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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Trump And Vance Close Out Two-Night GOP Event In Texas; Kimmel Moves Talarico Interview From T.V. To Online; Retired New York City Firefighter Reflects On 9/11; IAEA: North Korea Ramping Up Capacity to Enrich Uranium; Speakers Honor Charlie Kirk on Anniversary of His Killing; Conspiracy theorists Target Charlie Kirk Killing Witnesses. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 11, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michelson.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles. Coming up this hour, President Trump asked voters to raise their right hand and repeat his pledge at the Republican midterm convention. Plus, it's now been 25 years since the devastating terror attacks on 9/11. We'll take you live to New York and speak with a New York City firefighter who was there about how he remembers that day and his message to the next generation of first responders.
But we start with our top story this hour, the Republican midterm convention. President Trump and Vice President Vance closing out night two in Dallas, Texas. The theme tonight highlight Republican achievements since President Trump returned to the White House and called the Democrats crazy. The president's speech was a lot shorter than on Wednesday when he spoke for more than two hours. He said, I'm going to be brief but he still spoke for over 30 minutes.
The vice president was interrupted several times by people cheering for him to run for president himself in 2028. CNN's White House Correspondent Alayna Treene is in Dallas where she's been following all the speeches.
Alayna?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Elex, this was quite a night, the president closing out the Republican midterm convention for the second night in a row. I do want to apologize, we're actually still hearing some of the balloons that had fallen at the end of the speeches tonight. They're still popping behind me.
But look, even though the president closed it out, really, the keynote speaker on Thursday was the vice president, JD Vance. And sometimes it actually felt like a audition for 2028. One thing Vance did was he actually focused on a lot of the issues I know Republicans at large want their leaders to be talking about. He talked about affordability. He talked about how he believes Democrats are anti-family and Republicans are pro-family. He specifically called Abdul El-Sayed, of course, the U.S. Senate candidate who's running for Senate in Michigan as being a foil, you know, a representative of what he argued were the crazy left lunatics who were taking over the Democratic Party. What he didn't do is mention a lot of topics Republicans want to avoid, things like Iran, tariffs, the presidential ballroom, all things Trump, I should note, actually did talk about on Wednesday.
But look, at one moment, people in the crowd did break out into chants of JD 48. Jan -- Vance try to, you know, play it off. He argued that's too far in the future. We need to focus first on the midterms. But it did feel very much like a speech geared toward that potential presidential run.
As for the president himself, he came on recycled a lot of the material we heard him give last night. But one moment that really stood out to me was when he asked the crowd to raise their right hands and pledge to bring their family and their friends to the polls on November 3rd, so help me God. I could hear them as they responded in unison, so help me God, they would go to the polls in November. That was really the purpose of this entire two day event, Elex.
And one last thing I want to note, there was the classic balloon drop, as I mentioned, you can still hear them popping. But it was different from a normal convention where you have, you know, people who are being nominated. Instead, it was the president standing up there alone, swaying to the music as the balloons fell. Kind of symbolic for a convention that was conceived by him for him. So just keep that in mind as we look ahead to whether or not this will actually do what his team intended and convince enough members of his base to get out there on November 3rd. Elex.
MICHAELSON: Alayna Treene, thank you.
Our panel is here. Areva Martin got the orange memo, apparently. She of course, civil rights attorney and legal affairs commentator. And the president of the Global Policy Institute at Lowell in Marymount University, Michael Genovese, is here. Both of two of our favorites together for the first time here on The Story Is. Welcome to you both.
Let's hear some from JD Vance and his potential audition. It's interesting. We heard both the version that was trying to maybe appeal to centrist Democrats and the red meat for the base kind of going back and forth. So watch both of these moments combined and you see kind of two different messages. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got to send a message this November that the country does not belong to the radicals. It does not belong to the bureaucrats. It does not belong to the highest bidder. This country was handed down to us by our parents and their parents before them. We received this national birthright and we are going to fight for it by elected Republicans this November.
Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there. Look, I'm not asking anybody to agree with me on every single issue. I'm not asking anybody to agree with on every single policy of the administration. What I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months. We have done a lot, my friends, and we can do a lot more if we fight together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:02]
MICHAELSON: So, Michael, how the audition go?
MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Poorly. JD Vance is no Donald Trump. I'm not trying to say that Vance is boring, but his Secret Service code name is Joe Biden. But you know, he was calling the -- this is the Republican playbook calling the opposition crazy. Every accusation by the Trump folks is really a confession. And if you listen to Trump's or watch his tweets from the weekend, dozens and dozens and dozens just crazy tweets.
And so him calling the opposition crazy is like, you know, look in the mirror.
MICHAELSON: Well, isn't it interesting just that the contrast that President Trump, Areva, couldn't let JD Vance have his moment, right? He comes on, right, afterwards and then says I'm going to be brief and then does a 30 minute rehash of all the same material from the night before.
AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY & LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, the correspondent got it right, this is for him, about him. Because everything Trump does --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
MARTIN: -- is about him.
MICHAELSON: And the playlist at the end, by the way, the music were all his favorite songs. They just playing his playlist.
MARTIN: Because everything is about --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
MARTIN: -- Donald Trump. And no, he's not going to let JD Vance or Ted Cruz or anyone have their moment because he cannot afford in his brain to ever let anyone shine. So this whole two-day disaster was about him getting out, doing the same thing that he does, makes the same arguments, tells the same lies, the same false promises over and over again. And the desperation, they're so desperate. The pledge, you pledged to come out and vote and if you do, guess what, if we win, we'll give you $5,000.
It's clear that they've gotten a memo that the American people are fed up, that they have not performed, he has not kept his promises and that people want to change and they're ready to vote for a change in the midterm elections and they are running scared.
MICHAELSON: Well, even on the $5,000 thing, Michael, it's been interesting because it really has divided the Republicans. Like Laura Ingraham, of all people on Fox, interviewed President Trump today and said to him, you guys run the government now, why can't you just give out $5,000? Why do we got to wait on this? And President Trump had sort of a rambling answer on that. So even some of the House Republicans are like, what is that?
GENOVESE: Well, you know, last week it was announced that the budget deficit $40 trillion.
MICHAELSON: Trillion with the T.
GENOVESE: And this will add 1.2, 1.3 trillion to where we're going to get it from. And so, you know, just think about $5,000, you'll pay me $5,000 to vote for Republicans. It's insulting to me. No, convince me that you've earned my vote. Don't say you're going to pay me to vote for -- to vote.
MICHAELSON: But all that being said, Areva, the base loves Donald Trump. You could see the people were all about him that were in that room right there. He has won multiple presidential elections. He brings people out to vote when his name is on the ballot that had never voted before. So is there maybe some value to this strategy if his name is on the ballot?
Maybe it does bring out his people in the base --
MARTIN: Well, you got to ask, why do you need this midterm convention, if that's what you want to call it, if there was confidence that the base would turn out because Donald Trump isn't on the ballot, he can tell people as much as he wants. But when you get to your ballots, you're not going to see the name Donald Trump anywhere. And the reality is people are fed up with Republicans. They've lost confidence. So many of the things that were promised, like bringing down the prices of gas, bringing down the price of groceries, addressing affordability, it hasn't been done.
They don't have a record to run on. So let's run on this populism. Let's run on these false promises. And that's what we saw these two days, just lie after lie after lie from Donald Trump. And then JD Vance gets up and tries to, as you said, appeal to, I don't know, independents.
But after he's called everyone crazy and made all kinds of insulting comments about you, then he says, well, vote for us anyhow.
