Michael Keaton paid tribute to the late Charlie Kirk at the 50th anniversary gala of investigators and editors on Monday night, but also spoke about the gun violence that took his life.
“You probably won’t agree with a lot of things he said before you start to get into this meat. I’ll take a little while, regardless of Charlie Kirk leaving behind two children and a wife,” he said as he opened his speech. “You need to remember that.”
“In the end, the shooting doesn’t answer anything, so the irony of him being killed with a gun is unbelievable,” he continued.
Keaton wasn’t the speaker at Ayrgara who spoke about Kirk’s murder. “60 Minutes” journalist Scott Perry touched on the topic early in his opening remarks as the host of the event.
“Charlie Kirk was murdered to silence his speech, and three months ago, former Minnesota Senator Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed to silence their speech,” he said.
“A lot of people praised Kirk, many didn’t,” Perry continued. “His catchphrase was, “Provement I was wrong.” For some, the phrase was controversial – but the core ideas are:
“Their silencing is First Amendment blood whether they agreed to Kirk’s ideas, Hortman, or murder,” he concluded.
Kirk passed away on September 10th after being shot dead while appearing on a university campus in Utah. He was 31 years old.
Shortly after the news broke about Kirk’s shooting, Donald Trump announced in the True Society that a young conservative activist had passed away. He writes: “The great and legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. He was loved and admired by everyone, especially me. And now he is not with us anymore. Melania and my sympathy will go out to his family with his beautiful wife Erica. Charlie, we love you!”
