Liberal and Democrat pundits quickly sought to distance their ideology from Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin after charges were filed Tuesday.
Among them was CNN contributor Montel Williams, who argued that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was not motivated by politics but instead driven by emotional factors.
“We’re talking about a love-torn child,” Williams said on CNN, “a kid, this is probably his first real relationship, and somebody was disparaging the person that he loved. He sat on that building,” he went on, discussing Robinson’s tracked movements from the top of a nearby building from which he fired the fatal shot, “for 30 minutes before he took the shot.”
In Montel’s commentary, he eventually adds about Robinson: “I don’t believe he was motivated politically. I think this was motivated emotionally.”
Fellow commentator and conservative pundit Scott Jennings interjected, “The evidence here is overwhelming. He said ‘Charlie Kirk, I can’t stand his hate anymore. I’m going to take him out.'”
In his text messages following the shooting, Robinson told Twiggs: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out. If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.” He revealed he’d been planning the killing “a bit over a week.”
“The testimony from it and the statements of his family: he had become more left-wing. He etched the statements that are made by the left about Republicans and conservatives and Charlie Kirk, ‘fascist,’ on the bullet cases,” Jennings told Williams.
Williams claimed that Robinson made a “joke” about it, saying “He made a joke about it in his last text.”
“It doesn’t sound like a joke to me because someone’s dead and about to be buried,” Jennings said.
.@ScottJenningsKY SHUTS DOWN insane CNN panel’s wild gaslighting about Tyler Robinson’s motive — including Montel Williams calling him a “love-torn child.”
JENNINGS: “Guys. GUYS. The evidence here is overwhelming.”
“He was motivated by HATE. He was motivated by left wing… pic.twitter.com/pqlkNGwC2w
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 17, 2025