MICHAELSON: Well, he's trying to make the point that he thinks that the Democrats are crazy and communists and you may not love everything we've done, but at least we're not like that. And don't give them, don't trust them, all that's happening. You know, this Texas Senate race is underway as well, James Talarico against Ken Paxton. The president continues to say that Ken Paxton doesn't look very good, doesn't speak well on T.V. and has a bad style, but he's a great attorney general, you should vote for him. James Talarico is here in Southern California talking to Jimmy Kimmel. The FCC apparently threatened ABC if you talk to Talarico and don't talk to Paxton, we will cause problems for you. So they released the interview on YouTube. Let's watch some of that which just came out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE" HOST: This is not the first time you've been demoted to YouTube.
JAMES TALARICO, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: That's right.
KIMMEL: When you were on Stephen Colbert show --
TALARICO: That's right.
KIMMEL: -- this same, very same thing happened. Why are they so scared of you?
TALARICO: Well, they're worried that we're going to win this race in Texas.
KIMMEL: It tickles me that it's -- that they're terrified of you. I mean, no offense, but you look like Richie Cunningham. It's like --
[01:10:06]
TALARICO: I'm not very scary.
KIMMEL: You look like you're running for student council.
TALARICO: That's right. I don't know what about this Boy Scout scares him so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Richie Cunningham, a reference to "Happy Days" for people that may be -- yes. Trump calls him Alfred E. Newman. So neither one of those are references or for the Gen Z voters here. But this idea, Areva, of the FCC potentially threatening them, some might say ABC, why don't you just have Ken Paxton on and you wouldn't have a problem.
MARTIN: Well, what we've seen is former FCC commissioners, both Republican and Democrats coming out saying that the FCC chair is weaponizing the U.S. government, weaponizing that office to force stations to carry messages and to interview people that carry a pro- Trump message. And if you don't do that, then they threaten you with, you know, investigations and pulling your license and it's absolutely absurd. And for decades, late night shows like this show was exempt from this fair play rule that says if you have one party on a candidate from one party, you have to have the candidate from the other party. And so now we see this FCC literally meddling in the business of television stations. That's why ABC has filed a federal lawsuit because of these threats against "The View" and now the night -- the late night shows. MICHAELSON: Does it potentially, Michael, help James Talarico, when this happened with Stephen Colbert, he went on YouTube, he got nine and a half million views. Talarico already putting this out on social media saying, the interview the Trump administration doesn't want you to see, does it actually increase eyeballs and help them?
GENOVESE: You know, Americans tend to love an underdog. And Trump and Paxton are making Talarico into the underdog, but is a feisty underdog and is -- has a very positive, almost giddy kind of message. Whereas Paxton is selling gloom and doom, Talarico is selling hope. And this election is wide open. Neither party has captured the romance of the times or the imagination of the public.
And so they're hungry to find the message that resonates with voters. Talarico has found that in part as Mamdani did in New York. People would say I don't agree with Mamdani, but gosh, you know, he's buoyant, he's positive, he's hopeful. That's what Talarico is doing. In a world where right now we are just at each other's throats, a positive message well delivered can beat the Republicans.
MICHAELSON: Of course, Mamdani in New York had a lot more Democratic voters to choose from.
GENOVESE: Oh, yes.
MICHAELSON: It's more challenging in Texas, but the recent polls show that Talarico's got a chance, if not ahead, which would be devastating for Republicans to lose that state.
Great to see both of you, two of our favorites, delivering as always. Thank you so much.
GENOVESE: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: Republicans at that convention held a somber commemoration marking the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Of course, that happened 25 years ago today. Ave Maria played in the background as tribute footage was projected onto a big screen. Some audience members were moved to tears during a salute from first responders and military personnel.
Still ahead on The Story Is we'll have more on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 as Americans gather to honor the lives lost. Up next, a firefighter who was in the middle of that. He's an amazing hero. We'll talk to him. But we go to break with this drones that are recreating the twin Towers in New York, a spectacular sight happening right now in New York City.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:18:13]
MICHAELSON: Now to live pictures from New York. You're looking at ground zero there as the city prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attack. All four living former U.S. presidents will attend the memorial at ground zero in the hours ahead. President Trump, however, will not be there. He will instead mark the occasion at the Pentagon.
