ESPN's Pat McAfee speaks out after Charlie Kirk's assassination: 'Pivotal moment' for America

While McAfee cautioned he was not inherently political, he added that events that took place on the Utah Valley University campus left him startled and distressed.

"This can't be what we actually are or become as a country.. I believe that the good people will always outnumber the evil people but damn… today was an alarming day in our country's history."

"I am not in the politics world, and I know there is much more serious things out there… but in the sports lane that I live in, it is not to hear the other side. So, when I learned of Charlie Kirk on the internet - once again, I did not meet him, I did not know him personally, I thought it was admirable to hear somebody who was so firm in their own beliefs but wanted to hear why other people were against him. So, yesterday whenever we see a public execution of this man happen in all of the palms of our hands in real time… you can't help but wonder… first all he has family, he has kids. But, also are we a society that's really going to become that? Is that who we are? Is that what we're going to be? Just strictly because we think that we're better than the other side? It's become a wild time, I think in our existence. Hopefully yesterday was a pivotal moment for us on this Sept. 11, 2025, to maybe have a Sept. 12, 2001 moment."

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump also confirmed that Kirk will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.