Michael Keaton is highlighting probably the most “unbelievable” facet of Charlie Kirk’s demise.
On Monday, the “Batman” star obtained an award on the fiftieth anniversary gala of the Investigative Reporters and Editors nonprofit for his “his spot-on portrayal of journalists” in movies like “Spotlight” and “The Paper” in addition to his “steadfast support for a free press.”
Throughout his acceptance speech, Keaton spoke to the room stuffed with journalists a couple of subject that has been dominating the information cycle for the previous week — Kirk’s killing, and the paradoxical nature of it.
The “Dopesick” star started his remarks with a present of compassion.
“Before we start to get into the meat of this thing, I’m going to take a minute to say that, regardless of how I probably — not probably — have disagreed with many things he said, Charlie Kirk leaves behind two kids and a wife,” Keaton opened his speech, Selection studies. “You gotta remember that.”
Samuel Corum through Getty Pictures
He continued, “Because in the end, shooting people will never answer anything, and the irony that he was killed with a gun is unbelievable.”
Kirk, who was fatally shot throughout an occasion in Utah on Sept. 10, was a particularly vocal and unapologetic advocate for the Second Modification.
“It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment,” Kirk mentioned at a 2023 occasion organized by TPUSA Religion, the non secular arm of Kirk’s conservative group Turning Level USA, a quote that has been extensively shared amongst his critics after the capturing.
Keaton wasn’t the one speaker on the IRE gala to say Kirk’s killing. “60 Minutes” journalist Scott Pelley identified how the motives behind his demise are just like these of former Democratic Minnesota Home Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who had been fatally shot in an assault at their residence in June.
Star Tribune through Getty Pictures through Getty Pictures
“Charlie Kirk was murdered to silence his speech, and three months earlier, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were murdered to silence their speech,” Pelley mentioned.
“Many admired Kirk; many did not,” Pelley continued. “His catchphrase was ‘Prove me wrong.’ To some, that phrase was controversial — even dismissive. But the core idea was: Bring the proof and let’s debate.”
“Whether you agreed with Kirk’s ideas or Hortman’s, their murders, their silencing is blood on the First Amendment,” he concluded.
