clear, sir, so that there is no confusion. You don't believe it was a mistake all of those drones?
DAALDER: I do not. I believe it was deeply intentional to test primarily the defenses of NATO, which I think did very well, but also the degree to
which the United States was committed to the defense of Europe. And on that, I think Vladimir Putin got his answer, and it is not one that any one
of us was hoping he would get.
QUEST: I am grateful, sir. Thank you, Ambassador.
Hundreds of South Korean workers arrived home on Friday after being detained by U.S. Immigration officials. You're familiar with the story.
The anger back home threatens to unravel plans by South Korean firms to invest. CNN's Mike Valerio was in Incheon, that's the airport in Seoul when
the workers landed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was quite emotional for so many who were gathered here at Incheon International Airport, seeing not one,
not two, but more than 300 -- three hundred sixteen former ICE detainees being flown in from Georgia back home here in South Korea.
We should tell you when you're looking at this video, so much of it has been blurred out of privacy concerns, privacy regulations, laws are quite
strict here in South Korea, and none of these people have been charged with crimes.
So the question now moves to how could this be prevented in the future for any South Korean company that has investments, big projects in the United
States right now, or is planning to do so, what will change to avoid any kind of visa confusion, mix up, or this visa situation that has befallen
more than 300 people, impacting them in myriad ways?
You know, South Korea's president actually spoke to that. Let's listen to what he said.
LEE JAE MYUNG, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): From the perspective of companies, they will be concerned about disadvantageous
treatment or facing difficulties when they're building factories in the United States. That could probably have a significant impact on direct
investment in the U.S. in the future.
VALERIO: So we should show you before the 316 former detainees came through the arrival doors, this banner was put up, almost twice as tall as I am
with the words in English, "We're friends, aren't we?" With a figure dressed in black, the letters I-C-E -- ICE -- across the chest, chains
around one shoulder and assault style weapon and a smiling mask of U.S. President Donald Trump, certainly indicative of a strain of outcry when we
are talking about the emotional reactions that have befallen this country over the past week.
So in terms of what changes? South Korea's President has talked about, perhaps things in motion to increase the visa quotas between the United
States and South Korea, perhaps create a new class or category of visas for businesses that are investing in the United States, again, all with the
goal of making sure what we saw a few days ago does not happen again.
Mike Valerio, CNN, Incheon, South Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: What a busy week it has been and a busy Friday to finish.
In a moment, I will bring you more on the murder of the conservative activist, Charlie Kirk. The man is now in custody. We will talk about that
in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:27:24]
QUEST: Hello, I am Richard Quest. You and I have a lot more to talk about tonight. I am going to tell you about President Trump meeting the Qatari
Prime Minister only days after that Israeli attack against Doha.
And buy now, pay later, the giant, Klarna, well, its IPO closed its first week on the New York Stock Exchange. I will speak to the chief executive
about the Wall Street debut. All of that only after you and I have had some of the news, because this is CNN and on this network, the news always comes
first.
NATO is beefing up the defenses of Europe's eastern flank by taking action after Russian drone incursions into polish airspace. Poland says there were
19 intrusions of the country's airspace on Wednesday, and that it was not a mistake.
Gaza's Civil Defense says Israeli airstrikes have destroyed more than 130 residential buildings in Gaza City in the last week alone, and that
includes 12 towers more than seven floors high. Civil Defense officials say the attacks left more than 50,000 people homeless.
Authorities have arrested a suspect in the shooting murder of the conservative activist, Charlie Kirk. He is 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and
is now being held in a Utah jail on multiple charges, including aggravated murder. He is believed to have acted alone, and sources say he is not
currently talking to investigators.
And so we are now learning more about Charlie Kirk's murderer, alleged murderer, I should say. Now, Tyler Robinson, lived in Southwest Utah, which
is several hours away from the university where Kirk was killed. Voter registration records show he was unaffiliated with either party and did not
vote in the past two elections. A relative told authorities Robinson had become more political in recent years and spoke critically of Kirk before
the shooting.
According to Utah's Governor, the shooting marks a pivotal moment during a time of flaring political tensions across the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COX: I absolutely believe that this is a watershed in American history, yes. The question is, what kind of watershed? And that that chapter remains
to be written. Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history, or the beginning of a darker chapter in our history?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: John Miller is with me, our chief law enforcement. John, I always find the best thing to ask you is what is the most interesting and
important aspect of the day's developments?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: I think the most interesting thing is how this came to pass, which is his father
noticing the pictures and confronting him, and this is after the new pictures came out yesterday, and the suspect allegedly admitting to his
dad. Yes, that was me and the Dad saying, I think you need to surrender, and he allegedly said to his father, according to what we are told by law
enforcement authorities, I'd rather kill myself than surrender.