A special remembrance taking shape in the skies over New York this week. Drones recreating the outline of the Twin Towers, 2,977 lights, one for each life lost during the September 11th attacks. Organizers say the aerial artwork was made by artists 9/11 families, survivors and first responders.
Twenty-five years ago today, the course of American history changed in a single morning, an attack orchestrated by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Nineteen hijackers took control of four passenger jets, turning them into weapons and deadly attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and the nation's capital. The president at the time, George W. Bush, visited ground zero in New York days later, speaking these iconic words to rescue workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people -- and the people who knock these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: The 9/11 memorial says thousands of first responders, including some who spent months working at the site, have since died from 9/11 related cancers and other illnesses. New York's mayor just released records showing that city officials knew the air around ground zero was unsafe to breathe, despite repeatedly assuring the public otherwise.
[01:20:00]
Joining me now is retired FDNY firefighter Tim Brown, who was eating breakfast in Seven World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001. He's also the author of the new book "The Greatest Love, Lessons for Living with Extraordinary Courage Even After the Worst Day of Your Life."
Tim Brown, welcome to The Story Is.
TIM BROWN, RETIRED NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTER AND 9/11 SURVIVOR: Hey, Elex, thanks for having me.
MICHAELSON: So there is a whole generation of people that weren't even alive during September 11th, don't remember what that day was like. Can you tell us a little bit about your story from that day so that they know what that was like?
BROWN: Yes, that was just a normal going to work day. I went to work in Seven World Trade Center for the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management under Mayor Giuliani. The power went out in the building and that was the first unusual thing that I noticed. The building across the street from my building was hit by Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. that morning. My job was to go to the command post in the North Tower lobby. I saw many of my friends in that North Tower lobby. And every one of them who I talked with knew that if they went in that stairwell, they likely were not coming back. And you know what, Elex, every one of them still did it. Every one of them chose to go up those stairwells because people needed their help. And that is why I named the book "The Greatest Love," because at the end of each of their lives, each of these heroes lives, the cops, the firemen, they chose because we have free will, they chose to go up that staircase and help people they didn't know.
And that is what the greatest love is. And I named the book that in their honor.
MICHAELSON: What is the most important lesson on living that you learn from them?
BROWN: Live every day as if it's your last. I mean, it couldn't be more clear. Live with graciousness, with humility, with love, with joy and with happiness because it might be the last day of your life. And you know, that's what happened to these heroes. Three hundred 43 New York City firemen, 37 Port Authority police officers, 23 NYPD police officers, paramedics, other law enforcement and other ordinary Americans live life every day.
Treat people well, love others, and I guess shun evil and fight back against evil.
MICHAELSON: There's some news this week. The mayor of New York released documents that showed that officials back then knew that the air quality was a lot worse than they were letting on. And first responders, everyday New Yorkers continue to work in not great conditions. We've seen so many sicknesses over the years after that. What's your response to these latest documents?
BROWN: It is a very, very difficult question to answer. For context, I am sick currently with 9/11 cancer. So I am a part of hundreds or thousands of workers who are there or survivors who are there who are sick. Just about everybody I know that was there is sick today. So with that context, what I personally would say is that when I was there on the pile, when I was looking for my brothers and my friends and any other innocent people, I did not care about putting a mask on my face.
All I cared about was trying to get down through the rubble because we thought that there were still people alive. We didn't know that we wouldn't find anyone, but we really thought that they might be alive, including 100 of my friends. So for me, putting a mask on my face when it was so hot or so cold or so wet or rain or whatever, and those masks are sliding all over your face, to me, what they did is they just got in the way. So, you know, for anyone that knew the air was toxic and denied it, they have to listen -- or they have to live with that. But it would not have made any difference or any change in the way I behave -- behaved that day.
[01:25:12]
And I think that most of the rescue workers would agree with what I said.
