Van Jones shows Charlie Kirk’s message to him the day before he was killed

Revelations on Charlie Kirk’s final message the day before he was assassinated didn’t stop a CNN talking head from resorting to “both sides” messaging.

(Video Credit: CNN)

In the lead up to the September 10 event at Utah Valley University, where the Turning Point USA founder was struck dead for expressing and defending his worldview in public debate, pundits on corporate media accused Kirk of hate mongering and more over the murder of Iryna Zarutska.

Among them was CNN senior political commentator Van Jones, who joined “Anderson Cooper 360°” on Friday to share the last message he’d received from the Christian patriot seeking, as ever, an open debate on the issues at hand.

Anchor Anderson Cooper read the message as he brought Jones on for comment, “Hey Van, I mean it, I’d love to have you on my show to have a respectful conversation about crime and race. I would be a gentleman, as I know you would be as well. We can disagree about the issues agreeably.”

The former Obama administration official opened his commentary on the message, stating, “Look, I mean, we were beefing … And then, after he died — after he was murdered — my team called and said, ‘Van, he was trying to reach you, man.’”

“And what was he doing? Dialogue. Let’s be gentlemen together. He says, ‘Let’s disagree agreeably.’ So I’m sitting on this, and I’m watching the whole country talk about civil war, censorship, justifying murder, about this guy?” wondered Jones. “This guy is reaching out to his mortal enemy, saying we need to be gentlemen, sit down together and disagree agreeably. And the next day, he’s killed. And I’ve sat on it long enough.”

“We disagree. Everybody knows we were not friends, okay? At all. But you praise the good when it’s time to memorialize somebody,” he went on, adding of Kirk, “He was not for censorship. He was not for civil war. He was not for violence. He was for dialogue — open debate and dialogue — even with me.”

The message from Kirk came in the midst of flame-stoking on CNN, as much of corporate media endeavored to turn a blind eye to the murder of Zarutska.

“For someone like Charlie Kirk, he should be ashamed of himself,” Jones said after accusing the conservative of “pure race mongering, hate mongering” for accusing Zarutska’s murderer of being racially motivated. “No one mentioned the word race, white, black, or anything except him. What people mention is the horror of what happened to this young woman.”

Two days before he was killed, CNN went on the offensive against Charlie Kirk https://t.co/NXuIGnhmmX via @BIZPACReview

— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) September 11, 2025

As for whether or not he would have debated Kirk, the commentator told Cooper he would have tried to get the conversation on CNN, “I wasn’t trying to build his platform, but I would have called and we would have talked and we would have started the process of trying to figure this stuff out.”

Before the segment was out, Jones’ petition for civility was not without finger-pointing as he made the tired “both sides” argument, “I did not agree with him on literally almost anything, but we were words not weapons guys … And we were getting into a position where we could get some real debate going.”

“I wanted to beat Charlie Kirk in a debate,” he added. “I didn’t want somebody to shoot him. That’s how we do it in America. And the idea that now, people on both sides are justifying murders and calling for civil wars — we gotta calm this down, Anderson.”

The result was a fair share of renewed criticism for Jones for once again feeding a narrative that runs contrary to the evidence, with “hundreds of thousands” celebrating the assassination of the young father and husband.

Van had to work in this BS narrative while attempting to sound conciliatory.

Tells you who he is.

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 20, 2025

He actually could but he chose not to [help himself]. Gross.

— Samantha Strayer (@SamanthaStrayer) September 21, 2025

Conflate. Invert.

— Proto Renaissance Man (@ProtoRenai33201) September 20, 2025

The moment they say “both sides” you know they’re talking about themselves don’t you.
If it was Republicans justifying murders they’d call that out immediately as those on the right.

— Steven Kerwin (@StevenKerwin) September 20, 2025

I’m convinced now that Dems exist in the abstract in which nothing is real to them anymore except the next election. Only optics, narratives and fabrications for votes exist. They don’t even govern.

— Peter Barbera (@PeterBarbera) September 20, 2025

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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