Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Robert Gehrke From September 11th, 2025

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Robert Gehrke From September 11th, 2025 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Gurky is here. I am, good morning, Robert.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Robert is of course a columnist and reporter for the
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Salt Lake Tribune. And uh, yesterday's events, I'm sure reporters
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: from the Tribune rush, they're probably anyway.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I would guess, well, we we had we had three
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: people down there. Emily Anderson Stern was a reporter down there,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: We had a videographer and a photographer down there for it.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: You know, pretty sizable crowd. And then obviously when the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: news broke that he had been shot, everybody up in
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the office kind of leap leapt into action and it
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: was sort of an all hands on deck kind of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: kind of day for for the for the newsroom.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Is it the type of event that that your reporters
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: said was unusual that they didn't have more security checks
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: and things.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I think that's one of the big questions
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that everybody's asking right now, is, you know, an open
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: air event like that, even even if there had just
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: been a disruption, right, were they prepared to handle that?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And then today the FBI had their press conference where
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: they said that the shooter had accessed the roof through stairwells.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: It's like, well, how come the stairwells are open. How
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: come people have access to something like that, because you
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: could imagine that if this person is if this individual
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: wasn't gunning for one person, they could have had as
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to the entire crowd from that that vantage point. There
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: are a lot of questions we need to ask and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: have answered about the security arrangement. Now, they did say
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that Charlie Kirk had his own security force there. I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: think there were eight people, and there was video of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: them carrying him to this suv to take him to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the hospital, and there were undercover police. They said they're
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: playing close police officers in addition to the security force.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: But but you know the fact that somebody was able
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to gain access to the roof and have that vantage point,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and obviously the end result raises a lot of questions
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: about the security preparations.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Now we heard we've seen reports that they that the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: they have some video of actually seeing this figure, this
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: person getting up onto the roof and and lying that
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: now this is this is all security camera footage. It's
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: not like somebody was sitting there watching it happen.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Right and then and then leaving leaving the you know,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the building, and.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: And and apparently so the apparently person knew, had some idea,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: some plan in mind, And.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's kind of interesting that the person
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: knew where, what the setup was going to be, what
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the what advantage point was going to be, where you could,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you know, get to get to and take a shot
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: at him like that. I think as of yesterday, they
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: weren't saying really anything about the individual. A man dressed
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in black with sunglasses. It could have been just about anybody. So,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I guess it's I guess it's a progress
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: that they've got this security camera footage and and potentially
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: feel like they know what the person looks like. But
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you know, if if if they didn't have if they
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: didn't have that, you could imagine how hard it's going
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to be for them to find anybody. So yeah, I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: mean I guess I get that's that's progress and trying
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to trying to apprehend this individual. I thought it was
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: kind of interesting today they said we're not releasing an
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: image of the person because they didn't want the public
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to kind of get involved in this search. Well, I
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: think you've got a person who's could be and dangerous
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and and you know, and and.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: They can find them without that right. They want to
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: find them.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And that was that was sort of the upshot of
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: it is they they think that they can find this
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: individual on their own. So you know, the search continues.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's it's been interesting. Uh. Senator Dan
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: McKay said last night that he wants to build a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: memorial there for for Charlie Cook Kurt Uh a statute
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that sort of commemorate the the tragedy, as he put it,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you know, and and and so there's you know, Senator
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Mike Lee jumped on board with that. Sure, Senator Lee
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: and Charlie Kirk, we're quite close, he said in a
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: video he posted yesterday that they spoke just the day before.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: He spoke to him frequently, and he said he was devastated.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Kind of an interesting contrast to Mike Lee's reaction to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: this compared to the Minneapolis shootings exactly where he said,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: you know, nightmare on Waltz Street. And this is what
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: happens when Marxists and leftists don't get their way. You know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it's sort of and and and it's it's and.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: They don't see they The thing is is that people
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: like Mike Lee, they apparently do not see the contradiction.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Well, I think I think that kind of goes to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the crux of it. If we're going to condemn with
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: political violence and say it's wrong, then it has to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: be wrong for everybody. And it can't just be wrong
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: when one of their people gets shot, or when President
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Trump somebody takes a shot at President Trump. It has
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to be wrong. When senators are shot in Minneapolis's husband
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: is beat up, or the governor of Pennsylvania there's a
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: plot against his life. It has to be wrong against
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: all these things. And it feels like it's happening with
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: increasing increasing frequency, and I'm not sure exactly how we
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: turn it back. I think Governor Cox, you know, put
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: it fairly well of it. It needs to stop, but