MICHAELSON: And lastly, sir, what do you think is the enduring legacy of the first responders of 9/11?
BROWN: Well, certainly, you know, book "The Greatest Love" because that's what they all did. They were selfless and courageous and they were American heroes who stepped forward and send me. What I think for enduring legacy is that that is what firefighters and who firefighters and police officers and paramedics in our military are. And I have great confidence in the future of firefighters and police officers and military and intelligence community.
The young people I know who are getting into these career paths and taking these oaths make me so very proud. I have Greek berets, I have paramedics, I have agents. The list goes on who are young people who I've mentored. So I really am bullish on the next generation. I have great confidence that they will carry it forward and I love all of them and I hope they learn from the sacrifices of my generation.
MICHAELSON: There's a lot that we all can learn from great men like you. Thank you so much for what you have done for our country.
BROWN: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: Thank you so much for sharing your story.
BROWN: God bless America.
MICHAELSON: Yes, indeed. We'll be back with more of The Story Is right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:33]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. is expanding its military support for Saudi Arabia as the kingdom fights Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
More than a hundred U.S. military advisers are on the ground in Saudi Arabia. They are providing intelligence and targeting support for Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
Now, the increased U.S. support comes as fighting on the peninsula has intensified in recent days. The Houthis on Thursday captured a strategic port on Yemen's Red Sea coast. Control of that port could allow the militant group to threaten a key shipping waterway.
The Bab al-Mandab Strait has been a crucial alternative to the Strait of Hormuz during the war with Iran. U.S. officials believe that hundreds of Iranian military officers are working with the Houthis, with the ultimate goal of shutting down that strait.
Well, meanwhile, North Korea is believed to already have about 50 nuclear bombs and enough material to assemble dozens more. But now the secretive state is reportedly racing to build much more.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog says that North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment facility near the older complex that you see here. The IAEA also says a separate enrichment site near Pyongyang is now up and running. Its new report concludes that North Korea is expanding its nuclear infrastructure at multiple locations.
The country has already tested several nuclear capable missiles, including some that can reach the U.S.
For more, I'm joined by Shane Smith, the editor-in-chief of Vice News. He's one of relatively few number of journalists who has actually been inside North Korea. You've been there on three separate trips. You have unique insight on what's happening there.
Shane Smith, welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time.
SHANE SMITH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, VICE NEWS: Thank you very much.
MICHAELSON: Big fan of your work. Grateful to have you here.
SMITH: Big fan of the show.
MICHAELSON: Thank you.
So North Korea, what's really going on here? Because this is information that it seems like North Korea wants to get out.
SMITH: Well, CNN had an excellent report about this, which is the IAEA found that they were increasing their enrichment capabilities to make fissile material. Where did they get it? Because you're not allowed into North Korea.
And they said, well, open-source material. I don't know what that is. Satellites, which ok, but also photos that were released by North Korea.
So what they're doing is classic North Korean zero-sum game, sort of political chess, where they're saying, ok, we're going to, you know, potentially have meetings with Trump. Our meetings, we like to get out -- their GDP is made up by saber rattling.
So they're saying we're going to have even more stuff to negotiate with, more fissile material, more atomic capabilities, more intercontinental ballistic missiles.
And why? Because we want to negotiate. Every time they rattle their saber, South Korea complies and gives them energy, money, food, et cetera. China, Russia and America say, ok, what can we do? What can we do?
They've done it very effectively. So they said, hey, let's do it some more.
MICHAELSON: And so this nuclear weapon has been like the best thing that could ever happen to the regime in North Korea. SMITH: Correct.
MICHAELSON: And you see, like Ukraine gave back their nuclear weapon --
SMITH: That's not happening.
MICHAELSON: -- that didn't work out so well for them.
SMITH: No.
MICHAELSON: And you see why there is this push to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, because --
[01:34:49]
SMITH: It works.
MICHAELSON: -- they could do all the same stuff.