[16:30:05]
But the father persuaded him to talk to a pastor who was also a chaplain for the Sheriff's Office and worked with the Fugitive Task Force, and after
that conversation, that information was passed to the U.S. Marshals who gave it to the FBI, and by 10:00 that night, last night, he was in custody.
I just find it fascinating that with all of the investigators and all of the resources brought to this case, the strategy that worked, and they
tried multiple strategies simultaneously, was pushing this out to the public on the idea that nobody is going to recognize this guy walking down
the street with sunglasses and a hat wearing different clothes, but a family member is going to know him, because you know your kid, and that's
exactly what happened.
QUEST: You know, I'm not in any sense diminishing that, but that is classic, good old fashioned police work.
MILLER: Totally. And by the way, Richard, I can't tell you, in law enforcement, both in the LAPD and in the FBI and in the NYPD, the number of
times that you came to this juncture at a case where you said, all right, our initial suspect washed out, just like it did in this case, our second
suspect washed out. We have all this information, these images, these clues. Let's push this out to the public.
And the first reaction of the investigators is often no, no, no, no. We need to keep that close hold. We need to work all the angles. We need to do
this. That's the last resort.
When we keep learning again and again. And this is why I always pushed for these releases. It's a pretty good first resort, because I can put 3000
detectives on something or 500 but when you put the information out there you get, you know, 300 million eyes and ears in the United States all
looking at the same thing. You're going to get a result.
Now, yes, you're going to go through a lot of false leads on the way to that. They got 7000 leads to date. Yesterday, when they did their press
conference, they got 4000 more. So, they were drowning in 11,000 leads. But one of them came in that looked really good. They followed up on it
immediately, and that was what solved the case.
QUEST: Now I just want to take you down another avenue, if I may, the criticisms on the FBI, particularly Kash Patel, the director. It's
sometimes -- I'm not -- I don't know, but you'll tell me whether it's fair criticism or not, or is this trying to politicize because he is a
controversial director?
MILLER: Well, the criticisms of Kash Patel, in this case, have largely been about, you know, why is the FBI director tweeting out that there is a
subject in custody who is responsible for the shooting, then tweeting out that person has been released and, you know, kind of putting the FBI
director in the position of being the main spokesman for moment to moment developments on the case. That's not really the traditional FBI director's
role.
On the other hand, there is our piece of this, Richard, which is we are pressuring them to be more transparent, to give us information, to not sit
on it, so we can't bite back when the hand that is feeding us is feeding us too fast in some measure.
But it is normally the function of the FBI office of Public Affairs, or the special agent in charge in the field who is running the case. And I think
by being that front man and the face and the voice of the case right away, Kash Patel added to his own vulnerability, because when these things
backfired, you know, he's holding that bag.
QUEST: John, I'm grateful. Thank you, sir. John Miller with us.
MILLER: Thanks, Richard.
QUEST: In an interview this morning, President Trump says he hopes Robinson will be sentenced to death. Utah's Governor previously said officials would
pursue the death penalty if a suspect were caught and convicted. Robinson is currently being held on multiple charges, formal ones are expected on
Tuesday, when he'll make his first court appearance. Now, federal charges could also be added.
CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is with me. Firstly, how appropriate is it do you think? You know, I saw what the president said. It's very
much, we got him. We'll get the death penalty. What I didn't hear was, the man will get a fair trial, and if convicted, then we expect blah, blah,
blah. Or am I just being old fashioned and fuddy duddy?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: No, I think that's traditionally what presidents have said. They can go a little beyond just he'll get his trial.
They can say we're grateful for the efforts of law enforcement.
[16:35:07]
But you're right. What Donald Trump said today is not the usual thing you would hear from a president.
And by the way, don't be surprised if this defendant's lawyers at some point argue that the case needs to be dismissed because of those
statements, they'll say, look, you have the most visible, most powerful person in the United States in instantly declaring him guilty, instantly
declaring the need to impose the death penalty.
Now, it's very, very hard to succeed on those types of claims. I don't think that that will get this case thrown out, but it will give the defense
something to at least complain about and argue to the judge.
