{"id":15498,"date":"2025-09-10T18:27:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15498"},"modified":"2025-09-10T18:39:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:39:37","slug":"kirk-assassinated-in-ut-government-shutdown-battle-takes-shape-in-dc-bradcast-9102025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15498","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Assassinated in UT; Government Shutdown Battle Takes Shape in D.C.: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 9\/10\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_Schumer-Kirk_091025.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">As you might have guessed, it&#8217;s a grim day on today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a> [<i>Audio link to full show follows this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>Among our coverage&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>31-year old, far-right youth activist, influencer and longtime Donald Trump ally <b>Charlie Kirk<\/b>, founder of Turning Point USA, said back in 2023: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.&#8221;  Today, Kirk was <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/charlie-kirk-conservative-activist-shot-546165a8151104e0938a5e085be1e8bd\">gunned down<\/a> while answering a question, ironically enough, about U.S. gun violence during a heavily-attended outdoor speaking event at <b>Utah Valley University<\/b>. The shooting drew bipartisan condemnation before his death was announced just prior to airtime today. No suspect had yet been taken into custody.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Receiving much less attention, three teens were in critical condition in surgery or the emergency room after a <a href=\"https:\/\/kdvr.com\/news\/local\/active-assailant-reported-near-evergreen-high-school-jefferson-county-911\/\">shooting at their high school<\/a> in suburban Denver at around the same time Kirk was shot in UT. The same sheriff&#8217;s office that initially responded to <b>Colorado<\/b>&#8216;s 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, which killed 14 students, was reportedly first on the scene today at Evergreen High School west of Denver.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Poland<\/b> reported that as many as 19 <b>Russian<\/b> drones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/europe\/poland-engages-russian-drones-airspace-first-time-rcna230251\">entered their airspace<\/a> on Wednesday and were shot down with the help of <b>NATO<\/b> air command and the Dutch air force which scrambled F-35 fighter jets. A number of the drones were said to have been launched out of <b>Belarus<\/b>, an authoritarian Russian ally which has has been used to stage attacks on <b>Ukraine<\/b> since Russia invaded its sovereign neighbor in 2022. Poland, a NATO member, activated Article 4 of the defense pact, to demand consultation with allies. Europe and NATO remain on high alert today, though Russia claims it had attacked the &#8220;military-industrial complex of Ukraine&#8221; in a &#8220;large-scale strike&#8221; but that &#8220;there were no targets envisioned for destruction on the Polish territory.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In somewhat brighter news today, Democratic candidate <b>James Walkinshaw<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/virginia-election-walkinshaw-whitson-bea9a80e1fe94635918f8e31392f938e\">trounced<\/a> his Republican rival in a U.S. House Special Election in the 11th Congressional District of <b>Virginia<\/b> on Tuesday by 50 points, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/projects\/election-results-2025\/virginia\/?r=83272\">75% to 25%<\/a>. That&#8217;s a 16-point swing toward the Dems as compared to last November&#8217;s Presidential election in the northern Virginia suburbs of D.C. Walkinshaw&#8217;s seating in Congress and promised signing of the Discharge Petition to force a U.S. House vote on the release of the <b>Epstein Files<\/b> puts proponents of that measure just one vote away from the necessary 218 signatures needed to trigger a mandatory vote on the House floor. Another U.S. House Special Election to fill another vacant seat in another very Democratic Congressional District in <b>Arizona<\/b> takes place later this month. The Democratic candidate there, <b>Adelita Grijalva<\/b>, has also vowed to sign the petition, which has currently has the signatures of all 212 currently seated Democrats and four Republican members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, we&#8217;re joined today by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/search\/book?keys=author%3ADayen%2C%20David\">author<\/a> and financial journalist <b>DAVID DAYEN<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/topics\/david-dayen\/\">Executive Editor of <i>The America Prospect<\/i><\/a>, to discuss the coming showdown in Congress to avoid a government shutdown as of October 1. That&#8217;s when the Continuing Resolution passed in March to keep the government open at the time expires. If Republicans can&#8217;t come to terms with Democrats on another CR by the end of this month, the government will likely shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>That is a price that more Democrats now seem willing to pay to try and stop &#8212; or, at least slowdown &#8212; Donald Trump&#8217;s authoritarianism. And it&#8217;s a moment when Democrats, currently in the minority in both chambers of Congress, actually have some leverage to use. <\/p>\n<p>While all Democrats in the House voted against the Republican CR back in March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of Dems agreed to help Republicans overcome the 60 vote filibuster threshold in in the Senate in exchange for&#8230;well, pretty much nothing.