SMITH: Exactly. It works. I mean, if you look at North Korea, when they do rattle the saber, they get what they want.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SMITH: And, you know, they have a lot more security than you brought up, exactly, Ukraine, which by the way, gave everything away. Russia didn't. And look what's happening.
MICHAELSON: Yes. It has not been good for them.
You are one of the few people that have been in North Korea. What's it like there?
SMITH: I mean, it's the last cult of personality. You know, socialist Utopian state, i.e. Russia in, you know, Soviet Union in 1953 under Stalin or Maoist China.
It's, you know, Kim Jong-un on every wall. It's the Workers Party runs everything completely shut away. There's no freedom, there's no Internet, there's no TV that isn't sort of, you know, propaganda TV.
But it's like going back in time. And it's amazing. It's sort of Disneyland for political wonks like me.
But it's sad. It's a police state. It's a tragedy. They don't have food. They don't have energy. You know, you have 50-story buildings with no glass and cooking fires and people carrying water up because they've taken the glass out to sell to China or taken the rebar out to sell to China. I mean, it's a tragedy, but it is weird.
MICHAELSON: And your team even hung out with Kim Jong-un. What was that about?
SMITH: Well, there's the Hall of Treasures, which is where they have all of the biggest presents given to Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-un. And one is the magic basketball. Madeleine Albright brought over
signed by the Chicago Bulls.
MICHAELSON: Dennis Rodman.
SMITH: There you go.
MICHAELSON: He's a big fan.
SMITH: So Dennis -- so we called up the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan said no. And Scottie Pippen said no. But Dennis Rodman said yes.
So we brought them over with the Harlem Globetrotters. Kim Jong-un showed up, to our game, which was a tie, and then brought our team back to his house. And they promptly got drunk while a band of ladies dressed as stewardesses played see through violins to "Dallas" theme song from the show from the 80s.
MICHAELSON: I mean, that does not seem like real life.
SMITH: It's like being on acid.
MICHAELSON: It's like being on acid.
So should we fear North Korea with all of this?
SMITH: We should. I mean, they're playing a game and they're -- but there is because of Quantum and A.I., there are analog countries like North Korea and Russia that have sticks, and those sticks are atomic weapons.
And they're going to say, hey, you guys are going to, you know, with your, you know, your new computing power, be able to decrypt everything and whatever. But we've still got these analog things that we switch and that'll blow up. And so that's power and they're going to use it.
MICHAELSON: They're going to use it. And it'll be interesting to see if President Trump visits again or what the relationship is like that.
SMITH: I think that's rumored. And that's why there's a lot of this sort of brinksmanship going on is because they're saying, hey, if this -- if this deal making the art of the deal is going to happen, we're going to stack the deck, which is what they're doing and they're doing it well.
MICHAELSON: Shane Smith, who has more stories than you could fit in one biography.
SMITH: There you go.
MICHAELSON: Thank you so much for coming on. Hopefully the first of many appearances here on THE STORY IS.
SMITH: Thanks for having me. MICHAELSON: Coming up on THE STORY IS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watching someone die while they were in a conversation with me is a very, very, very, like crazy circumstance that like, I can't forget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Some people who witnessed Charlie Kirk's murder one year ago become victims of conspiracy theories.
[01:38:25]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: Thursday marked the first anniversary of the assassination of Conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Several speakers honored him at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, including President Trump.
In his speech, Vice President J.D. Vance, who was close friends with Kirk, addressed Kirk's family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But to those sweet kids, I don't imagine they're watching tonight. They're still very young. But I hope that one day they will watch and they will know and they will understand what I'm trying to say to them tonight.
Though they may not appreciate it today, history will record that your father was a great man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Over the past year, some people who witnessed Kirk's shooting have been on the receiving end of multiple conspiracy theories.
And as Elle reeve reports, their lives have been upended
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Utah Valley University where Charlie Kirk was shot about a year ago. He was speaking down there. The alleged shooter was up there on the Losee Center.