QUEST: So, in the evidence -- who knows what it looks like at the moment. I mean, from what we've seen, it seems relatively strong, but that there's a
long way between here and there. The use of the death penalty here is interesting, because we're going to end up with -- I mean, there is a
federal death penalty as well, but we've got state charges, obviously, for murder in some shape or form, and now it looks like the Feds may have a go
as well. The Feds take priority? Who takes priority here?
HONIG: So, that usually gets worked out between the state and the federal government. Now it's interesting to note, we know that one of the charges
that he's being held on right now in the state of Utah is what we call aggravated murder. That tells me that they're already going to seek, or
planning to seek the death penalty.
Because ordinary first degree murder is punishable by life. In order to get it up to being death penalty eligible, you have to show an aggravating
factor, what we call aggravating murder.
I think the aggravating factor, if you look at Utah law here, is going to be that in the course of killing the victim, he also endangered other
people who were in the area. So, I think that's what we're going to see on the state side.
Now, you can have simultaneous state and federal charges that some people think, well, isn't that double jeopardy? The answer is, no. The Supreme
Court told us, reconfirmed a few years ago that you can have simultaneous federal and state prosecutions.
But the trick here is going to be you have to find a federal jurisdictional hook. Not every murder is automatically a federal case, right?
So, it may depend on the gun, if the gun was somehow illegal or illegally possessed, if the serial number was defaced, if it was sawed off, it does
not appear this person was a prior felon. All those things would make it work.
So, they're going to have to find a hook here if they want to bring a federal charge.
QUEST: Right. So, let me jump on that, bearing in mind the political nature of this. And national political aspect of it is that, is there any loophole
that gets you through the fed into the federal system, simply because this is of national -- you know, it's the equivalent of crossing state lines.
It's raised above a mere state issue or am I just -- am I just lunatic.
HONIG: Yes, you're not a lunatic, Richard. You're on the right track there.
But it's not enough to get a case into federal court to just say there's national or international interest in this, that's not going to be enough.
However, one theory that I'm really interested to see if the Feds use is there is a federal crime called deprivation of civil rights. And it could
be that they argue that, because if they can show that Charlie Kirk was murdered because of his political speech, that he was killed in order to
prevent him from exercising his First Amendment right to free speech, we've seen variations of this in the police violence cases where people, for
example, the police officers who murdered George Floyd, were charged with depriving him of his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable
searches and seizures.
So, this would be an unusual application, but that's really the only way, at this point that I can think of for the feds to get this case into
federal court.
QUEST: Now, if you go down that route as the deprivation of civil rights -- of his -- of his rights, can you then Christmas tree onto that the murder
charge.
HONIG: Right. So, that would be -- it would be deprivation of civil rights resulting in death. And so, what that would do is take the ordinary maximum
for a civil rights case, which is 20 years, and raise that Max up, and it can make it even death eligible.
And by the way, the decision whether to pursue the death penalty in the federal system sits with DOJ itself, sits with the attorney general. I've
been through that process. I've had to go write all the paperwork. Ordinarily, it takes many, many months, but it's really up to the A.G.
I mean, if they do bring federal charges, and they are death eligible charges, Pam Bondi can just decide, as she will, that she wants to seek the
death penalty. That's up to the attorney general.
QUEST: And I think that we know which way that would go in the event if that comes along. In fact, I don't think there were too many memos written
concerned.
Elie, you're always great to put this into perspective. Thank you, sir.
HONIG: Thanks for Richard, appreciate it.
QUEST: Now, President Trump will set to meet with Qatar's Prime Minister. It's going to be a dinner, and we'll talk about what happens after.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:43:00]
QUEST: Delicate diplomacy for President Trump as he seeks to mediate the dispute between two very close U.S. allies.
Tonight, he's having dinner with Qatar's Prime Minister and the U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are all in New York. Qatar is furious over
Tuesday's Israeli air strike in Doha that Hamas has killed five of its members. A Qatari security official was also killed.
President Trump's voiced unhappiness over the strike, which risks derailing U.S. backed efforts to end the war in Gaza and, of course, get the
remaining Israeli hostages out.
Kristen Holmes is at the White House. Well, this is tricky, isn't it? This is a rather interesting one, because the president's already said he
doesn't like anything about what happened in Doha, and now he's sitting with Qatar. I mean, you tell me what's happening next.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's very clear that President Trump and Steve Witkoff the Middle Eastern envoy, want to smooth
things over with Qatar.
