Charlie Kirk’s Murder ‘Has Turned Into Infotainment’

Podcasters Candace Owens and Ian Carroll have amassed large social media revenues from their commentary and theories about Charlie Kirk’s murder. Owens continues to release dozens of episodes “investigating” Kirk’s assassination, which has grown her YouTube channel subscribers to 6 million, surpassing the fallen TPUSA founder’s own channel.

In a new episode of his podcast, conservative activist Robby Starbuck spoke out about how these evidence-free wild claims damage the legacy of his longtime friend.

“His death has turned into info-tainment and I feel like it is my duty as someone who loved Charlie to say that this is wrong. This isn’t Dateline. It’s not something to tune into every week,” Starbuck said. “I think it is disgusting that influencer wars and drama and people saying stupid things to each other has become the narrative instead of a spiritual revival to bring praise to Jesus. That’s where the focus should be. Instead, bad actors have taken the spiritual revival his murder sparked and stomped on it.”

In the hour-long segment, Starbuck addressed the conspiracy allegations play-by-play.

“It seems to change with the wind. Every week there is a new villain to frame or every week a new bombshell to break the case wide open, and every week the old bombshell quietly disappears,” Starbuck said.

In particular, Starbuck sought to “take a blowtorch” to conspiracy theories saying that “state actors were secretly responsible” for Kirk’s assassination.

“I’m gonna outline all the evidence that a state actor would need to fabricate and all the witnesses they would need to bribe in order to sustain these conspiracy theories,” Starbuck said. “More people are realizing they are being lied to, not by the government or TurningPoint, but by people desperate for clicks and revenue. And don’t mistake that for me saying that you should always trust the government because by no means am I saying that.”

Claim 1: Mossad Did It

Perhaps the most prominent theory peddled to the public is that the Israeli government is to blame for carrying out Kirk’s assassination. To debunk this claim, Starbuck asked a key question: “If a Mossad agent were given the order to murder a man, how would he execute it?”

To find the answer, Starbuck looked to assassinations attributed to the Israeli intelligence agency over the years. When “taking out” political adversaries, he says, Mossad works to retain plausible deniability.

Dubai, 2010: Mossad agents used fake passports to sneak into the hotel room of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a chief logistics officer for Hamas who allegedly procured weapons for the terrorist brigade. The agents gave al-Mabhouh a lethal drug to paralyze him, suffocated him, and locked the hotel room from the inside so it looked like he died of natural causes.

East Germany, 1978: Mossad agents again used fraudulent passports to mask their identity and kill Hamas agent Wadie Haddad by poisoning his toothpaste with a slow-acting toxin that entered his blood stream every time he brushed his teeth. At the time, his death was reported as caused by cancer, but the autopsy reports showed something different.

Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman details these and several other examples of targeted assassinations in his latest book.

“In many more cases, Israel goes to great lengths to orchestrate murders that wouldn’t get tied to them,” Starbuck said. “Mossad, like many other intelligence agencies, prefers to retain plausible deniability, and in order to achieve that – assassinations happen outside of the public eye.”

If Mossad/Israel really wanted to eliminate Kirk, wouldn’t they have done so using a device to quietly inject him with poison, consistent with their other tactics?

Starbuck said this theory “requires the world’s smartest killers to pick the world’s dumbest plan,” by eliminating a target in front of an audience.

“If your target can become a martyr it creates obstacles you have to consider as a state actor,” Starbuck said. “Their assassination now requires the buy-in of thousands of co-conspirators.”

Claim 2: Kirk’s Assassination Was An Inside Job

If Kirk’s death was really the result of some organized coup like theorists claim, Starbuck wonders: How many people would need to be involved in a conspiracy like this?

“This conspiracy implicates TurningPoint, the military, Erika Kirk, the lawyers, the congressional committees, many of the people in attendance at the event, about six different law enforcement agencies, all the people planning and planting the evidence, the medical examiners, the doctors and so on,” Starbuck said. “That’s not even getting into the Freemasons, the French Foreign Legion, Charlie’s own security team, a bee cult, Egyptians, TPUSA donors, etc. the list of people is seriously neverending.”

Starbuck estimates this would mean about 800-2,000 people were involved in the assassination conspiracy. In order for it to be a convincing cover story, the conspiracy would need to survive examination indefinitely — which becomes increasingly difficult with so many players in the mix.

“The conspiracy requires so much participation across so many different actors it takes a straightforward event and renders it incoherent,” Starbuck said. “They would have all had to hide this and remain completely silent throughout their operation and then until their death many years from now.”

In comparison, Starbuck examined the 2023 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, where a trans-identifying biological female killed three adults and three children. When the authorities refused to release the shooter’s manifesto – it leaked out in a manner of months.