Since then, conspiracy theorists have been targeting people in the area, accusing them of having something to do with the shooting and it's had a real effect on their lives.
PHIL LYMAN (R), FORMER UTAH STATE REPRESENTATIVE: It's laughable that I had anything to do with killing Charlie Kirk. CALEB CHILCUTT, FORMER UVU TURNING POINT USA CHAPTER PRESIDENT Saying that I, along with Turning Point's organization, conspired to kill Charlie, I think that's the most disgusting thing that I've seen.
HUNTER KOZAK, UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Looking through TikTok and looking through Twitter and like everyone was talking about me and like there were a number of conspiracies that immediately came up. It was really horrifying.
REEVE: We spoke on camera with three people who witnessed the shooting and many others who were afraid to talk publicly. Some people have even moved because they feared for their safety.
KOZAK: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?
CHARLIE KIRK, POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Counting or not counting gang violence?
KOZAK: Yes, I was asking Charlie Kirk a question when he got assassinated.
REEVE: Hunter Kozak is a math major at Utah Valley University. When he heard Kirk was coming to campus last September, he wanted to challenge Kirk's assertion that there was a growing wave of transgender mass shooters.
KOZAK: Like I know that the fact that I was asking about shootings is crazy.
Watching someone die while they were in a conversation with me is a very, very, very, like crazy circumstance that like I can't forget. But it took a while for like it to catch on that like that's not all I have to worry about.
[01:44:43]
REEVE: Within hours of the shooting, people were dissecting the footage of Kozak, scrutinizing his old social media posts and building a narrative around him that was out of his control, saying he had something to do with the assassination.
KOZAK: There was this guy, his name is Jesse, Jesse On Fire.
JESSE MERL, HOST, "JESSE ON FIRE": So we've got a new recording from Hunter Kozak that I want you guys to hear.
KOZAK: So I called him up and I was like, genuine question. If I knew that was going to happen, why would I put myself two feet below where the bullet was? And he was like, that's such a good question. And not once did this question come up to him.
BARON COLEMAN, PODCASTER: Hunter Kozak has a brother named Chanson Kozak. We're going to talk about him as well.
KOZAK: Then there was this dude, Baron Coleman, who made like a six- hour deep dive into my family history.
REEVE: Last year, Kozak worked with the (INAUDIBLE) America tour, which is like a liberal version of Turning Points campus events. Now he does liberal political commentary on TikTok.
Kozak and his wife, Shelby, have two kids under two, and they said they had to move because people kept showing up to harass them.
KOZAK: It certainly feels like the conspiracy theorists have been, in a lot of ways, bigger trauma than the just watching the assassination.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's another one.
REEVE: There are influencers with huge followings that purport to investigate Kirk's death. The most famous Kirk conspiracy theorist is Candace Owens, a wildly popular podcaster who once worked with Kirk at Turning Point USA.
She's devoted hours and hours and hours to casting suspicion over people who witnessed the shooting or worked with Kirk. She's being sued for defamation and other claims by Brian Harpole, who provided security for him. Owens has moved to dismiss all claims.
KOZAK: Candace hasn't even looked at me. Like I cannot imagine what it's like for people who she targets.
REEVE: On her show, Owens has speculated that dozens of people and organizations had some connection to Kirk's killing.
Phil Lyman is one of them. He's a former Republican Utah state representative who was at the event. Lyman told reporters he'd heard the shot. Conspiracists call him a fake ear witness.
CANDACE OWENS, PODCASTER: The gubernatorial candidate, Phil Lyman, was a bit, in my opinion, too involved in the investigation of who assassinated Charlie Kirk.
REEVE: Lyman has a lot of family in a neighborhood near UVU, something Owens fixated on. He says family members and their friends ended up being doxed.
OWENS: The Lyman family in general was everywhere all over this investigation.
LYMAN: The offensive thing about Candace is when she says, I'm just trying to solve Charlie's murder. He's a friend. It's like, oh, you're not a friend of Charlie Kirk's.