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: he can't. Nothing that we can say can deter this.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: And we've gone through these spells before, you know, in
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the sixties. Political violence is not a new thing. We've
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: actually got a pretty good history of it in this country.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: But we're at a crescendo right now.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Talking with my kids yesterday, they're very aware of this,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: and they were also paying attention to the shooting in
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Denver which happened yesterday, and they were saying, we're tired
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: of being scared. We should be able to go to school,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: whether it's college or high school or and not be scared,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: and this is scary. I went up to visit my
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: daughter yesterday at the University of Utah, and the University
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: of Utah put out a bunch of statements about this,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: and when I went up to see her, there were
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: police cars all over the place up there. They had
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: greatly increased their presence there.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And I talked to faculty members up at the University
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of Utah and there they're not real happy with the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: way that the legislature has changed the state's gun laws
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: to allow everybody to carry a gun on campus. They
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: think it's not conducive to actually and it's safe, and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: it's intimidating to other students, it's intimidating the faculty. But
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the legislature last year changed that law. Now, I don't
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm not suggesting that if that law
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: hadn't been changed, this person.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, it's it's a it's a general unease. And
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: my daughter was saying, what if I go to school
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: tomorrow and it's perfectly legal for someone to carry a
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: rifle or open to carry on? How am I supposed
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: to feel about that?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I just want to read this. This was written a
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: hundred years ago by William It was a part of
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: a poem by William Butler, he aids, and it just
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: one hundred years ago he's saying this, and it just
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: describes what's going on today. Things fall apart, The center
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: cannot hold mere. Anarchy is loosed upon the world. The
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: blood did tide is loose, and everywhere the ceremony of
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: innocence is drowned. The best lack all conviction. Well, the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: worst are full of passionate intensity. Yeah, that's that just
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: describes that, that whole situation yesterday to a tea.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and and I think you know, the worst,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the worst have all the intensity. Is what I think
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of people would say about Charlie Kirk. Now,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: you don't have to like Charlie Kirk's political views, and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people didn't like them. He
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: was very provocative. He challenged, you know, challenged norms.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: And he knew what he knew what he was doing
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: was dangerous.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: He knew what he was doing. I mean, the whole
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the whole premise of the proved me wrong tour that
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: he was doing. You know, come challenge me. Okay, let's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: let's argue. They're not debates. Let's be clear. There's these
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: are these are arguments. But but I think we can
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: also agree that he didn't deserve to die. We have
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: to draw a line somewhere against the trio and we're
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: we're doing a pretty poor job of it right now.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: How do we get it back? I think it's going
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to take a long time. And I think it's going
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: to take the efforts, combined efforts of a lot of people.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And I think it's going to take dialing back the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: rhetoric a little bit. If you watch President Trump's uh
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: four minute speech last night, he starts out by with
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: a with a tone of unity, and and then by
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the end of it, he's attacking radical leftists and and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and I think it's perhaps fair to assume that this
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: shooter was a leftist. I think I wouldn't, But but
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: we don't know yet, you know, And and I think
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: it's that remains to be seen. But also even if
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it is, you know, you can condemn that act. I
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: think everybody can condemn that act without without villainizing your
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: political opponents, and and that villain villainizing of your political
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: opponents is how we end up in situations like this.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Oh man, it's just I it it seems so hopeless.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: And yet five puppies got adopted.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm glad you guys had that because because yeah.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: I was saying that. So when my kids were upset
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: yesterday and we were talking about it, and I you know,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: I was saying, they're they're like, they're they're despondent. There
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: are things are not we hear about the bad. The
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: bad gets highlighted. There's so much good and there's so
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: much Most people aren't bad, and most places aren't bad,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and most situations aren't bad. We hear about them, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: most things aren't.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Well, that's it's it's the frequency though that seems to
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: it's it's you know, it's it's you're you're relatively safe
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: every day. But the frequency of these things, uh, these
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: these isolated events are become more frequent.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: And you touched on it in the in the in
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the opening or in the new segment before, but I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: mean it's got to be jarring and scarring and traumatic
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: for all those kids who are there and not kids
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: college students. But yeah, and and everybody who was close
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to him, and and you know, and for his for
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk's family. I mean, he's you know, two young kids.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's a it's.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: A one of them, one of them, a babe in arms.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And and it's a it's a black eye for Utah.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think there's there's We're now
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: on the national stage for having been the place where
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: this happens. So uh, we'll keep following it, We'll keep
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the search. The manhunt continues.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Are there any more press conferences schedule today?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Do you know? I believe they're having one this afternoon.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: I don't remember that time, So okay, thank you very much, Robert,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Robert Gurky, s ltrib dot com. Thank you, Bob,