“In cases like this, good men do step up,” Starbuck said. “The bigger the coverup, the more likely leaks come out. There’s no way you will ever get all of these agencies to remain silent because each agency involves real people and real individuals who could even selfishly leak things out and become filthy rich doing so.”

Starbuck argued that every participant in such a conspiracy poses a lifetime leak risk. In the 10 months since Kirk’s murder, he says nothing has been leaked because there is nothing to leak.

“It is clearly unreasonable to believe that thousands of independent professionals are interested in participating in the murder and cover-up of Charlie Kirk either for the benefit of our government or some foreign government,” Starbuck said. “It’s also unreasonable that Israel or any other state would accept the risks of assassinating a domestic political star in the U.S. like Charlie Kirk, especially one who hasn’t really opposed their interests for Israel specifically. Exposure would mean killing an American citizen on American soil – an alliance-ending, war-triggering act — all to silence one man.”

Claim 3: Kirk Wasn’t Shot, His Mic Exploded

Another aspect of the case that has drawn skepticism is the means and methodology used to murder Kirk. Starbuck notes the changing angles claimed by Owens:

Sept. 23, 2025: “I believe Charlie was shot from below.”

Sept. 26, 2025: “We now know Charlie was shot from the back.”

Oct. 1, 2025: “It’s clear Charlie was shot from the front.”

Jun. 17, 2026: “I’ve always thought exploding microphone theory was correct.”

In recordings, the crowd closest to Kirk looks away at the time of his death toward the direction of the roof upon hearing the sound of a gunshot.

“There were hundreds of people recording on their phones that day,” Starbuck said. “Why has no one from the crowd come forward with video footage showing a microphone exploding?”

Then there’s a conspiracy theory surrounding the bullets themselves.

“Apparently, these highly trained black-op assassins picked the wrong bullet,” Starbuck said.

To rebut these claims, Starbuck cited Fenix Ammunition, an ammo supplier that carries .30-06 soft-point rounds, designed to fragment upon impact. The company advertises these rounds, the same ones recovered from the crime scene with Robinson’s dremel engravings, and they are available for purchase at many stores.

Owens has pointed to pictures of what appears to be shattered glass in the SUV Kirk was transported to the hospital in, saying the shards are remnants of the exploded microphone. However, Starbuck said he has “used the same kind of microphone on several occasions” and does not recall there being enough glass in the device to make that theory plausible.

“I own this kind of microphone and to my eyes it looks like a lot more glass than you would ever get from this microphone itself,” Starbuck said. “Also it would defy physics for the remnants of that microphone to be in that car after some kind of explosion since Charlie was carried with a loose fitting shirt to the vehicle. Logically most of the glass would have fallen behind and would be visible on videos of the shooting.”

Owens has also caused a stir by saying Robinson was “a patsy” and not even there at the university. She claimed a body-double was used instead or that “Lance Twiggs was a federal asset” who wasn’t even interviewed by the police.

However, the preliminary hearings show that Twiggs was interviewed several times by prosecution and law enforcement, and video evidence was presented in court that seems to positively identify Robinson on scene.

“I’m not saying that no conspiracy could have existed and don’t think it’s crazy to say Twiggs and other transactivist had advanced knowledge and we should be asking questions,” Starbuck said. “I want to know more about George Zinn. There are still questions that need to be asked and answered.”

In 2024, Starbuck, along with Kirk and others, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the Murthy v. Missouri case, due to government censorship to their social media accounts for allegedly spreading what online censors deemed to be conspiracies about Covid-19.

“We ended up being 100 percent correct about that because the evidence was clear and straightforward,” Starbuck said. “Clearly evil forces do evil things. There are plenty of conspiracies that exist. This isn’t one of them. It’s an opportunity to tap into resentment instead of finding the truth.”

Starbuck said he can understand why Candace Owens and Ian Carroll have drawn such a following. The narrative presented in court seems impossible to fathom because Kirk’s assassination was unprecedented.

“When something unprecedented occurs, conspiracy naturally becomes very tempting to search for meaning in the aftermath of his death,” Starbuck said. “Which is why people are trying to find an explanation worthy of Charlie. The problem is – what is she doing that is actually helping people? Tune all of us out. Get into the Word, pray, and think deeply yourself. Watch the whole trial, write out inconsistencies, and critically think about the evidence. Then tune back into us. Be a freethinker.”

Libby Bandelin is a reporting and editing intern at The Federalist with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. A recent graduate from Dordt University, she earned her B.A. in communications with an emphasis in journalism and a minor in criminal justice. In college, she served as chief editor for her student newspaper, and her writing won third place in the 2026 Cordell Prize. She’s also attended journalism intensives with WORLD newsgroup and Alliance Defending Freedom.