And just to go back through the events of that strike, what we know is that Israel didn't even reach out directly to President Trump. It was the U.S.
military Dan Caine who reached out to Trump to tell him that these strikes were going to be happening. Trump then immediately told the Middle Eastern
envoy, Steve Witkoff to notify Qatar, but by the time Witkoff got in touch with them, it was 10 minutes into the strikes.
The White House had released a statement through the press secretary saying that they were unhappy, that they tried to warn Qatar, and that Steve
Witkoff had gotten in touch with them, to which the prime minister said any reports that we got a heads up were -- are false.
So, then the White House had to clarify that he tried to get in touch with them, but it was too late by the time he had, they were very angry inside
of the White House.
This is a relationship that they really are depending on right now for a number of things. They've done a number of business deals, but also, as you
noted, Qatar has been instrumental in helping negotiate between Israel and Hamas trying to get the hostages back.
[16:45:10]
But they've also been instrumental on the world stage overall. They have helped with various negotiations with other countries. They played a role
as a key ally, in part because Witkoff has a long standing relationship with the Qataris.
So, this is an opportunity for President Trump to smooth over the situation. Again, he was unhappy with the fact that the way this rolled
out, particularly that, one, they were told so late that the United States couldn't weigh in, and two, that they didn't even have time to warn Qatar
amid Qatar helping the United States with negotiations.
QUEST: I'm grateful to you. Thank you. Have a good weekend. Thank you very much.
Now, a former chief justice has been sworn in as Nepal's interim prime minister, and her first task, calm the country in turmoil. Christy Lou
stout reports
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A dramatic week in Nepal as the capital turned into an inferno. Protesters in
Kathmandu torched government buildings, including the parliament and the home of the former prime minister who was forced to step down on Tuesday,
high rise buildings like the Hilton Hotel were also destroyed. Some ministers were evacuated, airlifted to safety by helicopters as
demonstrators closed in.
SURAJ RAJ PANDEY, EYEWITNESS: Yesterday night was super, super, super scary. We had -- I could actually see a lot of high rises burning into
flames right from a balcony. Everything is burning around Kathmandu, so we cannot sleep all night yesterday.
STOUT (voice over): The protesters are young, defiant and demanding change.
It's very good for our country, he says. Now, I think like us, the youth will stand.
The protests were initially triggered by a social media ban, but after the government lifted it on Monday, they intensified, fuelled by a wider set of
grievances, including government corruption, lack of economic opportunities, and the recent use of lethal force on protesters. Dozens of
people were killed, and more than a thousand wounded. This video was filmed by Shree Gurung, another eyewitness.
SHREE GURUNG, EYEWITNESS: This young little girl was hit by a batten on her head, and was she was completely bloody, and I was trying to help her out.
And a lot of kids, they started falling down, and they started beating. They started fighting everywhere, and then everyone ran.
STOUT: In all the chaos, you were wounded as well?
GURUNG: Yes, I'm wounded. I've got a treatment on my hand and at my back and legs.
STOUT (voice over): The U.N. condemned the violence.
VOLKER TURK, U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF: I have received concerning reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by the security forces. I
call for an urgent, thorough, transparent and impartial investigation.
STOUT (voice over): Protest anger has extended online to videos like this, mocking so called Nepo kids, the entitled children of officials.
The protests are being led by young people known as Gen Z and their pick for interim leader. Nepal's first female Chief Justice, Sushila Karki, will
now step in. As the authorities try to resolve the political vacuum, a nationwide curfew is still in place as the city smolders and tries to
rebuild.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Klarna shares closed slightly lower to end their first week of trading. I spoke to the company's chief executive after the closing bell,
when it was all done and dusted. The interview in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:51:21]
QUEST: The buy now, pay later Klarna has wrapped up its first trading on Wall Street. The shares popped when it IPO. They've now drifted down to
pretty much towards the $40.00 issue price. Klarna says it raised about 1.4 billion from its IPO. I spoke to the chief executive after the closing bell
and asked him how the company plans to keep growing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEBASTIAN SIEMIATKOWSKI, CEO, KLARNA: What we're famous for is buy now, pay later, which is a little bit of both a blessing and a curse, because that's
what most people associate with us.
But the truth is, in Europe, we're like PayPal. We're a wallet. People use us. 20 percent of our transactions are people are paying the full amount.