<\/p>\n<p>This time, Schumer claims he will not do the same thing. But, <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/politics\/2025-09-08-democrats-bet-on-briefly-preventing-health-insurance-apocalypse\/\">is he asking for enough from Republicans<\/a> in exchange for Democrats&#8217; support in keeping the government open this time?  Is he willing to let it shut down in order to stop Trump?<\/p>\n<p>There are a <i>lot<\/i> of things that Democrats could demand, <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/edblog\/theres-a-new-budget-showdown-senate-dems-current-plan-is-bullshit\/sharetoken\/e7be8df5-09c2-4126-b245-ccf2978474f7\">above and beyond a short term fix to prevent health care costs from skyrocketing<\/a> for the millions of Americans signed up to the Affordable Care Act. That&#8217;s something, as we discuss, that Republicans should be desperate to do on their own. Democrats could demand that subsidy support for the ACA be made permanent. Schumer could demand that Congress assert its right to block Trump from refusing to spend funds already appropriated by Congress. He could demand the end to Trump&#8217;s economy crushing tariffs, mass ICE raids, National Guard in U.S. streets and much more. In other words, this is a moment when Dems could demand an end to the Trump Authoritarianism.<\/p>\n<p>But will they? And, if so, and Republicans don&#8217;t agree to the terms, what then?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The whole idea that we&#8217;re going to get a goodie in exchange for participation in the budget is a very old way of doing business in Washington,&#8221; argues Dayen today. &#8220;Business as usual is out the window in Washington. You have someone who is trying to consolidate power entirely into himself. And you have these rare moments where he can be thwarted at some level. And you can&#8217;t approach that the way you would approach a normal negotiation. I just don&#8217;t understand how that can be acceptable. You have to deal with the problem at hand, where Donald Trump is acting like a despot, a dictator, and the things that you could negotiate on would have to be things that would prevent dictatorial processes from going forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shutdown fights like this are teachable moments,&#8221; he says. &#8220;They are ways to get the attention of the public. They are ways to get the public understanding that there is a debate happening in Washington, and this is what that debate is about. If you&#8217;re the Democratic Party staring down 33% approval ratings, watching what Trump is doing, and seeing your party get less popular in the exchange because you&#8217;re not doing enough about it, you should want this moment. You should want a way to reset public attention on what is happening. Maybe we&#8217;ll see some things start to change here in coming days as Democrats start to internalize this, but it&#8217;s been a bit enervating so far.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As you can tell, we have much to discuss with Dayen on today&#8217;s show, in a conversation recorded just <i>prior<\/i> to the news about Kirk&#8217;s death in Utah today&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-KirkKilled-RussiaPolandDrones-SpecialHouseResultsVA_DavidDayen-DemShutdownDebate_091025.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/256-the-bradcast-w-brad-friedm-30973643\/\">iHeart<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you might have guessed, it&#8217;s a grim day on today&#8217;s BradCast [Audio link to full show follows this summary.] Among our coverage&#8230; 31-year old, far-right youth activist, influencer and longtime Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, said back in 2023: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s worth it to have a cost of, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,675,2069,333,37,299,479,1964,883,288,1361,477,137,551,1730,300,534,198,233,31,105],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-charlie-kirk","category-chuck-schumer","category-colorado","category-democrats","category-donald-trump","category-election-2025","category-fascism","category-health-care","category-jeffrey-epstein","category-kpfk","category-nato","category-nra","category-poland","category-republicans","category-russia","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-utah","category-virginia","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15498"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}