What did Charlie Kirk say about Iryna Zarutska's murder? CNN's Van Jones accuses podcaster of "race mongering" in Charlotte stabbing incident

Since the video of Iryna Zarutska's brutal stabbing surfaced on the internet, it has earned reactions from several public figures, from politicians to media personalities. Charlie Kirk happens to be one of them.

CNNs reaction segment tonight about the horrific murder of Iryna Zarutska tonight was to express sympathy for the suspect and harshly criticized social media pundits.

Van Jones decided to weigh in, criticizing @charliekirk11 due to alleged racial hate mongering.

He claimed that… pic.twitter.com/6i2LPK6sTF

— Media Lies (@MediasLies) September 9, 2025

In a video clip from a CNN News program, Kirk's reaction of the Zarutska's murder was featured, with the podcaster claiming that she was murdered for being "white". Kirk added:

"If a random white person simply walked up to and stabbed a nice, law-abiding Black person for no reason, it would be an apocalyptic huge national story used to impose national sweeping political changes on the whole country... no one seems to care when a white woman gets stabbed to death."

Van Jones, who was a part of the program's discussion panel, also weighed in on Kirk's reaction, saying:

"We don't know why that man did what he did. And for Charlie Kirk to say he did it because she was white when there's no evidence of that is pure race mongering, hate mongering. It's wrong."

Jones then went on to address the latter part of Kirk's comment, citing the George Floyd Policing Act that had still not passed five years after Floyd's death.

For the unversed, Iryna Zarutska, 23, was stabbed by Decarlos Brown on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, on August 22. The video of the incident, which has been going viral on social media, indicates that Brown's attack on her was seemingly random. 

According to Financial Express, Decarlos Brown has had a long criminal history, having been arrested multiple times since 2011. Charged with crimes ranging from shoplifting and felony larceny to robbery and possession of a firearm, Brown has even served five years behind bars for an armed robbery. 

After his attack on Iryna Zarutska, Brown was arrested from the scene and taken to a hospital for his non-life-threatening injuries, after which he was charged with first-degree murder.

A GoFundMe page set up by Iryna Zarutska's family has raised $118K 

Over $100k donated to the cause, just know that everyone here helped raise awareness by simply just believing and posting about $Iryna#JusticeForIrynaZarutska pic.twitter.com/YObHG0YNru

— rick (@isnortline) September 9, 2025

Days after Iryna Zarutska's brutal stabbing in North Carolina, her family in the US set up a GoFundMe page to support them in their "irreparable loss" .

The description added in the page revealed that Zarutska was relatively new to the country, and had traveled here in order to escape the terror of war in her homeland, Ukraine, and start a new life. In the US, Iryna was living with her uncle, Frank Scott Haskell, and aunt, Valeria. 

The GoFundMe, which had a target of $150K, has already raised $118 in the last couple of weeks with more than 2,000 people stepping up to show their support.

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