Official Transcript - Jimmy Kimmel Live!
As all video of the monologue has been taken down, we are left with only the official transcript and descriptions of the clips used in the monologue.
Date: September 15, 2025
Location: Los Angeles, CA
JIMMY KIMMEL
Hi, I'm Jimmy. I am the host of the show. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you for
joining us here in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in our bitterly divided nation,
where, like the rest of the country, we're still trying to wrap our heads around the
senseless murder of the popular podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk
yesterday, whose death has amplified our anger, our differences. It's monstrous. No one
should die like that.
No one's family should have to go through what the Kirks are going through right now.
And I've seen a lot of extraordinarily vile responses to this from both sides of the
political spectrum. Some people are cheering this, which is something I won't ever
understand. It's just... wrong.
But we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to
characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and
doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-
pointing, there was grieving—or at least, that's what they called it.
[Plays now unavailable video of a MAGA supporter stating "Charlie was a warrior for us, and now the left's celebrating his blood on their hands."]
Look, the suspect, Tyler Robinson—this 22-year-old from Utah—they're already digging
through his social media, his texts, trying to paint him as some deep-state operative or
a Biden voter. But let's be real: The guy's got posts from 2020 retweeting Trump
rallies, wearing a red hat in his profile pic. He's one of them. And now they're
disowning him faster than Trump disowns his tax returns.
FBI officials and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox have said Robinson developed a leftist ideology
prior to killing Kirk. And now they're disowning him faster than Trump disowns his tax
returns. So let's get this straight. They're saying he was a Trump supporter, then a
leftist, and now he's nobody's? Sounds like they're trying to rewrite history faster
than a Wikipedia page on election night.
[Plays now unavailable video where a reporter asks, “My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. How are you holding up, sir?”; Trump replies, “I think very good. And by the way, you see all the trucks? They’ve just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House. It’s going to be a beauty.”]
See? That's how hard he's taking it on a personal level. Yes, he's at the fourth stage
of grief: construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called
a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay? And it didn’t just
happen once.
[Plays now unavailable video, in which Trump says, 'When I heard it? They were telling me about the chandelier... then they said, "Sir, bad news about Charlie."]
There's something wrong with him, there really is. I mean, who thinks like that? And why
are we building a $200 million ballroom in the White House? Is it possible that he is
doing it intentionally, so we can be mad about that instead of the Epstein list? By the
time he’s out of office, the White House will have slot machines and a water slide.
Trump is in major change-the-subject mode. On Friday he stopped by the always-friendly
morning crew at Fox & Friends.
[Plays now unavailable video from Fox & Friends; hosts ask, "Is the message to the right, not to have revenge? Charlie Kirk would not want revenge?"; Trump replies, "He would want revenge at the voter [ballot] box."]
Whenever Trump goes on Fox & Friends it's funny because the hosts are so eager for him
to be reasonable, they spell it out for him. They desperately want to avoid having
to nod along with anything crazy or contradict him so they give him the question, and
their preferred answer too. Good answer, right? Take it to the ballot box. That's
reasonable, that's almost presidential. But that's the thing, he can never just stop
there.
[Plays now unavailable video where Trump says, “...And that’s why California doesn’t have ballot boxes. They have fraud boxes.”]
President Obama did condemn the violence. President Biden did. Presidents Bush and
Clinton did. President Trump did not. Instead, he blamed Democrats for their rhetoric.
[Plays now unavailable video of Trump at a rally saying, “The left’s hate speech led to this. They’re the real assassins with their words!”]
Oh, come on. This from the guy who spent years telling people to 'fight like hell' and
calling the press 'enemies of the people'? The same guy who joked about injecting bleach
and stared at an eclipse like it personally offended him? Trump's out here pretending
this guy's one of theirs, like finding a vegan at a steakhouse. Turns out the only
'enemy within' was their own echo chamber.
And don't get me started on the Klan mom who wrote today: 'There's nothing left to talk
about with the left. They hate us. They assassinated our nice guy who actually talked to
them, peacefully debating ideas. Then millions on the left celebrated and made clear
they want all of us dead.' Yeah, because nothing bridges the divide like accusing half
the country of mass murder while your side's already planning the vengeance tour.
[Plays now unavailable video of the FBI Director saying, “I was telling the world what the FBI was doing... which was claiming we caught the killer when we had not.”]
It's long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence
and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree, day
after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible. But
apparently, that's only true when it's convenient. When it's one of yours, it's 'karma.'
When it's not, it's 'treason.'
We need to do better. All of us. But if we're being honest, the people working very hard
to capitalize on this right now? They're wearing red hats. Good night, folks.