Netanyahu Unveils Most Unhinged Theory Yet on Charlie Kirk Shooter

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered his own unhinged theory as to who shot Charlie Kirk, asserting without any evidence that the Turning Point USA founder was killed by a team of “radical Islamists and ultra-progressives.”

“This is a worldwide problem. The people on the extremes, the Islamists … the radical Islamists and their union with the ultra-progressives, they often speak about human rights. They speak about free speech. But they use violence to try to take down their enemies,” Netanyahu said on Fox News on Friday. “Whether it’s President Trump, who’s been almost assassinated twice, or they try to kill me here too. But they got Charlie Kirk, and it’s just heartbreaking.”

So, just to be clear: The Israeli Prime Minister decided to appear on American media to assure its audience Israel had absolutely nothing to do with Charlie Kirk’s death but that some anonymous cabal of Muslims and leftists does.

This makes no sense, as no one knows the motive behind Kirk’s killing at this moment, especially not Netanyahu. The prime minister is dipping into the same obtuse, harmful rhetoric of the American right, declaring war on an anonymous “they,” latching on to a fictional scenario to project their own biases onto the situation.

Netanyahu decrying political violence is rich, as just this month he has starved Palestinians, bombed residential buildings in Gaza City, set siege to the West Bank, and attacked Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar.

FBI Director Kash Patel unleashed a profanity-laced tirade on federal agents, as he cracked under the pressure of finding Charlie Kirk’s killer. 

The New York Times reported Thursday that Patel completely lost it during an online meeting with 200 agents involved in the manhunt for Kirk’s killer. 

One official recounted to the Times that among Patel’s mostly expletive-laden remarks, he warned agents he wouldn’t put up with anymore “Mickey Mouse operations.” But it was Patel who’d turned the investigation into a farce by congratulating state and federal officials Wednesday for taking “the subject for the horrific shooting today” into custody—a claim that officials were forced to backtrack hours later.

In the Thursday meeting, Patel was furious that it had taken 12 hours for him to see a photograph of the suspected killer, and blamed agents in Salt Lake City (where he had fired the head of the FBI field office for unclear reasons just weeks earlier). He also berated subordinates he said hadn’t provided him timely information.  

Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, relayed that they were under immense pressure to succeed and prove that they were capable of conducting a manhunt. As it turns out, they were not.

President Donald Trump claimed Friday morning on Fox & Friends that a 22-year-old suspect had been apprehended, but only because one of his family members turned him in. 

Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe criticized Patel’s hands-on approach to the search, as the director’s handling of the case has come under increasing scrutiny. On Wednesday, Patel was the subject of a major lawsuit against the Department of Justice, accusing him of unlawfully ousting any employee that had investigated Trump.

Poland is not allowing Donald Trump to brush off Russia’s recent drone incursion.

Nineteen Russian drones, many originating from Belarus, crossed into Polish airspace late Tuesday, forcing the Eastern European nation to shut down four of its airports as it scrambled to fire up its defense systems. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty the following day, calling the ​​situation the “closest” that Poland had come to armed conflict “since the Second World War.”

The U.S. president, however, told reporters Thursday that the attack “could have been a mistake.” The White House did not clarify Trump’s remarks.

Polish leadership was unequivocal in its response.

“We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “And we know it.”

Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Radosław Sikorski also responded to Trump’s eyebrow-raising comment, plainly explaining that the Russian advance “wasn’t a mistake.”

Trump, who claims he has a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has yet to meaningfully comment on the drone incursion into Poland. On Wednesday, he wrote on Truth Social, “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”

Trump has little to show for the profound international recognition he’s offered the Kremlin over the last few months. Against the advice of world leaders, Trump invited Putin to Alaska in August—tasking U.S. soldiers to literally roll out the red carpet for the Russian dictator. It was the first time that a Russian leader had stepped foot on U.S. soil in more than a decade.

Still, Russia has not agreed to peace terms in its ongoing war against Ukraine. The superpower has instead insisted on receiving “international legal recognition” of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, an internationally recognized portion of Ukraine, along with four regions it has claimed in the three years since it first invaded Ukraine.

Rather than de-escalate the situation after it breached Polish airspace this week, the Kremlin decided to stoke more fear, tossing threats at Finland if it decided to oppose Russia’s power.

President Donald Trump announced Friday that the suspected killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been apprehended.

“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody,” Trump said on Fox and Friends.

“Essentially, somebody that was very close to him turned him in,” the president continued, noting that additional details would be provided later that day. “I just heard about it five minutes before I walked in. As I’m walking in, they said, ‘Looking real good.’ They have the person that they wanted.”

“So you have breaking news, don’t you, eh? You always have breaking news, Ainsley,” he added, turning to host Ainsley Earhardt, before joking that Sean Hannity, who hosts another show on the network, would “be very disappointed that we’re not doing it on his show.”

“He’ll be very thankful and appreciative of the police officers that got this guy,” Earhardt replied.

Trump later expressed that he hopes the gunman “gets the death penalty.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Kirk’s death on Wednesday was announced not by his family or local authorities, but by Trump himself.

During the ensuing manhunt, the FBI’s MAGA partisan director, Kash Patel, faced criticism for a clumsy and confusing response.

On Wednesday, Patel prematurely declared that “the subject for the horrific shooting today” was in custody—a claim that was almost immediately contradicted by local officials, and which Patel later backtracked on, writing that the “subject” was released.

Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe is perplexed by current FBI Director Kash Patel’s decision to head to Utah himself to search for Charlie Kirk’s assassin.

“That one’s really hard to figure out. There are many good reasons why you wouldn’t go if you’re the director. You would not go out to the scene of an ongoing crisis, post–crisis investigation … you know, typically, directors don’t do that,” McCabe told CNN’s Abby Phillips.

McCabe continued, saying: “The presence of the director imposes a huge burden on the field office. There’s all kinds of arrangements that have to be made. There’s all kinds of security concerns that arise. Transportation becomes very complicated. And that’s the last thing you wanna do to the field office while they’re in the middle of investigating a critical incident,” he said.

“So, again, strange to go out there under those circumstances. Why he went and then did not say anything at the press conference, I really, I really don’t know. I’m a bit at a loss to understand, like, what was the purpose of going out there,” McCabe concluded.

Patel’s visit comes after a series of blunders. First, he announced that “the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody,” a few hours after Kirk’s murder, as if the case was closed.

Then, just hours later, he said the “subject” was free to go.

McCabe wasn’t the only one concerned with Patel’s handling of the situation.

“What’s clear is that the information flow to [Patel] has not been accurate, or he is not interpreting it correctly, because it was just remarkable to have him say that—essentially imply that the shooter had been caught and then two hours later announcing that that person was not, in fact, the shooter and had been released. That just doesn’t happen in these situations,” NBC intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian said Wednesday on MSNBC.

He also noted that Patel had fired the decorated and experienced head of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Office just two weeks before Kirk’s assassination.

On Friday morning, President Donald Trump announced on Fox & Friends that they have Kirk’s shooter in custody (again).

“With a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody,” the president said. This has not yet been confirmed by Patel and the FBI.