So, customers are using us to buy everything, and we think of ourselves as a third-party network like American Express or PayPal that competes with
Visa and MasterCard. We have over half a million merchants live. We're growing that place very, very fast, and consumers use us for all type of
purchases, whether it's DoorDash or Uber or Macy's or Sephora.
And the big difference is, historically, you use the credit card. Credit cards were trying to make you rack up debt for $5,000, 30, 40 percent
interest rate. We're doing zero percent short term installments, fixed time. And we encourage people to use debit and occasionally use us for a
single purchase of $100 so people just borrow on average $100 from us compared to credit cards of $4,000.
QUEST: You obviously are very successful at that, that middle way, if one wants to call it, very Swedish in a way, isn't it, the middle way?
But I do wonder, and so you're making your money on the transaction costs and from the retailer and from the front from the retailer. And that's in a
sense, the retailer is bearing the cost of the zero percent on the short term payments.
SIEMIATKOWSKI: That's true, but you have to remember, we're from Europe where interchange is regulated. Credit card fees in Europe are 0.4 percent
40 basis points. Debit is 20, 0.2.
In the U.S. credit cards cost merchants 200 basis points, two percent and debit cards cost 100 basis points.
In addition to that, credit card companies make another 2.5 percent by borrowing people and making them revolve and revolve on the credit cards. A
$100 transaction in the U.S., banks make 5.5 percent on. I mean, that's insane.
So, for us, coming from a European perspective, we're like, whoa. There's a lot of margin here. There's a lot of opportunity. We can offer these
services for merchants at very attractive rates, and we can offer consumer zero percent interest, and we know we make that business work. Our losses
are lower than credit cards, 30 percent by industry standards.
So, to us, we're just looking at this. So, say, hey, this is a market that hasn't been disrupted. Banks have been making too much money. There's
tremendous opportunity here to bring, you know, more value for less money.
QUEST: Firstly, so when you come into this or when you expand, do you move towards the U.S. credit cards and debit cards, their rates, or do you stick
to your European frugality and hope that more people come to you because of that.
SIEMIATKOWSKI: Look, I was -- one of my biggest privilege was I went to Bentonville, Arkansas, and I had the opportunity as we were launching our
partnership with Walmart, and I found myself standing at Sam Walton's grave, and it was just such an emotional experience for me, who coming, you
know, from a small city in Sweden, and now get the chance to work with the greatest retailer in the world. And I feel there's so much commonality in
the culture in the Midwest with Sweden.
[16:55:02]
And one of the things that I really appreciate about Walmart, that I think made them such a successful company, was when they got their profit up,
when they started making more money, they piled that back into lower prices and higher quality. You are willing to do that over decades. You're going
to move and make a big difference.
And I don't know, Richard, last time you heard about a bank who were like, oh, we did quarterly profit of the records, and now we're lowering our
interest rate and bringing lower prices to our customer. It's just hasn't been happening in this industry, and if we are willing and committed to do
that long term, we build a trust with our audience that's just fantastic, and a preference that's going to make them prefer our products over the
alternatives, and that's pretty -- that's what we've seen. 26 million Americans see that value.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: That's the CEO of Klarna. Apparently, there's a very large waiting list for the Klarna card, particularly here in the United States.
I just want to show you the markets and how we ended as the end of the week. Don't forget, next week we have a Fed meeting the Federal Reserve.
So, we're off 273, that's the lowest point on the day, still in record territory, so to speak. Look at the Dow 30, and you'll get a bit more
perspective only -- well, that really shows it all, doesn't it?
But the losses aren't huge, with the worst being just down to. It was pharma that pulled the market down because of the prospect of cheaper U.S.
drugs, but more expensive drugs elsewhere in the world, we'll have a profitable moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: And tonight's profitable moment is the U.S. a reliable ally? Well, reliability means predictability. It means you know where you stand. It
means that if a situation happens, that you can rely that your ally will follow through.
When it comes to NATO and now, of course, Russia and Ukraine, that has to be called into question, and it's not must me saying that you heard it
tonight from a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, because the United States simply will not commit in the way that previous Presidents have to the
support of NATO.
If there was to be more provocation by Russia into Poland, Romania, any other of the countries around in the region, could NATO rely on the U.S.?
You may say, yes, absolutely, but would you put money on it? That's really the question tonight that people in Europe are asking, can they rely on the
United States?
[17:00:11]
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York. We'll be together next week, but for the moment, whatever you're up to in
the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. Have a lovely weekend, and let's get together on Monday.
END