REEVE: After Owens reached out to Lyman for comment, they began arguing over text. As for comment, Owens said Lyman asked her to investigate various angles of Kirk's death and suggested Lyman is playing both sides.
The thing is, Lyman himself buys some conspiracies, like that the election was stolen. He was even arrested in a protest against the Bureau of Land Management and was later pardoned by Trump. And he suspects, without proof, that the conspiracy theorists targeting him are themselves part of a conspiracy by his political opponents to make him look bad.
And though he claims Owens has caused all this drama in his life, he shares some of her suspicion about the physical evidence in the case against Tyler Robinson.
LYMAN: The attack against me after the Charlie Kirk thing, I felt was really coordinated.
REEVE: But it's just so interesting to me. It's like you find some other parts of the sort of online conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk compelling, even though the ones about you, obviously you think are false.
LYMAN: There's true things and there's false things.
REEVE: Caleb Chilcutt invited Kirk to UVU as then-president of the school's Turning Point chapter. Conspiracy theorists later called him Caleb Killcutt and harassed his wife.
He says when he was a teenager, like many kids, he passively consumed all this stuff.
CHILCUTT: My whole life, I've kind of been up, growing up in the conspiracy world with 9/11 was fake, QAnon, things like that.
Being a part of a conspiracy where none of it is true, it's kind of made me take a step back and realize, wow, maybe I should maybe not be so trusting in just random people on social media.
KOZAK: It is just the meanest people and the dumbest people and the worst people who are targeting me. And most people aren't like that.
REEVE: Is that hard to remember that most people aren't like that?
KOZAK: It's taken a long time. It's a slow rebuilding process of like remembering that most people are good and that most people don't think you're a murderer.
REEVE: Elle Reeve, CNN -- Orem, Utah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: What a story. Sending my love to Charlie's family. I knew him and it's so sad.
Stay with us. We have more of THE STORY IS coming up after the break
[01:49:27]
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MICHAELSON: THE STORY IS dominance down under in the first ever NFL game played in Australia, wrapped up just a short time ago. The Jonas Brothers showed up for the halftime show. But the L.A. Rams didn't seem to show up. The San Francisco 49ers dominated the team that is supposed to be the Super Bowl favorite.
Let's show you some highlights. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy led the team to victory, throwing three touchdown passes and more than 200 yards against an ineffective Rams defense, which is supposed to be the best defense in the league.
More than 100,000 fans packed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the game, making it the seventh largest regular season crowd in NFL history. Clearly, folks in Australia are into American football.
The next international game this season will be the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Dallas Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in week three. The NFL doing nine international games this season, a record.
Let's take a look at today's top stories for the day ahead.
[01:54:46]
MICHAELSON: Former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is appealing his criminal fraud conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court. He's asking the Court for a new trial and to throw out an order requiring him to pay the $11 billion fine.
Bankman-Fried was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison back in 2024 for defrauding investors by diverting billions from his FTT crypto exchange into a hedge fund account.
The artificial intelligence company Anthropic says it has blocked multiple accounts from possibly trying to use the company's A.I. models to develop biological weapons.
In a report published Thursday, Anthropic acknowledged it could not be certain whether the accounts actually intended to do harm or were doing research for legitimate scientific purposes.
Anthropic is known for its Claude model and also noted it disrupted efforts to use the company's A.I. models for surveillance operations, scams and the development of conventional weapons like drones and missiles.
Americans are marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in New York. Drones recreated the outline of the Twin Towers, 2,977 lights, one for each life lost on that tragic day. Organizers say the aerial artwork was made by artists, 9/11 families, survivors and first responders.
Also in the day ahead, Jews around the world are celebrating the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. L'Shana Tova (ph), or happy new year to all those who are celebrating.
Thanks so much for watching THE STORY IS. It's going to be a big news day ahead. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
And the news continues on CNN after a short break.
[01:56:19]
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