It looks like we may be about to see a conspiracy theory fall apart in real time.
It was clear the day after Charlie Kirk was assassinated in front of a crowd of 3,000 people at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, who the main suspect was. Surveillance footage showed Tyler Robinson getting down from the rooftop where the fatal shot appeared to have been fired. He had already penned a handwritten confession and a set of texts to his lover admitting the crime. The next day, Robinson’s mother recognized her son from a photograph released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and his parents arranged for him to speak to a family friend who was a retired sheriff’s deputy. The family friend convinced Robinson to turn himself in on September 11.
Of all the shocking things that happened in the immediate aftermath, perhaps the most shocking was how hard some online commentators tried to ignore everything about the case. Instead, they blamed almost everyone but Robinson for the shooting. At various times, the accused have included the Israeli government, Egyptian spy planes, Kirk’s colleagues at Turning Point USA, his widow, and people in the crowd that day who were wearing maroon-colored shirts.
Worse still is that two of the people who have diverted attention from the actual effort by prosecutors to put Robinson on trial for Kirk’s murder are Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, who were once close to Charlie Kirk. For almost a year, both Owens and Carlson attempted to poke every hole they could imagine in the government’s case and point the finger at anyone other than Robinson, whose preliminary hearing began on Monday in a Provo court. A judge will decide whether the evidence against Robinson is strong enough to proceed to a trial. Robinson has not entered a plea in the case.
