Charlie Kirk, more gerrymandering & Trump's wild news cycle

This morning, President Trump said on Fox News, “I think with a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody.” A name or motive have not yet been released, though Trump said that someone close to him turned him in.

Authorities took two people into custody the day Kirk was killed, then later said neither of them had any connection to the shooting.

Kirk co-founded the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA. He often used his platform to spout racist, misogynistic, transphobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. He supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza and said some gun deaths each year were “worth it” to preserve Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

Rhetoric around Kirk’s death has been fraught. President Donald Trump used the killing as an opening to demonize his political opponents on the left, even as Democratic lawmakers also condemned the shooting. Far-right European leaders did the same. From social media to the House floor, debates erupted over who to blame and whether to pass new gun laws.

Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives approved a gerrymandered congressional map, with the goal of turning a Democratic district red. The map, which has sparked large protests, now goes to the state Senate for a vote.

This comes after Texas passed a gerrymandered map at President Donald Trump’s urging. That map could boost Republicans’ chances of holding on to more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It also comes as California voters are set to vote on the state’s own redistricted map. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) hopes that redistricting in California could send more Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives, balancing out Texas’ redistricting.

In a 2019 case, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts can’t review politically gerrymandered districts. In other words, this kind of gerrymandering is legal. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restricts how these maps can be drawn to dilute minority groups’ voting power, and the Supreme Court is set to hear a case that could walk back those protections.

I didn’t understand the football joke at the end of this video, and now I know how Dave feels when I include jokes about the X-Men in stuff I write.

The House Oversight Committee obtained and released a book compiled by Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday. The X account for Democrats on the House Oversight committee posted an image of a message in the book allegedly from Trump, first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The document references a “wonderful secret” he and Epstein shared.

The “birthday book” also includes a photo of Epstein and others holding a check with Trump’s name on it and a note suggesting that the check is payment for “FULLY DEPRECIATED” women. The White House has denied that Trump signed the check or wrote the letter, even though the signature on the letter closely resembles the way Trump signed his name on other documents at the time.

Trump has tried to shift the media’s and his fellow Republicans’ focus away from the Epstein files. As this story has developed, Trump has changed the name of the Department of Defense back to the Department of War, wrote that Chicago will “find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” and leveled social media attacks against the likes of Joe Biden, Tom Hanks, and windmills.

In a Sept. 4 hearing, Senators from both parties pressed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his move to limit covid-19 vaccines. He told lawmakers that “everybody can get the vaccine,” even though he narrowed access to older adults, people with underlying conditions, and people at high risk of severe infection.

Lawmakers also asked Kennedy about his blaming school shootings on people taking antidepressants. Even though Kennedy accused Senator Tina Smith of “just making stuff up,” he recently told Fox News that HHS was launching studies into the effects of antidepressants on violent behavior following an Aug. 27 school shooting. Experts say there is no scientific evidence of a link.

Kennedy said he doesn’t think anybody knows how many Americans have died from covid-19, despite widespread reporting that the virus has killed over 1 million Americans.

Kennedy is facing mounting criticism, including pressure to resign, from his own family and members of his own party. Susan Monarez, the former CDC director who Trump controversially fired after she clashed with Kennedy, is set to testify before Congress next week.

The federal budget adds up to trillions of dollars, funded mostly by taxpayers. Dave breaks down what the federal budget is as part of his partnership with Free the Facts, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that empowers young Americans to learn and lead.

The federal budget contains $5.2 trillion in revenue and $7 trillion in spending on programs and services like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The government also spends lots of that money on the military.

Charlie Kirk was a misogynist (he told a 14-year-old girl that she should go to college to find a husband). He was openly racist (“I hate black people.”) and transphobic (he said trans people were an “abomination”). 

He didn’t deserve to be murdered.

The first amendment applies to everyone. 

A majority of this country wants stricter gun control and has wanted it for decades.